84 Well that's crummy

I was back to the professional panhandling scene. LBJ was working a temporary job. A lot of the people who donated into my tin were regulars along the street. I talked a bit here and there. Took walks now and then 'cause who likes standing in one spot too long. I wasn't lazy at all but I was enjoying this experience. How do I explain that it was innocent? 

I waved at people I knew across the street. I talked to passersby's about peace and what not. Talked about Zac and how cool animals are. Maybe someone stopped to tell me about something going on in a park. I was super friendly. I thought that was the way that the world was going to change... through personal peace and love.

So one nice sunny day a fellow came up to me and said "Hello. Hey I have some sandwiches. Would you like one?" "Uh ok." "They're in my van right there." I must have stopped smiling for a second. "It's ok. It's right there." It hadn't gotten to the point in humanity that you avoided contact out in the general public. I still don't... I greet strangers on the street and say hello, but I notice so many now that have a blank stare and avoid looking back let alone communicating. But I did take pause with this fellow for some reason.

They were good sandwiches from the deli. I think we had 7-up. He was asking about the panhandling and told him what it was like. I haven't forgotten what he looked like. He seemed a little nervous. He had slightly thinning hair combed over a bit. Light brown, maybe close to dark blonde. Round glasses. Moustache. A few years later it dawned on me that he looked a little like Steven Weed. Nobody knew who Steven Weed was in 1972. He also looked a little like R. Crumb. Maybe like a cross between Steven Weed and R. Crumb. I didn't know what R. Crumb looked like either in 1972. Just read the comics.

About halfway through the sandwich I hear this "I was wondering if you would like to go to my  house? I've been watching you and I would like to take some photos of you." As you've probably heard it wasn't unusual for people to go over someone's house or hook up in the 70's when they first met. But there was something about the "I've been watching you" part that made me stop eating the sandwich. Even if he didn't say that, I wasn't going to go over his house. "It's ok. I just live up the hill there." "I'll pay you."  Uh. I don't even think I said thanks for the sandwich. I dropped it, got up and went to the front and opened the passenger door and jumped out.

The moral of the story is that if it was R. Crumb he should have told me and I would have went. If it was Steven Weed... good. I never liked that wuss. You should have fought harder for your woman instead of running out that door. But maybe it was just a photographer. Nah. I think I escaped a serial killer. At least that's what my gut told me. Needless to say Zac and I left for the day. Never saw that white van again. Not a very thrilling story but I never forgot it for some reason.

P.S. People didn't even really know about serial killers till a few years later.

83 Make it a bloody mary

We decided to leave for Oakland pretty early in the morning. We were used to public transportation and had no problem asking what bus to take. I left Zac with the nice people at the desk of the dorm. I wasn't worried, would have been much worse to take him to Oakland with me. Back in those days a lot, I should say all, public buildings and offices wouldn't allow animals of any kind.

Oh, just so you know... I slept in the slightly stinky sleeping bag every night. For some reason the snails only crawled into that bag and Zac enjoyed them.

I don't know the address but it was downtown Oakland somewhere. The main workforce, unemployment place in the city. Just a quick trip and it was a different world. Right next to one another. Berkeley... hippies, free speech movement, partly the Beats; Oakland... inner city grittiness, Black Panther headquarters, jazz and soul. I'm no expert, I was just there. Later on I learned from someone that there's a rich part in the hills but I didn't see it.

I usually didn't have much of a feeling of being out of place. I logically knew I was a bit peculiar. I didn't like being around the uppity or those that thought they were better than others. I started going into the city at a fairly young age and it was an exploration, but I was always careful. The pirate inside of me fought any worries about switching up my surroundings.  Three guardian spirits helped me out and I recently had that God experience in Berkeley too.

I was just along for the ride. I'm sticking with the panhandling, plus Zac loved it. So in the old days you had to do a lot of waiting on line. Government agencies, the bank, the army. Many characters hit the unemployment office. I wish I could remember more about the clientele. If I underwent hypnosis there might be something left in there, but I'm thinking the activities later on in the day kind of clouded that out. You could be sure in 1972 Oakland that there were plenty of people wearing the colorful styles of the day. And things that weren't stylish but individual. I could also tell you that there were probably a few nodding out, but plenty of hard workers too. Just down and needing work. You could also be sure that it was mostly men in there looking for work. How times have changed in a lot of ways. If you looked at the Help Wanted in the newspaper, the categories were split between men and women. Manual labor jobs for the men. Secretary and waitress for the women. If you were high scale you probably weren't looking in the want ads, but there weren't that many spots for the gals. My Dad had hopes I would be a photographer for a newspaper. I had hopes for the Left Banke or at least a farm somewhere.

If by chance you were collecting unemployment you had to go in once a week to give them your sheet of places you applied. They'd look you in the eye and try to size you up. "No. I'm not lying. I went to these places." "Well, I'm going to check." "Ok. You do that." What a time!  You actually walked into a place and asked if they were hiring? Maybe they hired you on the spot or maybe you filled out an application.

This wasn't that though. LBJ just wanted some leads. They make up a file, give you a number and a case worker. They also filled out a little yellow booklet that you kept. It had the dates that you came into the office and the name and addresses of job leads they throw your way. Ok. He got a couple of leads. We were in there for hours. Let's get out of here.

Walkers we were. We weren't in a big hurry, we were looking around. It was a pretty heavy part of the city. A Black Panther office. I see there was an office at 14th and Perlata and that makes sense with where we ended up later. I remember walking down a street with a different scene. Men in afros and berets, dressed all in black. But there were lots of happy neighborhood people too. The Panthers were working with their neighbors on food distribution. Kids were going to school. It was their neighborhood and part of the thing was to do "for the people." Politics aside, this was on a local and personal level, and that's a good thing. I suppose the food and school wasn't being forced on anyone. And that's where it's at. You find your own freedom without hurting the innocent or forcing your way of living on everyone.

Everyone walked that street with respect for themselves and others. Little white girl with blonde hair had no problem there. No street talkin' at me or my beau. But we kept walking. I don't know how or where we ate but I bet it was good. 

So we ended up somewhere between 13th and 15th on Broadway. A beautiful old movie theater called the Lux rose up before my eyes. Both LBJ and I read the newspaper, people did that, and I looked at the movie ads every time. There it was! I loved monster movies and this one was the first of its kind. Blacula!

There was already a little line out front. No buying in advance. You stood out front and talked with whoever you were with and sometimes with everyone else in line. No picking out your little seat. You stood on line with everyone else and you were able to pick out your damn seat when you went in there. No moaning or groaning. No reservations. No wine. Just candy, popcorn and soda. 

We got there early enough that we got pretty good seats. Maybe about six rows back on the left side. I do remember my positioning because I became more aware of things than usual. Sitting there. Yum. I think we got a small popcorn. I didn't eat a bunch of junk food. The theater started filling up. 

Ok. This was an experience. Richard Pryor would confirm this. Huh. LBJ noticed that we were the only white people in the entire theater. That's weird. So what. This is Oakland.

I wish I had a way to make this into a movie scene. The audience really got into it. I heard lots of talking to the movie. Prince Mamuwalde was a hero. Things really started picking up when Blacula claimed his first victims after being wronged so badly by Dracula.

Now people were randomly standing up and yelling in support of Blacula. Then the rest of the audience would shout in support. About two rows behind me someone got up and yelled "Kill those white honkies!" It was all over the theater. "Yeah motherfucker. They need to die." I was getting a little freaked. I started to sink into my seat. 

"Should we leave?" I whispered to LBJ all cowardly. "No. That's worse. Just don't make a scene." The longer I was there the more I was getting into watching, just so long as I could sit there. You know? Wow. They were all having a hell of a time. Lovin' it. This was an eye opener for me. Maybe I wasn't as cool as I thought. Even the way I'm writing now is repressed and uptight. That's always a good lesson.

The movie was over and we just trucked on out of there. No big deal. All's good. I'm sorry that was my only experience in 70's Oakland. Wish I had made it over to some of the music venues.

82 Sunny days

I need to get a couple more typical days out of the way before I start on some of the more memorable. Every morning we made our way to the International House for breakfast. It was so cheap and we got a lot of food to start the day. Sunny Jim recommended it. Sunny Jim did some kind of work at the Hillel Street work Project... or was it the Berkeley Free Church? Both of them had deals where you could be sent out on jobs. The Free Church also had a crash pad deal. We had a thing going with our hidden spot on campus and the hostel, so we didn't pay attention.

We didn't do any of the free food things either. I guess we were kind of loners and didn't like standing on line for that kind of crap. Plus there was always trouble one way or another. Someone freaking out or criminal types wreaking havoc with good stuff going on. So it was big breakfast in the morning, peanut butter and jelly during the day and maybe a burger or whatever we came across at night. Sometimes I bought stuff at the store and shared with the workers at the hostel.

International House

I didn't hit either of those job places cause I was sticking with the Free Clinic. I mentioned before that it was mostly manly labor stuff. I did go to one job at a house remodel, but I'll talk about that later. I do remember going in one day to the office to see if I could find LBJ for some reason. I'm thinking it was the Free Church. I'll never forget a family I ran into there. I thought "Wow. California." Two parents totally blonde. Three little kids totally blonde. All tan, all barefoot. They were needing help with one thing or another. I don't think I ever saw such a blonde family in New York.

LBJ was working with some other guy on a new remodel. Back then they didn't completely change the character of the old houses. They cleaned them up, fixed electrical and plumbing, and painted. Lots of painting. The other guy had a vehicle and was going to give LBJ a ride back to the center of town. Just as they were getting in the vehicle a couple of Berkeley cops jumped out of their cars, rifles pointed. Threw them against the car, spread their legs. Pushed them to the ground and handcuffed them. Rifles pointed. I guess the car was stolen, or wasn't, never got the outcome. If it was at least the guy was trying to work. Right? But there were definitely other forces at work in Berkeley. Hippies got the knee to the groin every so often for a while. Ok if there's a reason, people weren't crying, but just for having hair it's not cool.

Seems like a lot of people knew Sunny Jim though. He was one of those degreed hippies but he lived pretty hard. He also dealt a lot of pot. We'd end up over his place. It was just a mattress on the floor and posters on the wall. You'd pile in there and find a spot on the bed to sit. Listen to some music. Quicksilver Messenger Service was a favorite. The stereo going back and forth, back and forth in the ears. Someone was always sifting the seeds and stems from the pot in a shoebox lid. Cool. Pot was half the price in California. I think we paid $10 an ounce. And it was good, but nice. Not the crazy strong hybrids they have now. Just a much softer edge to the high.

We'd sit and talk about music or how messed up society is. You'd think we'd all be rolling all over the bed having sex, but life wasn't completely like that. There was actually a lot more conversation than sex, drugs or rock n' roll. People spoke about how they were going to live differently than what was expected. Some of them did. They disappeared one way or another from the mainstream. Took working class jobs to survive or maybe worked a trade. Nothing powerful. Just not all about money. So people that did it, got away, sometimes had good lives, sometimes hard lives. Some of the humans were just hanging as a trend. They're the ones that went for the money.

 

But Sunny Jim was pretty cool. He wanted to help people out and gave advice on how to stay out of trouble. If you could get by unharmed and find a place to go that was a good thing. He told LBJ about jobs at the Oakland work center, or whatever it was, that sounded pretty good. Some of the jobs paid over $4.00 an hour. Minimum wage was $1.65 in California, $1.60 nationwide. So good. It wasn't highfalutin, but we could live on it. We'd take a trip to Oakland to check it out. I was just going to go along for the ride.