North beach was sorta a chicer area -, actually the beat area of s.f. (probably like Soho may still be in N.Y.) a precursor to the hippie sorta the fathers from the beat era…bookstores and coffee shops many with outdoor seating, which if you know s.f. or any city NY-l.a. Atlanta,, the main city areas, space is hard to come by, but as part and parcel of s.f. cafes, as it were…..me and Bart, would head out to the north beach, parking only equally hard to find in n.y. and add hills that seem to never end and defy gravity.
So we would go into book stores, probably hit our target heart rate after sipping coffee earlier in one of the coffee cafes. So, quite possibly my interest in books was piqued somewhat from our meanderings in the book stores…….there were also the topless clubs out there with the hucksters trying to draw you in the topless clubs…..but they were sorta sequestered to each other's little area…..now you could venture up on the street and there would be a “hippie painted" Porsche by a bar, if you went inside you could drink Jack Daniels with Janis Joplin and shoot the breeze………there would be the old beat poets pontificating their verbal wares to those who would listen in some of the coffee houses…sometimes in the book shops.
A lot of artists and cool people you could run into and chat with whom were more in the public eye than one would assume... Many cool evenings……sometimes with the subtle smell of the sea….a fog would creep in and swirl about you……sometimes you felt like you were in a scene from an old black and white film…..maybe a film noir…..
I was a tea guy, but Bart and his dear parents got me on the road to the coffee beans…..and Bart's dad, Mel had a goatee which reinforced my idea that they were communists apart from the abstract art , oils and antique coffee grinders and books to read around the house…
So going to coffee houses wasn't a hard stretch….or tiresome…probably sipping coffee for hours on end may have been a slight factor….
Chinatown was in the area more or less, and we'd go there to eat once in a while……I remember Bart had us go to this one restaurant in Chinatown, and man the waiter literally threw the menus at us and kept telling us to hurry up, hurry up….even being young and mellower I started to lose my composure…this went on and Bart acted like I was delusional …when I finally got up to tell the guy to…Bart cracked up and told me this was a famous part of this restaurants ambiance here's another tidbit…when Bart and I went to Galileo high school in s.f. (I dropped out) it was probably 85 % plus-Chinese, and not to profile but generally the Chinese were more scholastic orientated that either Bart or I, although we were generally pretty good in school….but our egos were slammed…we had to study hard to get the grades we were used to having…..
Here's a tidbit that will date me…they were filming a chase scene from the film bullet, Steve McQueen (no stunt drivers) was driving that fastback Mustang and as he made a corner, I can't remember if it was him or the car he was in pursuit of, but it sideswiped several cars so, filming stopped as they tried to leave notes on cars and check with the homeowners, so McQueen sat in his car and then got old leaned on it and talked to the crew and I think a few that were watching, then when the scene started again, he peeled out several times in the Mustang during filming….
we were always loners…we knew the cliques but were not part of them…….some of the guys from Potrero hill, brats turf were as close to a clique, but not really…Bart and I were sheer opposites…..in every sense I had long straight hair…Bart had curly kinda bushy long hair and sported sideburns…..me, the so-called “pretty-boy look or no facial hair-a small minority was I (that's not ensuring you are a pretty boy)….I started looking for unique clothes…….as time went on
We both were out in the Haight Ashbury and found these pants, pretty sure they
were cords, but they had stripes going the long ways….we got different colors but this was the first stab at being unique -wide big belt loops…probably scary by most standards…but it was clothes from THE STORE …in the Haight……so nonetheless …we were unique and via the Haight…and sometimes that spirit evades me…..but I find it again quickly….
But I digress as I will thru this verbal walk…
Now in the Haight-Ashbury area, you could walk around, as many did….the Grateful Dead hanging out on the stairs of the 3 stories Victorian walk-up that was the housing of the area, virtually all of s.f. suburbs at that time…..Santana band……..Quicksilver Messenger service…..and people from every walk of life…..new bands starting...just nice people...
Now this will take you back…there was a poster from the mid-sixties that had George Harrison, I was later surprised to find out, wearing heart shaped glasses…well, he was sitting at hippie hill….at the beginning of golden gate park …
I believe, I may have been there by myself -but there was a crowd there and I do remember seeing a guy with those heart shaped glasses….that is what I understood after the fact………if I am incorrect…maybe…and thru Google, it was a reality
Well, as fate would have it Bart and I fell for the same girl…..Martha…..this is about age 14 or so give or take……smitten we were and did both talk to her….been to her house…..her younger sister talked to us more than her…different personality…..sarcastic so we parried with her at times……her younger brother was one of those kids that would show us how he had made a box so that he could phone anywhere and charge someone else…….the kid is either doing time or was in on the s&l failure….and lives with ken lay (do you truly believe he died before his court trial?) in South America…..there was an incident with him, but another time…..needless to say Martha's heart went to some dork…so Bart and I lamented somewhat….figuring she'd get smart and lose him….well hope burns eternal……(she may have become a nun) we stayed friends with the younger sister……I think she liked one of us, but our hearts were set on Martha…..alas to no avail……heartbreak hotel…..
Now, I remember this now, but we used to sift thru the sand by a swing area in golden gate park so we could get a bag of chips (as in fish n") by gathering up change, wrapped in newspaper……I don't recall ever panhandling although it was an accepted practice at the time…just wasn't in either of us….
They had a riot of sorts and I'm not sure if it was an anti-war march down the Haight to golden gate park, but there was riot geared s.f.p.d. blocking us from golden gate park at the end of Haight street……..somehow, Bart and I ended near the front of the march……and when it got to the cops, and this was Bart, “look they are throwing smoke bombs, let's throw them back“…there should have been a clue, because everyone else was scattering from the smoke bombs as we tried to get to them to toss them back….it earns out they were tear gas////luckily someone leads us away to safety and rinsed our eyes and got wet clothes for our faces…so brave…no….and talk about helpless, you are blind, eyes and nose burning and running, the more you rubbed, the worse it got…….do we may have been in a few other marches but no more leader of the pack stuff…..
I do remember……we were inside of one of the stores and the riot-geared police were going up and down the street….probably arresting anyone who didn't get off the street…….shades of 1984.…………yes it was an anti-war the protest, …..good thing it wasn't that Ohio campus where 4 students were killed (Crosby Stills Nash and young-no longer buffalo Springfield- did a song 4 dead in Ohio?)
We did make friends, and most were older and had their own rented place….Bart stayed at home but I left at about 15 ½ (that's another story) so most people we knew we older except for the guys we knew from potrero hill………..
We'd hang out at their flats and talk, listen to music and the traditional Haight Asbury antic's
The phrase “they're a head or he's a head" was early , by definition in Haight-Ashbury meant you were cool, enlightened, with it, in the groove beyond cool, the true embodiment of hip.
Well, needless to say Bart and I had no illusions that we were “heads" but since a lot of people were older than us, or married, had their own place, remember we were probably 14ish -give or take-and still at home, although out so late, it didn't truly apply most of the time.
So our strange sense of humor and that of the absurd, and in tandem usually had us agreeing with someone who felt he was the enlightened one and therefore could
Bequeath the title of “head" upon……someone he felt measure up…this almost was the exclusive kingdom of guys for some reason….rarely if ever were woman prone to pass judgment as such….or at least we didn't run into it much…kinda like guys own sewing circle to himself…..not that a woman wouldn't have the capacity, but as Abe Lincoln said “it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt….and woman understand discretion better than guys….
I digress…….so while the “head" was pontificating whatever drivel he felt earth-shattering was spewed, Bart and I would just nod in agreement and awe…albeit sarcastically and even make faces when he turned away…..usually their own arrogance would dismiss our sarcasm as a form of “worship “ of his fountain of knowledge….
And guys wonder why women think 90 plus % of men are dorks and egocentric….
So we did glean some knowledge when we could and had mental gymnastics when the topic got to some weird dimension we were not in or privy to…..
I got interrupted someone brought a Disney pirates of the Caribbean figure set in California….and wants it sent express, I printed the label but gotta get it to the post office early, can't wait for a pick-up…kool interruption…..
Truly varied characters…many from out of state some from out of country…….
there were communes of sorts here and there…..but usually, a couple of people rented the flat and usually other would crash over……maybe chip in a couple of bucks or some food…
Somehow. We ran into curried food a few times…..and being scarred for life from big sur's encounter with curry., would either say no thanks or act is if we were a cow staring at a new gate……
Now our first free concert was at mount T (Marin County) and Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponys
And the doors……..and the doors, and yes Jim Morrison was mesmerizing and the girls and women tended to swoon (later when I lived in l.a. tales of Jim Morrison driving around l.a. picking up hitch-hikers and giving them a ride in his mustang-and was a nice guy.
And l the Fillmore had opened……
And the family dog (Avalon Ballroom)(opened as a second concert venue….and me and Bart met a guy who had us help him with the puppet show on the second floor at the Avalon ballroom-and that is a whole new story- and I used to sell firecrackers to tourists in Chinatown during Chinese new years ……
Well….we saw a lot at of bands, here are a few, vanilla fudge-the Sparrow (Steppenwolf-there's a story there too), Santana, Quicksilver messenger service, grateful dead, led zeppelin, a beautiful day, rolling stones, Jefferson airplane (starship), the doors, john lee hooker, b.b. king, Otis Redding, blue cheer, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, canned heat.,the who,-I found poster for Fillmore from the net and they are probably another ton of bands and some with stories, another time.(more interesting to me probably)
YOU EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN YOU SAY SOMETHING TO SOMEONE, THEN YOU CAN WATCH THEIR MEDICATION SLOWLY CEASE TO WORK…earth….
…
I'll close for now and hope you get a smile at least upon your heart….
More to come…
May you never have someone say you eat as if you are stuffing a musket~!~