It was one of those San Francisco evenings where the fog not only cloaked all that was seen but that sea mist could chill you in seconds and the fog seems to both soften the sounds and yet at times louden them too.
For one of our excursions before going to the Avalon Ballroom and doing the puppet show upstairs with Tony we had decided to go to North Beach, find an outdoor cafe and have a cup of strong coffee (admittedly i doused my cup with cream and sugar) We went to park -my road dog Bart was my best friend and like a brother-polar opposites in attire and many likes but in unison in being anti-establishment-Bart drove, somehow his dad had gotten him a drivers permit when he was 15 and a half (his dad was the book reviewer for the S.F. Chronicle and that another story) we both knew better that to look for a non-existent parking place as there were cool book stores, such as City Lights where there were poets and old beat (BEATNIK) poets who'd recite their works while you watched or perused the artists works inn the store. The beat generation that in ways morphed into the Peace & love generation and worked in tandem.
We found a space and it was just a car behind a colorful Porsche and recognized it as Janis Joplin's psychedelic painted car done by Stanley Mouse who did both concert posters and comic books. So a Bart and I were babbling banalities about something, we saw a woman approaching us, it was Janis , wearing a big hat by herself (before bodyguards became the fashion) as she came up to us we said hi, Janis said" How are ya, Lord its chilly!!!" We replied-"yeah! gonna get some coffee, before we head out to the Avalon", Janis "Stay warm, we'll; be doing a gig at Avalon next week-Off to rehearsal" and she went to her psychedelic Porsche as we made our way to the coffee cafe....Janis waved back as we waved to her.
Not favoring any coffee cafe or shop other than for outside seating. There ware bars that we couldn't go into but were consider cool like Vesuvios been a beatnik bar and had been Jack Kerouac and other artistes making that a watering hole.
The Trieste coffee shop had many writers use that as their writing place, don't think we went there much as it seemed too crowded when we went and we favored outside sitting.
Eartha Kitt at the Trieste
we found a cafe and sat outside and looked at the cars and people passing and the array of signage lights...the area was considered somewhat cosmopolitan- European flavor and the beat generation intertwined.
We hit our target heart rate and ventured off....the Purple Onion we know had cool comics there as we walked past...
Now, not mentions Enrico's would be a horrendous over site not to mention Enrico's,now it was a bar inside, but there were seats outside and we would get coffee there at least one a month as their espresso would wake the dead and because Bullit had a film scene there too, but mainly the espresso.
Now many artistes and budding stars went to Enricos, but we didn't care or know at the time. But what we did know was there was a world famous drag queen show above Enricos called Finocchios and you'd every so often see decked out drag queen, of course if you went to the Tenderloin or below Market street in certain areas seeing a drag queen was commonplace and at times as decked out as those at Finocchios.
For whatever reason, we would always go across and up the street by the topless clubs as the huckters would try to entice anyone in the club, they would try to get us until they realized we were not 21, but it was fun and I imagined they practiced their spew upon us anyway,
Once in a while we'd see a guy or surprisingly a couple come out...once or twice a dancer leaving you could tell by the make-up and they'd always smile, either out of habit or just because they thought we were interested in coming in the club and they could see we were under age.
Seems there were always people going in loving to see women either naturally or not over-endowed. The sometimes lines of varied people from single men, to couples seemed to be looking forward to the show, either curiosity from publicity or the feeling of being naughty.
We made it back to the car and off we went to the Avalon Ballroom on Sutter and Van Ness to help Tony with the puppet show, we didn't really have any set hours but we enjoyed doing it and it got us in for free and tony would always buy us any smokes (of either nature) food, drinks or about anything, We met girls thru him and likewise thru us but he liked "older"women, which by our standards was someone in their twenties. One cool thing tony would do for us was take us on journeys in his limo, as he owned and drove a limo for hire in the daytime. We could bring girls, he usually have his girlfriend too and then take us on a cool tour of the bay area and give us a history of where we were driving past and really cool when we went on a journey out of San Francisco and he would not lets us give him any money for gas or even meals. We would met his girlfriend and many times their friends would come along so it was always adventure where you just didn't know how itn would unfold.
Always some smoking going on,and it wasn't considered rude to just sit down and toke some too. always offered, it was a different there were alot of little group sprinkled all over that area,unless, if there was a free concert, say in the panhandle -like the dead even jimi hendrix once or speedway meadows.
But we did have a goal and were bold and determined to get our striped pants.
Now we had seen the stripped pants and wanted some, it was a departure from our usual attire, Bart and I were polar opposites when it came to attire, i favored velvet , or dark pants never cared for jeans until years later. Bart was Pea coats, jeans and Fry boots.
We went to eat some chips (English french fries)and filled you up like the carbo load it was-tasty but incredibly greasy and your soiled hands were short of deadly weapons or an ecological disaster.
We now need something to drink and the Organic commune run juice shop was several blocks away. When we got there we headed right to their bathroom to wash our hands, the bathroom was spotless and incense was burning . Went to the counter, all there were from a commune and their hair was wrapped up in a turban. They grew most of what they juiced or brought it from organic farms and used a shiny champion jucier right in front of you. The cost was barely anything you could get a 2 and half gallon jar for about a dollar. Man that juice was tasty, I favored watermelon but all of their juices were good, i didn't try too many of their veggie drinks but there was one with apple juice add that was really good.We headed down the road halfway down the block drinking healthy juices that put a tad of balance in or lackig diets. There were three people coming up the block, we figured going to the Juice shop. The guy on the end we knew as he had come to the cinema we worked at and had talked to us about the films at intermission, we had coffee, croissants some of the juice from the juice shop and usually ran a short while al got anything they wanted. The other was a woman and the guy on the end was Jerry Garcia.
A different mindset then, you could run into virtually anyone in the haight part of the fun. Usually never felt awkward.
Went to about three clothes stores until we found the one with the striped pants, there were several designs most way too loud for me, but there was a grey with lighter burgandy stripes, they aeemed to be like cords, the grey didn't seem to be screaming stripes, but i still thought stripes? I went and put on a pair and came out of the changing booth bart went in and came out in the blue with red stripes, he liked them, i told him we can used him as a road marker and he said about the same to me.
Now push the clock ahead till the evening ...we were heading up to the fillmore concert area and we were attired in our striped pants...
to give you an idea......
*1 http://musicsaladdaysinsf60sandla70s.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-i-learned-to-love-indie-films-back.html
