We couldn't sleep all day. Had to get out of the campground eventually and Tommy and Crystal were on their way to do some family thing. I definitely remember the guys were up the earliest. It was the first time LBJ had anything to do with making a campfire. City people in the wild. No big production. Coffee. Maybe we had granola.
Crystal showed me a book she was reading. Lord of the Rings. The crowd I was coming from liked heavy stuff, music and reading. Some people were basically criminal element. I was into the supernatural and that started at a very young age. I talked to the fairies when I was a kid. But at the time, copies of Lord of the Rings weren't making the rounds. I had my own mind, but I was just never exposed to it before this. I guess the symbolism in it is pretty heavy. She said "You have to read this!" You may throw down whatever's in your hand in disbelief, but I still haven't read it Crystal. Sorry. A lot of stuff happened and I just didn't.
With all our talking we figured San Francisco would be a good place to end up. That was our hosts destination anyway. On the road. Dreams of hanging with other free thinking people. Taking in all the experience. Maybe it will be a whole new thing?
Tommy just driving away. We pretty much kept our heads that day. One thing I was surprised to see on the way in were the hills with brown grass. I understand that kind of climate now, but that was something I hadn't seen before. When places had grass it was green till fall. It was new to me that rain and moisture was so seasonal. Strange looking stuff.
"Hey, we're going to Fisherman's Wharf. It's great!" Ok. It's not like we had any expectations or plans. You could smell the sea air. Gulls were flying. I hear it's a heck of a lot different now. No big deal to park that van right near the wharf. They bought some shrimp with cocktail sauce and loaves of sourdough bread. We obviously grew up by the ocean, but the harvests were different. We went to Pete's Clam Bar. I loved the scallops there, but no thanks to the clams on the half shell for me. Clams were a big deal to my family. They got barrels of them for get togethers, so fresh they spit. Family friends fished the North Atlantic for halibut. Good stuff. But as far as shrimp went all we ever had were those special little glasses of Sau-Sea Shrimp Cocktail. Dumped on some iceberg lettuce.
The food was so delicious. Fresh salt air. I said "I can't wait to take a trolley!" All those Rice-A-Roni ads had an impact on me. Oh no. In 1972 they were going through some big repair stage. Not this year. Oh well. I wasn't there to be a tourist anyway.
Tommy said "We have to go now." Crystal was almost broken up about it. Who knows, maybe their time alone wasn't always so fun. She gave us a number and as a matter of fact, Norm in Chicago gave us his number too. Had it for a number of years but life was going by fast and I moved so many times, everything got lost along the way.
We all waved and they took off. Standing there on the docks. I wasn't afraid. Where are we going? Let's just start walking.
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