The Days of Peace and love truly were not only foreign to the 'establishment" but actually, a threat to the status quo-the irony was not lost in how unpatriotic we were to have opposed the draft, the war, racism, poverty and most inequities they wished swept under the rug or radar. It seems a truism, if you don't learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it.
At this juncture, my road dog Bart and had been put in the position to leave the little Avant-gard we had run, by ourselves for months (see blog How I learned to love Indie films in the Haight) I had gotten a second floor 4 bedroom flat in the Noe Valley. I had a been looking for roomies but wasn't desperate and at the time at least for that month or so, I could hand the whole $125.00 a month, hard to imagine what that would cost today! I had at the time a girl as well as she had me, Angela who was my real girlfriend, but we did not live together as she was still living at home. , Now being raised by my mom and sister, at least in my case, I always respected women and being the "little man" of the house, as it were -was their protector, at the least, if I felt someone was being mean or rude to them my little self would pipe up, although they both could take care of themselves, mom being from New York had that east coast way when needed. So I had a lot of girls who were friends, Some were single some were "old lady's" (which was the term for steady girlfriends live in or not, nothing derogatory) of friends or I had known them before they were couples. Always fun to talk with friends and pretty ladies sharing a table or conversation with one does not harm.
The had been word around that there was a free concert at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park. Now there were concerts around Hippy Hill
and the panhandle, but speedway meadows
had more of an outdoor concert feel. The sound was good and usually a stage set up. So if memory serves me well I went with a few girlfriends who were going for the first time and they knew I had been before and looked forward to a fun day. The different bands played, Santana then the Dead, all was going well and i saw a couple of friends up front who were in their very cool attire of Jimi Hendrix and /or English mod clothes all of a sudden, there were Hell's Angel's about the front area too and a fight broke out and it looked as if all the bikers joined in on the two friends. And truth be told they were black, and like it or not Hell's Angel's and many biker's were racists and violence prone. I started to head up to them and then the bikers moved away, as if nothing happened. I got up there and we helped one of the guys whom was bleeding somewhat from his face. The two ladies had helped us drive them to the hospital and one had a broken jaw and the other a few bruises, the were more worried about the clothes being ruined by the blood and dirt as a stress release. Now this was the exception, and rarely happened,
but
sadly that seemed to be a prelude to a few years later at Altamont (see Altmont blog)), the Stones free concert.
Seems that it had never phased me that, even though I went out with girls to concerts or whatever, having a girlfriend at the time, even though in all honesty going out with them was plutonic, I was insensitive to her feelings, even though, I wasn't doing anything disrespecting our relationship. Well being young at the time, I was not that worldly.
Now, I had a flat and was thinking about having a room or two rented out but in no rush.
Well, I was out in the Haight going to get a jug of that organic watermelon juice and on the way from the juice shop, I ran into a mutual friend of mine and Angelas.
He said how was I feeling about Angela moving into the Haight? Since it was the first I had heard and Angel had said nothing about it, I was a bit dumbfounded, to say the least, and at a bit of a disadvantage. Of course, he knew where the house was and that seemed all I needed to immediately go take a look and wonder why she hadn't told me, at least as of yet.
Told my friend, here have some watermelon juice and headed off to the direction of wherever Angela had gotten a room or part of to share in the Haight. Not sure what was going thru my head, but being mainly raised by my mother and sister, I had this protection concept, not that woman couldn't handle themselves, but that some of the positions and attitudes forced upon them, should never happen and being young, but not completely naive to some of the more unsavory dynamics of sharing a house
with complete strangers, friends it seemed at least gave you an idea of the interactions and I had been around a fair amount of different living arrangements some cool some not so cool,
(Pictures of the Panhandle, which was more or less of the border of the Haight Ashbuy on one side and was a cool place to walk hang out and be surprised (unless there were flyers around), to a free concent-The Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Big Brother, Santana, ect.)
I knew the street it was near, the 2 and 3 story Victorian homes were nice but real transient and I myself would not live there, more personal preference, and in all honesty, this had brought the idea of Angela moving in with me to an apex, it had been brought up in hints and subtle statements, but I will admit, men at times have heads thick as bricks and not that I was seeing anyone else, it was probably because it would be a first time live in commitment and after about a year of seeing one another, she taught a kids ballet class to pay for her ballet lessons at a ballet academy that was fairly close to where is lived, so I'd either walk her there or met her there on days she had classes, I learned about capizeos dance shoes because i saw her dance and she wore some as street shoes too and ironically ended up wearing them years later in Los Angeles, putting on a street walking (street) pad and rubber tap on the heel. Angela had long black straight hair was a bit shorter than I and had a very pretty classic face, she was Spanish, Castilian and had classic bone structure too and being in ballet was always fit.
I had long hair at the time close to waist length and once in a while when we would take the streetcar people would think we were a cool couple and some said we could be brother and sister (Angela in no way looked like my sister, she was very pretty too) I think it was both having long straight hair that caused the similarity. And I'd take her home via the streetcar and at times it felt like a scene from a movie as the fog slowly swam over your feet like lost spirits,
streetlights swim in and out of a soft-focus and the smell of the ocean, both refreshing and with that chill thru your bones and soul. When you look back, one always sees their life always had cool and special moments. And walk her to the door, her mom liked me, her father tolerated me and her about 2-year-older sister was cool with me (she later go in a jam and I put here up for awhile until she got it together, as she had just moved out and ironically didn't want to move in with her boyfriend) and head back, as the home was a bit up on a hill and the area was nice and fun to walk thru and did get fog.
So heading to a street real close to the panhandle and in a cluster of homes that were cool and had people stay there, but more of a transient deal which was part and parcel of that era and the Haight area but as if I fell into Angela's whether intentional or not, I think the former trap of now making a choice, Angela had a place to live, and that would be with me, so the idea that she had gotten a place in, not really a crash pad, it was a nice house, just didn't seem to work for us.
I knocked and said I wanted to check on Angela and a girl answer the door said she was on the third floor but wasn't sure if she was there. So I headed up the stairs and couldn't really see the areas, got up to the third floor and going thru the door, it was a hardwood floored area, I saw several beds or sleeping bags arranged and one guy was there and I asked him where did Angela sleep he pointed across the way and I walked there and there was a little area by a window with a what looked like a thin mat with a few blankets on top. I looked around again and said, no, not here, she has a place, my place.
So, I had my mind made up, and headed back to home on Noe Street, at that time I really enjoyed buses and walking and if a car was needed, it seems I always had a friend that would oblige.
Now if you every truly want to observe humanity, taking a bus is one of the most prudent ways.
There's every nationality, lifestyle, age group and some that are not even able to be categorized.
Some eating or drinking, rules were not as stringent back then. And if you got to the back of the bus, you could open a window and smoke, if this irked the driver he'd ask you to stop, if you didn't, they would stop the bus. As an aside, many buses were electric with two long solid cables that attached to electric lines and once in while the cables would come unattached and the bus would just stop and the driver would get out, go to the back of the bus and pull the cables down by the cable's attachment in the back and reattach them and off we went again. Because of the cables in back the more adventurous youth would hope on back of the bus for a free ride while hanging onto on of the cable attachments..ah youth and both lack of fear and at times sound judgement.
I decided to take a bit of a walk to look at the situation as it seemed the only remedy was to tell Angela that I would prefer it if she were to move out of her house, it would be with me. As I walked I heard someone say hey and saw Dennis,
the bass player from Santana who was an acquaintance as we had some mutual friends and ran into each now and then, I said hey back but was in no mood for talking and continued walking i walked for several blocks passing the varied steps that led to different Victorian walk up homes, you see virtually every type of person, and wouldn't notice, if you didn't know the grateful dead hanging out on the steps or Big Brother or Janis Joplin
and many others, timothy leary and activists and people you'd seen around and about their daily living
.
As I got to the bus, for some reason it always enjoyed putting the bus fare into the driver's little till, not sure if the driver just heard the amount or visually looked real quick, I always headed to the back and to a window, in those days you could open them to a degree and as I mentioned some people smoked and blew it out the window so the bus driver would tell you to put it out. So I sat back there, it took a while but ended up on Market street and then took the J Church Street cable rail bus which was actually on a track so you hear it squeak once in a while especially at curves on the rails. Got to Noe Street and I smoked cigarettes at the time, and oddly enough I stopped for 6 months on a verbal bet and then just started smoking again for years.
Got to the marble steps and opened the door and made it up to the stairs, I could have rung the buzzer and the was a handle at the top of the stairs that you pulled to open the door but I figured no one was there or maybe asleep. I had the place to myself, I was the rented and did rent out rooms to friend once in a while. (see blog when 2 of Blue Cheer members stayed at the place). So I headed for my room and low and behold there were some of Angela's dresses on my bed and the room had been decorated, as most guys it was a several concert posters and an old opium pipe. Angela had put scarves over lamps to give a softer light effect and just things that gave the room more personality and then it dawned on me it was also saying that a woman lived her too, namely Angela, as there were some ballet shoes, hung on the wall, being dense at times it only then sunk in. And I forgot I had given her a key to get in, in case i wasn't there. The was the sound of the door opening and as I came out of the door, there was Angela from her both ballet class and teaching it to little kids.
And she had on white tights and a tutu with a big sweater over her ballet outfit and the biggest smile on her face.
