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He lived in a pup tent and drove a scooter with helmet, leather jacket and gloves so that all his eccentricities were completely hidden. By reputation in France it was said that Americans were universally disliked. In Greece where I was in the US army, it was best for freedom of movement to not look either American or military. Neither attribute was universally loved.

I was never taken for either, because I dressed with leather thong sandals and socks, I had made by a Greek poet and sandal maker. I wore green jeans and subdued one color button down collar short sleeve shirts, and was able to have my hair long on top. I was most often taken for northern European and was able to walk the streets in every kind of neighborhood and class of people experiencing no ill will or antagonism including France.

The only real hostility I encountered while travelling the continent was in Germany. They came at me on the side-walks - you had better step aside. However in quantity and quality of hostility, the Americans made the Germans seem like the pinnacle of polite decorum. On my return to northern Illinois, if I were driving down the highway at say sixty miles per, people would pull out right in front of me, causing one to have to head to the nearest brake specialist. Park the car in front of an office building and the windows would fill with people gawking and pointing. Go into a coffee shop and the place would stop dead --- not a sound --- disquieting for some couple of minutes.

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