So c'mon Stig. How much of your evident love of YS dates back to your itinerant days in '67 SF?
First of all had to look up, "itinerant". It is what I thought -- No, I shouldn't be associated with those souls who moved about, by necessity, looking for work!
I hardly hit a lick in 1967.
Closest I came to working the whole year of 1967 was the 3 weeks I spent washing dishes and bussing tables in a SoCal IHOP. Rebuilt my bankroll - @ $60 - then headed up the shore to the Big Sur. After that it was cooking the odd meals for my room and board for an apt owner in Haight/Ashbury. He claimed he was a chess-shark. Made his $ at night in the coffee houses. I just turned 18 - his story seemed plausible enough to me. His gal friend was a stripper - and actually a real sweetheart of a girl.
My guitar and harmonica playing were only enhanced by the crowd noises in Union Square, and on Nob Hill and down at Fisherman's Wharf! I looked the part, so unsuspecting tourists still tossed coins in my guitar case!
When I hit about a buck eighty-five, I'd knock off work for the day
Buy a loaf of sourdough bread and a pint of O.J.
I did smoke some, then - but usually only those cigs tossed from passing cars. (that story makes my daughter gag)
Late in the year - married an 18yr old SoCal girl - my inbred conservative upbringing said "your rambling about like Woody Guthrie might be OK for you - but you don't subject a young wife" to the goofiness that was Calif. in those days. Jan '69 bought a pair of cardboard suitcases and 2 GreyHound bus tickets to Mass. Pretty soon I received, by appeal, a Conscientious Objector draft status change - and was off to Ft Sam Houston, Texas, to train as a combat medic. Then it was off to the games in the central highlands of S. E. Asia.
I feel something akin to blessed for having experienced both Haight/Ashbury and Vietnam. Weird, huh? I didn't go looking for either. Just that, at 18 - school having no interest to me - I had to go Do something! Not that it was all great - but I'm glad for the experience. A LOT of it was great!
I understand that Haight/Ashbury has changed, not for the better - but Yellow Springs still hangs a banner at the entrance to the village: KINDNESS. And everywhere "acceptance" is the vibe to any and all.
We saw 3 young soldiers in cammo fatigues walking into the UnderDog for breakfast last week. They are just a welcome as are a pair of blue-haired girls holding hands.
Stig
