I was a senior at UCLA in December 1969 when the first lottery was conducted. I was living in the dorms and the lottery was broadcast over the sound system during dinner. As lottery numbers and birth dates were called the entire cafeteria erupted into cheers and jeers.
It was then, and since, the only lottery I’ve ever won (????), if you consider a "35" a victory. It pissed me off, since my brother, with the heart problem, ended up with a 360!
By the end of the evening, the entire cafeteria broke out into a food fight. I remember butter patties stuck to the ceiling and food everywhere. Obviously, as a senior I knew that I only had a few months before being called up. I signed up for the Army Reserves the next day and was in a unit before the end of the school year. It was not fun having to put on my uniform and go to my unit’s meetings while living on campus during that era of protests and campus unrest.
The biggest impact on my life, besides the pleasures of serving Uncle Sam, was that active duty caused me to defer law school for a year.