When were recently at a wedding in California, we passed a place called Alice’s Restaurant. Someone from the wedding party said that it was the restaurant mentioned in the song. I was remembering 40 years ago that it was neat Boston. So, I checked it out.

It was as I remembered. Arlo Guthrie went to Alice’s for Thanksgiving. After the meal, Arlo volunteered tp take the trash, from the meal, to the dump. Unfortunately, the dump was closed for the holiday, so Arlo dumped it anyways.

The next day, the dump opened and they noticed the trash. So, the called the police.

The police came and took 27 8 X10 photos of the trash. They also discovered Arlos name and address and charged him with illegal dumping of trash.

The police took him to court and presented their case. Unfortunately, the judge was blind so the photos were usless.

Arlo pleaded guilty, was fined $50 and told to pick up his trash, which he did.

Later, he was called up for military service but was declared unfit because of his criminal record. He wrote the song about Alice’s restaurant to encourage draft dodges to do the same.

Don’t you just love it! If only that were the case today.