80 Feed me

It wasn't just me... when LBJ used the mummy sleeping bag there were snails in it the next morning too. We shook it out, said yucch and walked up the hill to the International House. We got a huge breakfast for super cheap. I went back to give the bathroom at the dorm a quick clean. It got a good clean on Saturday. I'd get to laugh with the folks at the front desk. For some reason I'll never forget the funny asian girl, Wendy. Sometimes they'd even get me to play frisbee out front, which is something I don't normally do. My only explanation for why we had such a good time is that we found humor in that we had almost nothing in common.

When I went to panhandle I pretty much just ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. LBJ same thing. But we hit the cafés on occasion. Little did you know that Berkeley was a forerunner of the "radical food" movement too. Health food stores everywhere. Lots of healthy organic restaurants and radical minded coffee shops too. The food co-op I stood near at 3000 Telegraph Ave (I think) was part of the longest lasting group of co-ops in the country. It would be nice if we got back to that and took big corporations out of the equation. They had health food stores in New York too, just not on this scale. These places weren't mainstream like they are now. Oddballs ate organic.

I remember a gal stopped to talk to me about yogurt outside the co-op. Yeah, I like yogurt. "No, not Dannon. We make it like the Turkish." Stop by and try some. Well, even Dannon yogurt was better then, not a long list of solids and ingredients.

There was a place pretty close to People's Park called Caffè Mediterraneum that was a hep place for beatniks, intellectuals, artists and political radicals. Moe's Books was across the street. We didn't hang in this one very much. I was around people all day and didn't need to have "cool" all the time. It's closed now though and that's sad. There were a number of small coffee shops that had shelves of books that you could read while relaxing, just buy some coffee.

Somewhere on our route there was an old storefront that was converted into a theater. People were settling in to see a movie. We had a little money. Let's go! I loved old movies, watched them with my mom all the time. I especially loved monster movies. I was glued to WPIX New York on Saturday. Monster movies all afternoon. But I had never heard of this movie. Weird. I guess it didn't fit the normal rerun fare or the pure science fiction and horror on Saturdays. Little Shop of Horrors. (1960)

We sat on steel folding chairs. I was grooving on the differences in people. There were people from all over crowded into this empty store. A lot of the people had seen the movie before and came back for more fun. It's good to laugh and laughing together is even better. How could you not love that strangeness? Jack Nicholson's lunacy freaked me out. 

But the best part of the day happened when we were filing out. A young couple out front asking "Do you want a kitten?" People kept walking by. I love cats and I had to take a look. An adorable gray kitten with an extra toe on each paw. My heart melted. I missed having a cat. Oh. How am I going to do this? How can I keep a cat with me all day long? But I had to hold this kitty. Adorable. They told me he was trained to sit on your shoulder and that he would stay there. I tried it. He did. I walked a little and he stayed sitting on top of my shoulder. Yes. I would take him. I love him.

Zac looked exactly like this

They gave us a bread bag with some dry cat food and off we went. When we got back to the dorms I went inside and my friends at the desk found a little bowl that I could use for water. I named him Zac, probably because of Zacherley.

I had the mummy sleeping bag that night and Zac crawled right in with me. A great discovery! Zac ate the snails that congregated in the smelly sleeping bag. I heard some weird chewing and there he was eating away. A wonderful friend!