Strolling down the street, while aware of your surroundings at least enough so you don't walk into streetlight so more of a subtle daze.
Lo and behold, a warble of a tire screech and there was a classic old car, a DeSoto from the 50's-there was the driver mike (the original dogman) Dogman and Itchy Bob, the second dogman, each had a happily pot-produced grin. Which was emphasized by both of them taking off their sunglasses to reveal two sets of totally bloodshot eyes
One of those sights and moments that get etched in your mind and accompanied by your own grin.
Itchy Bob had his hair in a ponytail that went down his back and Dogman had longish hair several inches past his shoulders. Two shit-eating grins and Dogman says "Panama red, jump in we got something happening and can use your help and as always we'll take care of you"!
Hmmm, Panama Red dogman and itchy bob, make some cash and some Panama Red, in a classic DeSoto, that did tend to lend credence to the concept of the buying a car from "a little old lady from Pasadena" who rarely if ever drove the car and then have regular service and housed in a safe clean garage. As if from a showroom in some odd timewarp.
"Go on VJ, TAKE A LOOK IN THE BAG"!!!
As I peered into the brown bag there were two 2 gallon-sized bags of loose Panama redbuds, a Panama red kilo in a plastic bag, and a sealed brick-kilo of Panama red. Rolling papers were just called zig-zags as the most popular and were everywhere.
Panama Red is unique (usually its a rainbow strain we see) in that it can have these little strands of bright colors in a bud, blue, yellow, chartreuse, bright green-etc.
But to the connoisseur, as there were many shops that carried rolling papers from around the world. And as demand grew so did innovation and smaller companies that specialized in rolling papers. And you got a variation some embossed with their logo, how they were pressed, the material varied, rawness (devoid of inks and crap). There were spiff papers, for serious Jamaican joints, huge and with Jamaican Ganga, which you would see rarely and generally as a personal stash, so very resinous, it was an art to lighting and keeping it lit!!!
now truly only seasoned smokers can not only pick through buds, stems- tiny stems and seeds and find that is most smokeable and not "timber" as stems and seeds tend to be called Not dropping a grunion, into a tight but breathable joint. And sealed with just the gummed part, not sure where all this slobbering over a joint ramming down your mouth and soaked with your spit. That usually signals a shitty joint and in poor weed and slobber.
I without pause or dull surprise, rolled three and culled and one lick seal and handed them upfront, one for itchy bob and dogman. During this time and space and era, there was the competition and the grade of weed too was phenomenal, and from farmers who took pride in their product. You just had to look in the right places.
Dogman said there was 1/2 ton but it would sell fast and go all over the country.
We all have access before the shipment was sold. I had met the guy at the Fillmore West by the bar and Dogman and another guy I know, Dan the bone-crusher only because he was muscle-bound and about 6.7, but a cool dude. Ran into them on the concert floor and they passed me a joint of Michoacan rainbow(another blog), tasty, potent and finished it off with them and said come over and gave me their address and phone number.
We tended to call kilos,"bricks" because they were pressed in a brick-making device.
So, the plan was to pull around to the garage in back, where two guys unloaded the back, who also lived there to keep an eye on the stash and help when needed. A lot of the weed went to the mid-west or east coast. The next phase (and we didn't have to supply) was to use a Triple Bean scale to weigh random keys-bricks-lids-fro part of a gram to kilo weights. I had one myself and used it both home and on escapades. One always popped open a kilo, A practice irrelevant if you had one or one hundred. Random weight and random pop some open.
This was a fresh shipment of Panama Red, newly harvested and bricked, dried enough to smoke well, but truly a resinous plant-hash hints because of that-very intense and slam effects of a premier herb!
Still considered one of the best strains and weed even today and still around, some are grown now in U.S. true connoisseur growers will create the soil conditions of Panama and the light conditions too and the same nutrients to grow. The kilos were sealed in a clear but thick plastic, air and waterproof, a seal of the growers or main distributor in the center of the plastic. The Panama Red kilos was a red dominated with a red-brown and golden-haired buds, almost bright and glowing, truly a cool site and this was in the 60's so there have always been superior strains of weed and potent and flavorful, today it seems they would create some truly strong stains, and comparing it to just regular shake or field weed which has been around about forever-were utterly two totally different strains. One stunning the other so-so or mediocre. When you open a brick of Panana Red, you get a nostril full of an earthy resin of a really strong weed, a pungent hash-like aroma wafts into the entire room. One guy looked at it pulled some buds out and apart, rolled a joint put the rest into a big plastic bag with a zipper on top. Most all the kilos were actually weighing in at about 2.4-2.6 pounds allowing weight for the thick plastic packaging you were getting extra not shorting on kilo weight and packed safely. We tried more random kilos weighting and opening a few and checking it out. Obviously overweight kilos are to the benefit of the buyers!
STREET CARS WERE JUST THE USUAL:
Dogman told me the money had been counted. And In told Dogman, the kilos were put away in the stash room and all were at least an ounce over kilo weight. Time to hit the Desoto road......
All three of us loaded into the DeSoto and headed out. Never was quite sure where Itchy Bob lived, but this was his Nomadic period and Dogman lived in this tiny house behind a big park with some other dudes I knew, more acquaintances-seemed like Dogman lived there but was mostly gone.
So I said come on over, we can grab any foods we want beforehand or later down the block. if we needed to dom so...
As we pulled up, there were actually parking places and even more astonishing right under our turret-shaped windows and we eased into the parking spot. Dogman grabbed a bag and I tapped Itchy Bob on the shoulder to take him out of his daze and said we are here! As I went ahead and rang the buzzer as I checked my pocket for the door key. It was a cool but different (not by S.F. standards) door, there was a buzzer at the top of the stairs that opened the lock on the door and too a handle you pulled to open the door.
The door buzzed, I pushed it open and we all headed upstairs, Angela had buzzed us in and both said hi and they headed to the front living room, I kissed Angela and she headed back to the bedroom and several of her ballet dancing friends were talking in the room. They said hi and Angela they were going to a ballet audition, to perform with the San Francisco ballet and the visiting Russian ballet. So they assumed it would be a long day, I handed Angela some money for them to get lunch, etc and a baggie of some Xhachin rainbow in it. Said Bye thanked me and headed down the stairs the small ballet troupe.
I headed back to the kitchen, grabbed a couple bags of cookies, 2 bottles of juice, some plastic cups, and some roasted nuts Headed up the hallway to the front living room, next to the kitchen was a large living/dining room which was mainly another living room. There was a back porch that led to a stairway up to the roof and down to the street floor. The two bedrooms had windows that lead to the structure whereas you walked up from my bedroom was a bath and next door was the toilet and sink as two outcroppings that put a shaft of light and air into the center of the house. There was another bedroom and several closets along the hallway, one by the door to hang your coats up in. Past the stairs and landing to the big front living room which had a cool wide molding across 3/4 of the room height, we had put up different opium pipes-different boxes with rolling papers and some with herbs.
There were some art books and dance books along with current and past concert posters some had the mini posters that the Avalon Ballroom had made for concerts, that's the Family Dog and from both the Fillmore Ballroom and the Filmore West and a few of the rare ones from the Denver Family Dog (Avalon Ballroom) There were some from Woodstock and some other venues, a few from overseas.
I sat down and Dogman opened the bag he had brought up and given myself and itchy bob, 1/2 pound of Panama red (both for personal and samples) and $700.00 too.
Dogman had a bag inside that with another 1/2 pound of Panama Red and both Dogman and Itchy had been rolling gigantic joints before I had gotten back. Itchy Bob, liked to used pipes when he could and had grabbed one off the rooms wide molding I and had just started to lite up. Itchy Bob had noticed that we had acquired a new stone pipe-oddly but cool looked like a bulldog and was breaking it in, at least to him.
anyone who lived in the bay area in the 60's had to go thru twin peaks tunnel:
Itchy Bob had a healthy ritual, there was a box on the table that had all the pipe cleaning goodies you'd want, even extra metal strainers for the smoking bowl itself. Itchy Bob was focused and going to have the cleanest pipe in San Francisco, needless to say, Itchy Bob smoked a joint as he cleaned the pipe.
I thought it was a goood time to get some cups and bowls so we could grub if the urge hit one or all of us. As I returned to the front living room, Itchy Bob was just packing his pipe with big Panama Redbuds, with that odd pipe packing tool. Now, seeds while great to grow, tend to pop also smolder so if there's a pop, you can burn the fabric of what you are wearing or the furniture, carpet and on a bad day, pop on a linoleum floor if hot enough will bond with that floor with a permanent black spot to remind of the incident.
Little seed burns were seen in most houses or apartments, little tiny burns on your furniture or shirts, pants, coat, skirt, blouse t-shirt etc. One of those by-products when you left a seed or seeds always could cause a smoking hot ember to fall and burn away.
I saw on the table, in a dish there had been a pile of cleaned Panama Red and then stems and seeds in a bowl themselves. A box of various rolling papers, even the funny rolling machine, the irony if done carefully, those contraptions worked quite well. (seeds being a no-no because the whole joint could almost explode or drip embers.
THIS WAS NEXT TO MY MIDDLE SCHOOL-I ENDED US GOING TO GALILEO:
Itchy Bob was taking monstrous hits from the pipe he was using, one exhale was a seemingly endless stream of smoke that turned into a cloud, one would think Itchy Bob would pass out as his only inhale was from that pipe, Dogman was grinning, smoking a joint now taking the huge final drag and we had a covered bowl we put roaches (pot butts).
We had big pillows, a big couch some chairs and a few end tables, a couple of wingbacks and overstuffed chairs. Even an old fashioned loveseat.
In the main window, with a turret-like design and even the windows we curved glass and happy to say neither us nor some numbskull broke or craked that window-it was a tight fit, you could open it but if at all usually just a crack, as it wasn't screened.
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE WINDOWS EXCEPT THESE ARE NEW BUILDINGS AND HAVE FLAT WINDOWS, THE BUILDING I WAS IN HAD ROUNDED -TURRET LIKE WINDOW SECTIONS WHERE THE GLASS WAS CURVED TOO:
What was cool was there was a small window seat there, we had found a small curved wooden enclosure that fits perfectly like a window seat, inside when you opened the sitting lid, there were a half a dozen clean blankets, a few quilts and underneath a cool stash place as it looks as if was always there and immovable. I went over grabbed a few blankets for when they wanted to crash, it was late, all were blitzed and they could find a spot and crash on the couch chair, etc...
CHINATOWN WHERE ONE COULD GET FIRECRACKERS FOR CHINESE NEW YEARS:
That would happen in a couple of hours after we smoked some conversation. That was back in the LP days and Led Zepplin, Santana, Dead, EWF, Chicago, Jimi, etc. There was one in the other kinda guest bedroom which I had run some speakers to the front room, but this was a kickback talking evening. We talked about kief being around town, which was always reasonable, but seemed like cheap hash, not as potent nor as popular. A better buy for your buck was hashish, although availability was off and on, but always resinous and potent, whereas kief was usually dry and somewhat potent. Now there was always dirt weed(sometimes called Mexican dirt weed) which was a lower grade of pot with far too much timber (stems and sticks) and seeds but few flowers, so not popular either once you've had the higher grades.
Our dog, the house dog was sport, wandered in from, I'd think to be asleep in the living room dining room in a beam of sunlight. itchy Bob had a friend in sport, who called him port, hence a nick-name is born there was another, Sportster.
I had placed a note on the bed telling Angela if we were crashed out in the living room, there are two beds in here and the guest bedroom of some of the ballet dancers want to crash too, there's Panama Red on the dresser, help yourself and there's some cash if you need it in the stash. We'd probably be crashed out upfront.
MANY TIMES GOING FOR COFFEE IN NORTH BEACH YOU COULD BE TEMPTED TO GO TO BOOKSTORES, THIS WAS A FAVORITE:
I went to the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips and head back to the front living room. Now Itchy Bob was dancing with sport, a tradition of sorts, Itchy Bob knew where the dog bones were kept in a big cookie jar on the molding (shelf). So sport figured he'd get a goodie and some attention, so all was well. I dropped a couple of bags of chips on the table.
I sat down, feeling I was done with whatever and lit up a monstrous Panama Red joint, there was a subtle sweetness to the almost hashish taste the swirled around one's mouth. One of the better strains of the pot then and now. Each of us had our own doobie, and we had plenty on hand, so, for now, that was the scenario.
We kept talking for a while and the next thing we knew it was morning, I went to the bathroom., washed my face, went to my room and Angela had let a note, her and her ballet friend were just starting summer break. She said they came in and we looked knocked out in the front living room (unbeknownst to us) her friends were with her and borrowed some clothes from her. They all crashed in our room and the guest bedroom and had to leave early to decorate a stage for a ballet rehearsal, so Angela had grabbed some of the cash I left so they could get a breakfast, lunch, drinks etc thru the day which it appeared with the new rehearsal would be an all-day thing and at that point, I was busy with itchy bob and dogman and had a solid sneaking suspicion I'd help them today too.
I told them they cold shower, but they just did a quick Haight-Ashbury bath and told them someone gave me a stack of t-shirts different promo shirts, to pick from and to help themselves.
That made sense, spead the goods and we always had guess bathroom stuff, extra toothbrushes, towels soap, etc, trust me not that I was that organized, just learned from Angela and experience when someone stayed over and there were no extra, no a cool thing!!! We had people from out of state and country that sometimes stayed over, for any reason, Ballet classes, to run a deal, go to a concert, dinner, or meet other people.
So Itchy Bob and Dogman made some strong, take the paint off your car strong coffee and there were doughnuts with bagels and paper plates. We all headed to the front living room and I cracked the window open a bit (the only flaw of the windows were there were old and still used the rope to move the windows up and down, the fix was to stack a few heavy books to hold the window up and not be pushed out by any wind swishing by.
Sport was keeping an eye on the doughnuts and bagels and itchy bob would always get some pieces to sports much less any crumbs we dropped or the ones Itchy Bob would roll in Sports direction. Dogman said something was up today and would I help, he laffed and said no doubt. We ate and continued rolling some joints.
.The buzzer rang and I took a peek out the turret window and I saw a friend. Now Miguel happened to work for a licorice factory. I went to the top of the stairs and buzzed him in, sometimes I'd us the handle that opens the door and startles someone who wasn't used to the door opening. Miguel was always fun when he came over, most of the time he wanted to get a lid (in those days it was 4 fingers high) and was over an ounce and if it was from me and thereby my people, it usually was higher quality and usually limited supply. He got to the top of the stairs and had a big brown bag (not what you think) I took him to the front living room and introduced him to the two denizens sitting around the table: Itchy Bob whom he met once over here and Dogman, Who were both smoking Panama Red. Miguelwished to get some herb and told him the first new crop of Panama Red had just come to town and we had some. Miguel said he had a tread for us, as I said he worked for the American Licorice Company Mighul opened the brown bag he had brought up and there were freshly warmed red licorice on a roll in a strip 6 deep and put on a spool. Needless to say, it was a stratospheric hit with both Dogman and Itchy Bob, warm freshly made red licorice, a cool treat-a kid's paradise, or a sweet tooth's find. Miguel wanted a lid, so what we did was let him buy a lid for $10.00 and we gave him a free lid too. Miguel had taken a few hits of the joint and truly enjoyed the Panama Red. Miguel told me to follow him to his car, went down the stairs to his car and Miguel gave me a bag, still warm with small cuttings of both red and black licorice when they cut them into single whips and thanked me again for the free lid and I thanked him for the licorice! Miguel said he'd see me in a week or so.
Got back to the front living room and both Dogman and Itchy bob were chowing down on the red licorice and I put the bag of warm licorice cuttings and told they can take it with them later. So I took the red licorice spool after I cut off about 4 feet for the front room and took the spool back into the bedroom for Angela and her friends later.
So, with Itchy Bob and Dogman wearing shit-eating grins Dogman says I got a deal set up in about 2 hours, we get a stash and some cash. Let's get something to eat and head out to do the deal, and these guys are pretty together so you don't need to bring a scale or anything, we'll grab that bag of licorice pieces. cool, these guys have everything we need and dogman says I know them, but at the time couldn't remember exactly whom they were, Itchy Bob said I had met them a couple of weeks ago at the Fillmore West Carousel Ballroom, two dudes whom I'd know as they knew me by sight, had given the seal of approved for me to help on the deal.
I made sure I had the keys. A few months earlier I had put us some metal plates to stop from anyone being able to get at the lock or the door or slide any tool into the doorway be the lock, seen too many people pop a lock with a card or a little tool, so not failproof but a deterrent of sorts.
So took keys, matches (not cell phones in those days, and change for a phone. Took some cash and stashed it in an old opium pipe in the bedroom in the water part. The less expensive opium pipes tended to rust, so most ignored those. We both knew where the money was in case we need to access it.
We double stepped down the stairs like a herd and I made sure the door was locked.
We all jumped into the DeSoto and Dogman was relieved to see no ticket on his windshield. It was a sunny day, the clouds were moving fast and as an ocean breeze wafted about us, its freshness was like a motivator giving you a very subtle tang of ocean and wake you up a bit.
Well I'd met the dude before and his friend The Desoto turned into a small parking lot and headed down to a small cafe, who did do pancakes and orange juice, we ate up, fun quite place, you could just barely smell jasmine incense from the tiny courtyard in back. We liked the place, nice if only for coffee or a full spread. We got to the cashier and we know they all pooled their tips We gave her a $50.00 bill (think the entire meal for all was about $8.00) so we said to keep the change for tips, so to the delight of a happy crew.
As we made our way to the parking lot I ran into some friends whom I'd met at different venues, the Fillmore, The Avalon Ballroom, The Matrix, Longshoreman's Hall, Fillmore West Carousel Ballroom, and others. Made introductions to Dogman and Itchy Bob. Talked for a little bit and parted ways, we hopped into the DeSoto.
We were heading only several blocks away, and we pulled into a parking lot about a block away.
All the homes had a set of stairs to their front door, was that an homage to the hilly nature of San Francisco.
The sea breeze swept by for a lingering second or two, and we were at the door ringing the buzzer. Stained glass window and a bit in the door. The door opened and Bensy was the with his old lady (girlfriend -sometimes, rarely wife) and told us to come in, we went into the living room, his girlfriend had a few girlfriends of, we waived hi as I knew them all and they headed upstairs.
Bensy said he'd be right back and came back with a big box, and placed it on the floor. He smiles and took out a big bag of golden buds. He then pointed to some rolling papers and said help yourself. Then took out another big bag of buds and a kilo loose in a bag and a kilo still sealed and wrapped.
We all rolled some joint fired up and lo and behold Acapulco Gold, a smooth resin taste, unique to Acapulco Gold. Looking at the kilo, he had a triple bean scale and they were weighing about 2.5 lbs., allowing for the wrapping paper and plastic at about 2 ounces so a good deal.
We watched as Bensy slowly pulled golden buds from the pile of Acapulco Gold, full of resin and pollen a golden color with little traces of a bright green. Leaves were golden, a very potent strong, good high! Acapulco Gold has its traditional flowery flavor with a sweet resin aftertaste.
Going over prices, $125.00 per kilo, $115.00 for 10-30 kilos, $105.00 for 30-75- and a negotiable price for 75 and above kilos. So the prices were cool and the product was a class act. I'd seen the packaging before and knew the farmers of the area took pride in their product, excellent cultivation, drying out, buds, and good packaging.
Banksy took out a big plastic bag and put in about a pound of the Alcupuco Gold for samples, sharing, and ourselves. I had a small bag of Panama Red and gave it to banksy and we went over prices, as he had no connection as of yet for Panama Red and some quantity. Bansky rolled one up, fired it up, help the toke, exhaled, and said "Yep Panama Red, nice and fresh and really smooth too!". We all smoked an Alcupuco Gold and were not disappointed.....
We said our goodbyes as the young ladies came down the stairs waving to us and headed to the Desto and headed on to our next escapade
