April 30th, 1970:

Most of what I will say will not be true, but just my thoughts as I try to understand the "McDonald's Hamburger phenomena" in terms of myself and my past experiences. I'm starting tomorrow, in Boston, on a project stemming out of a grant from the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy to travel 10,000 miles in one month eating only at McDonald Hamburger Establish- ments. The Director of the Gallery, Christopher C. Cook, also suggested that since I do pick up most hitch-hikers, I should photograph them also. I'm not sure why, but it sounds great. I bought a panel truck in which I will travel and sleep. The other purpose for the trip will be to sell as much art as I can so I will have an income over the summer while I prepare the McDonald's material for the show. This diary is not meant to be the Great American Literary Event of the year, only a document of my thoughts and involvements during the month of May, 1970.

May 5th, 1970:

Yesterday four students at Kent State College at Kent, Ohio were killed by National Guardsmen. That event has affected my whole day. First of all, it was impossible to sell my art because everyone is out on strike. At Smith College, I passed two freaks and caught part of their conversation. "We were lucky! We had good leaders. They knew what we should do." Breakfast-lunch was at 2:00 in West Springfield, Massachusetts; a Big Mac and a coke. Two crew cuts in a four year old Cadillac threw their trash in the parking lot. I tried to ignore them, but as they pulled out, the driver said (so I could hear) "I'm a slob!" He's an honest bastard too. It seemed like that was his way of saying, "We're winning, you long haired freak." When leaving Northampton, I stopped to pick up some hitch-hikers going to a demonstration in Amherst. By the time we got to Amherst, we numbered two guys and eighteen chicks. Too bad I forgot that I was photographing hitch-hikers. On the way to the Mass. Pike, there was a billboard in Holyoke, "McDonald's--seats 104" so I had dinner. McDonald's is the hangout spot for high school students in Holyoke.

May 11th, 1970:

When I stopped writing last night and got in the truck, one hell of a rainstorm began immediately. I called the Des Moines Art Center's Director at home, but since he was out of town for the week, the decision was made to drive toward Kansas City. After going south for about ten or fifteen miles, suddenly, in one instant, this out-of-sight thunder and lightning storm stopped. The pavement was completely dry and the sky was full of stars with lightning off in the distance like heat lightning. I pulled into a truck stop and slept. In the morning I had some coffee and rove on to Kansas City while burping up a soap taste for two hours. The director of the Kansas City Art Museum was entertain- ing a New York dealer, so I went looking for a McDonald's. With seventeen of them there, it would seem like an easy task, but it took almost two hours. Then I almost passed it because they were rebuilding to seat 104 persons and it didn't look open. In Lawrence, Kansas I just appeared at the University Art Museum and sold two prints to them and one to the town's only art collector. The most exiting event there was that they had found the first daguerreotype produced in the United States. The whole event was beautiful so we celebrated with a couple of beers and then I left for Topeka to find a McDonald's. We called first to see if there was one there and since there were several, I purposely forgot where and began to search. My plan was to begin downtown and continue out the main north-south street, but it turned out to be only one block from where I started to look. Hunting McDonald's is like fishing in a private, over-stocked, pay-by-the-inch trout pond. The hot apple pie there was really hot and really good. On the side of the container it read: Caution: may be hot," which implies that it may not be hot.

This book/exhibition catalog has been out of print for 20 years. I would like to reprint it, but only if there is a demand for it. Please let me know by E-Mail if you will want a copy when it comes out.