96 Oh yeah that was the departure

I knew I'd forget a couple of things and have to come back later and throw them in. I need to add a little something about leaving Berkeley. Yeah, we cleaned a couple of rooms at the dorm but we needed to survive. LBJ worked, not everyday, and I did the Free Clinic panhandling thing, close but not everyday. But take a guess, we didn't care too much about money. We ate food and we hung out. Trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the world. We believed that and I still do. People need to spend some time when they're not working their asses off in the rat race. Our Long Island parents were fine examples. I don't think I knew anyone whose parents weren't alcoholics. Most of them were the moms. Miserable in their situation. "Hello Mrs. S." She just had her hair done and her eyes were real glassy. They threw us in Catholic School so we didn't notice.

So when we were going to leave we had some money, but who knows what was going to happen. Little bit extra could keep us from being hungry. I planned this. I did go out one more time for the Free Clinic the day before we left. I stood in front of the food co-op and did fine.

On the streets when we hung out we all took care of one another. We had to survive. It really was a community. No phoniness. We talked about the beautiful places we went and the places that were cool with us being there. We shared our survival stories. And created stories of how the world should be.

So right now I had to survive. I heard the thing to do was to get the box, do the thing, keep your last take and hit the road. The people at the clinic knew this happened but they were all about helping people out on the street. They looked at you like this was the last time they'd see you and the dude always said something about taking care. These were the best people.

My day ended. Night was getting closer and I did what I heard. I went into a restroom somewhere out of public view. Turned that box upside down and started shaking. It took work. I smashed it up on the floor and got the last bit out. Threw it in the garbage along with my panhandling license. Split the next morning. Thing is they kept my birth certificate. Nobody cared. What did you need ID for back then. Nothing. And that was the end of Berkeley.