We were all nervous about the lottery. In 1969 I pulled 198 but I had a deferment until I graduated which was to be Aug 1970. By the summer of 1970, I knew that the first year (1969) took guys to, I think, 225. It was higher than my number so I figured I better prepare to enter the Service.
I got a 1A classification in the summer of 1970 even before my deferment expired which gave me the incentive to go talk with the Navy, my first choice if I had to go into the Service. They were ready to take me whenever even if I got a notice to report. So I had a plan if my number came up. If I didn’t get called I was going to continue in graduate school. So this was a seriously important point in my life where I had two, quite different, possible futures.
December of 1970 was pretty tense. Nixon was under a lot of pressure about Vietnam, there was a lot of hard feelings about the draft and the lottery. On New Years eve, they had only taken up to 195 and they announced that would be all that year. My path continued on in graduate school.