81 Been drinking Jake

There was a little bit of a routine. Some days we went on excursions in the area, but if LBJ had stuff to do I went off to my Free Clinic gig. Man alive, Zac was a good cat. He wanted to hang with me. I had a little spot out front of the food co-op that became home. I must say everyone loved Zac and it seems as though I really started raking it in when they stopped to give him a pet. I didn't have to worry. I had a shady spot and he always had food and water.

Not my place but co-ops were revolutionary

Luckily I love being an observer of humanity because there was plenty of it to do. Walking. Talking. Smiling. I only remember one (well maybe more, but later) not happy encounter. I don't remember what I was doing... ok I think I was doing the truckin' walk. I used to do it with my friends. Sorry if the visual hurts your head. Anyway, that's what I think I was doing. I don't know what this older lady was doing walking the streets of Berkeley if she was disturbed by any of this. I like to describe her as looking like the nice old lady with Tweety bird, but with a very sour disposition, so I'll describe her as the mom in Psycho. She stopped in her tracks and gave me a tongue lashing. "You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady." Perhaps in a different setting, like a funeral or something, she would be right. But not on these streets. I don't think I was very respectful in return. Sorry old lady, I wasn't awful... maybe I said go to hell, but I still feel bad. Just not me. You have to try to relax and be happy when you have happy people in your vicinity. The beauty of taking a walk like that was that R. Crumb was walking those very streets at that very time.

I was polite. You really didn't have to ask, people would stop and put money in the tin that was clearly marked Berkeley Free Clinic. Sometimes there would be some weirdo that wanted to look at the license hanging from my neck. Ok. Thank you. One day a fella that looked like Omar Sharif stopped and looked at my license and asked how the panhandling deal worked. Then he asked if I would please help him at his store. "I'll pay you." Alright. I was up to it. People were more trusting. I suppose the lack of 24/7 news and shows about serial killers may have had something to do with that. I ran into so many cool people, I would say in general people got along pretty good.

Let's see. Up until then I had worked as a dishwasher and waitress at Charlotte's and I also had a summer job cleaning bathrooms for a rich kid day camp. We walked a block or two, not real far. He unlocked the door to a tobacco shop. This wasn't just plain American cigarettes, the place was filled with exotic blends from all over the world. I never worked in a store before but I was pretty smart about numbers. I could handle giving change. I did notice a little booze on his breath but he seemed alright. Ok. How can I help? He quickly showed me the cash register and said "I'll be back later." "But I don't know what anything costs?" He left.

Not the actual store. I can't remember the name.

I didn't freak out. Why would I? But maybe I did a little when people started coming in and saying they wanted blah blah blah. Huh? Blah Blah Blah? These people were a little different than the folks lounging around on the street. Some of them were in a hurry. My guess is that a lot of them worked at UC Berkeley which wasn't far. But I found the stuff and if I didn't see a price the customer told me a price. Pretty much everybody told me the price.That place was busy. Luckily I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with me.

Jeez. I'm doing good. Lots of sales. I didn't steal out of the cash register and there was a pretty good amount in there as the day went on. Thank God nobody paid with credit cards back then.

The dude left without telling me when he would be back. It was getting very late in the afternoon and I was starting to wonder what the hell I was going to do if he didn't come back? I didn't have a key to lock up and I wasn't going to stay there all night. I also felt responsible for his stuff. For some reason the guy trusted me.

I still had to bring my tin over to the Free Clinic office too. It's around 5:00 pm and he opens the door. He was completely three sheets to the wind. He could barely stand and he's eating a damn hamburger. There's food all over his moustache. I don't know how he held himself together to remember to come back. I guess that was his last thread of awareness. I try to tell him about the day but he was out of it. He opens his wallet and hands me like two or three dollars. Yeah, minimum wage was $1.65 back then so he could have at least brought me a hamburger.

That wasn't a very good lesson, was it? I behaved myself and took care of the store. It worked out with me and I have no bad thoughts, I had an unusual experience. Just hope that if you did that with others it didn't come back to bite you. Oh well. One day of experience in the day to day workaday world. "See ya, I have to go."

Addendum: I'm no goody two shoes. The thought of grabbing what was in the cash register occurred to me more than once. But I thought that I would be rewarded well, or at least reasonably, for helping him out. I believed that's what would happen. Must have been the nuns. On his part, maybe he didn't trust me as much as I thought. He did look at my license. Got my name. It would be easy to find me on the street or at the clinic. Even if I split town with cash in hand the cops were all too ready to hunt down a hippie panhandler.