Ocala '09 Info

Ok heres the link! Click AERIAL & ZOOM IN !!!! http://maps.live.com/?v=2&encType=1&cid=32F4DA19786FAA6!112 SEE YA THERE!!!!

 

Forkman sez: SEE YA THERE!!!!

Was that a promise or a threat?

Zen

 

From the Land..........


I had an awesome time showing my Wife the "Rainbow Way" on site yesterday. From my website:

Seed Camp HAS Begun! From the Land: A Couple of Hundred folks at Welcome Home/A-Camp/BusVillage! Camps on the land: Fat Kids, Iris, Bear Necessaties & Toxic Waste. A Wedding was planned for the afternoon.


We didnt stay for the wedding But we checked out ALL points of entry. WelcomeHome/Bus Village/A-Camp was doing an EXCELLENT job of Living/Showing/Giving RESPECT. Plenty of Room at the Campground. GREAT LEO's Happy we have a place to stay & play this year. I picked up an elderly Lady hiking the trails to give a ride back to her vehicle. She described WARNING signs at the Florida Trail heads Warning Folk's they may encounter a group of strange people. I just have to go get a pic of this in a day or two just to see the acurate wording.

I saw no AGRO, no DRAMA & no HI-HOLY Folk's.......Just kind, loving people with POSITIVE ENERGY to Share!!!


Holler at us if ya see us!!! We're unloading Grapefruit/Oranges every few days at EVERY point of entry. OR, I'll either be in Trade Circle or THE HOOKAH LOUNGE next to IRIS Kitchen!!!!


Loving ALL Families!!!!

WITHLACOOCHEE TRIBE - Tradin' Bill

 

USFS did that last time we were @ Hopkins. Something about having an "Impacted Camping Experience", which, I suppose, would be less unpleasant than an impacted wisdom tooth.

 

WAY too many ocala threads, so I put this here more or less at random.

From the University of Florida Alligator:

Ocala ‘Rainbow Gathering’ proves hippies no longer exist


By ALLIE CONTI, Alligator Columnist

It took me one 5–mile walk in 20–degree weather in the pitch black through the Ocala National Forest for me to kill my idols, or for them to nearly kill me.

My newspaper adviser in high school would often regale me with stories of transcendentalists and “The Rainbow People,” as they’re called, who would retreat into national parks for national and regional gatherings for periods of peace, reflection and an escape from consumerism and corporatism. When I heard they were doing a long stint only an hour or so away, I decided, after much deliberation, to experience it first hand.

With thoughts of “On the Road” in mind, I expected to see people truly living outside of the status quo. Intellectuals who thought the “real world” was not for them and made a conscious effort to live outside or above it.


What I found was both disillusioning and frightening.

Hippies do not exist anymore. In their stead, I found an array of felons in hiding, psychologically disturbed youth, feral children and homeless teenagers with nowhere else to be but in the forest.

I had experiences with some of them previously. I had met a band of train hoppers about a month before who had told me more about Rainbow gatherings. When I met them, I was filled with the romantic notion of responsibility–free traveling. I thought that I was talking to people like Kerouac, who had the gumption to set foot across the country and discover the spoils of America for themselves.

As that night progressed, my illusions about who I was talking to disappeared. I was not talking to a bunch of kids from square–shaped states who decided that suburban life was fraught with disappointment. I was talking to misfits who, even if they tried their very best to stick out a normal life, would never meet the cut. They were compulsive liars, thieves, vagabonds and winos.

Wasn’t the point of hippies supposed to be of merit? Weren’t they striving for something, whether it be the end to Vietnam, a revolt against the confinement of the 1950s or god, anything else?

There were some upsides of the excursion (I was able to trade “shiny rocks” for drugs, there were free pancakes and I got some exercise) but there were mostly downsides (I got called a yuppie upward of 20 times for “having parents,” I almost got hypothermia and heat stroke in the same 12–hour span, and I was almost raped and dismembered by a boy who insisted that I go out to his “ninja camp” with him deep into the prairie). But the biggest downside of all was that I realized that hippies, or beats, or whatever, no longer exist.

No one once tried to talk to me about world issues. No one considered what they were doing revolutionary. No one wrote or made art (I did not meet a single person who had heard of “journalism.”). They were there out of necessity. I could leave at any time, and I did the next afternoon.

Maybe I am a yuppie (as soon as I came home I took a long shower, took an extreme amount of Flintstones vitamins, and gorged myself on sushi), but at least I have a sense of who I am and where I belong. That one night destroyed my qualms with living inside of a system. What is the alternative? In today’s world there is none. The best we can do is to try to change the system from inside. There is no hope in overturning anything if we just ignore it by living deep inside the woods.

I will always wonder what became of the train–hopper kids I spent a long night with and about the kids I met at the Rainbow gathering. I hope they get out of that system because it is far worse than the one of which I am a part. But I know they won’t. Living in that system is a drain. Once you’re in it for more than a month, you can never assimilate yourself in what is called “the real world.” Once you have nothing but shiny rocks and nothing more than an elementary school education, you’re pretty much fucked.

But then again, what do they know of the world they abandoned? The world that they perceived as unbendingly cruel? Nothing. And for the most part, I wish to know nothing more of the world they call their own. And that’s where I’ll leave it, until I meet another group of kids who can temporarily make me abandon my own set of values and make me question my own self worth.

Because really, what else is there?

Allie Conti is an English and journalism sophomore. Her column appears weekly.

All I can say is, I'm glad it's student journalism, not real journalism.

 

lulz....

 

sounds like the journalism student didn't make it past A Camp. probably didn't realize there was more people, camps and kitchens up the path.

 

Why do you say that?

 

we went to the gathering...it was shwag!!! front gate aka a-camp was out of control. there was alcohol getting thro 2 rainbow land. ppl where charging $60 a gram 4 weed!!! bull shit!!!

 

okay. you're right. i guess 5 miles in is far enough. it's just weird, is all. i went to the Ocala gathering last year and tho things got pretty wild (and stupid) in spots and there were the usual lifestyle scuzzy drainbowish people skalking around i did find some very cool and together folks and had some very interesting and insightful conversations. i didn't go this year. things are pretty tight. cost of horse feed and hay roles has almost doubled over the past year. i gotta use my money for needful stuff.

 

reads to me like exactly what anyone who is out of their element without their rose colored glasses on would walk away from a day at ocala thinking.

I really dont see the big deal,she called it like she saw it. i dare say i have saw KATUAH say worse about ocala..

face it.ocala is a road dog party with a hint of rainbow,always has been.always will be..
nothing to see here folks,move along...

 

lol,aint that a oxymoron? get rid of them damn worthless hayburners an free up some funds then..
do you use them to plow your garden?maybe use them to commute to town for groceries?rent them out for trail rides??

probably not huh? they just sit there and look pretty,consume mass quantities of hay and oats and you ride them ,,lemme guess,less than 4 hours a week??

not tryin to dog ya,
ive just never understood horse people..

 

LOL i'm actually with ya on the "horses people" thing. snobby folks who imagine their horse manure doesn't stink. our horses were salvaged from abusive environments. seraphina was saved from a cruel redneck who beat her and branded the poor horse for no reason. then the idiot wondered why the horse became wild and unmanageable. penny moon and portia were racing trotters who had become unprofitable and were candidates for dog food cans. tho it may be true that they would be "damn worthless hayburners" to you, they're family to us. fursons who have definate personalities who are worth more to me than a trip to a hippy camporee in Ocala. horse in pic is penny moon. isn't she cute? and she's such a sweetie.

 

Flickerfeather says:

OK, so he's obviously in some sort of competition for the title of worst writer in the Family. But I trust him as a Reliable Source more than some sophomore Journalism student, or "Lolli" No offence, Lolli, but I don't know you from Adam's cat.

 

Man!!! So much to deal with...my head is spinning....chuckle chuckle. Not from the posts. I got the last squirt from the whipped cream. So I got to suck up the nitrous!

The article by Alli Conti is disturbing in so many ways.
So much of it defies logic.

,

Deliberation??? Right. Going into the forest in the dead of night obviously unprepared doesn't show much in the way deliberation. What kind of fool goes walking 5 miles in 20 degree weather??? Besides, I spent two weeks at the gathering and at no time was it that cold and that hot 12 hrs. later. This doesn't pass the sniff test.

Expectations will get you every time. Seems she missed some modern history classes. She was looking for the Beats not hippies.

Damn bold statement for a 12 hr. stint in the woods. Who did she expect to see in the dead of night with 20 degree temps. Any sane person would be under tons of blankets or sleeping near a good fire. Only drunks and wingnuts are going to brave such cold. Shit, professional drunks even know better.

An array of felons? How does she know? I don't know many felons but I sure as hell know that type wouldn't just offer up that info to some college kid walking through the woods.
psychologically disturbed youth...and this girl is a psychologist? and well...why only youth? not a single disturbed thirtysomething, middle-ager or oldster? Did she only talk to youths?
Feral children???? WTF??? Did she just read "Lord of The Flies" ??? How did she discern that these kids were "feral"???
Homeless teenagers? Yup...lots of em...with nowhere else to go but Rainbow. Damned shame it has to be that way but did this girl ever stop to think if it wasn't for Rainbow lots of these kids might be dead or wasting away in prison. Nah, requires too much research.

This girl is really hung on the Kerouac. She meets couple of Rainbows and she expects some kind of Beat heaven. Poor dear is hung up on illusions.
Misfits??? ROFLMFAO!!!! Show me a Rainbow who ISN'T a misfit.
Suburban runaways??? That's almost as funny as misfits. She doesn't have a clue.

Again, is she qualified to call someone a compulsive liar. It's not like she had time to talk to ANYONE for more than a few minutes if her experiences and time frame are true.
Thieves? Did she get ripped off? She didn't write that she did. The only time I've ever seen someone brag about that line of work was in a Richard Pryor movie.
What's a vagabond to this girl? Hobo, drifter, wanderer or tramp? Covers a lot of Rainbows.

Yea, right...and I have a bridge for sale. Funny she didn't say what kind of drugs or if she took them. (or smoked em, whatever) Could make a BIG difference in her real experience.

That has to be total bullshit. Having parents?? While I don't doubt she was called a yuppie it may well have been from her dress and demeanor.

This one is the best (or worse)....This is just NOT believable in any way. Not a mention of fighting, screaming, running or calling the cops. Obviously in her "deliberative state" she never thought to learn about Rainbow and yelling Shanta Sena. She could have screamed "RAPE" and fought and folks sure would have come.
I could be wrong but the "I was almost raped and dismembered" so blithely written without any obvious trauma.... smells. She doesn't even say she IMMEDIATELY left.
It was written as such a la-dee-da part of the story. ??????????

World issues? So what. That was dumb.
Revolutionary? Never heard of Gil Scott Heron, I guess.
No one...no one...no one...
The journalism thing is real believable...yea.

Enough. If this young woman is telling the truth she was a whirling dervish to do and see all she claims in a scant twelve hours. Seriously. Take a look at her claims....
A young college girl drives an hour or so late at night woefully unprepared for the woods to see a Kerouac dream. She has horrifying experiences, meets nothing but the worst of the worst. By what she wrote she walked 5 miles, talked to scads of people (long enough to learn their deepest secrets) It had to be in the hundreds if her conclusions are to be believed. She traded, ate...went here there and everywhere. In 12 hours...

...BULLSHIT

Zen

 

It's interesting how two (or more) people can see the same thing yet come to such different conclusions.
I thought, in consideration of past Front Gates, the kids ROCKED!!! They had an excellent clean kitchen. Always bleach water for ALL kitchen workers and latex gloves were available. I ate there off and on and the food was quite good. They made many pots of pine and herb teas for healing. There was a huge aloe plant on the serving table for all to use. I took a few pieces for CALM.
There was a nice "Kid Korral" full of blankets, quilts and tons of toys. I saw children playing there daily. The dogs had a covered feeding station with 5 gal. buckets kept full of food and water. Along with the bar (hey it IS front gate) was a stage where lots of live music was played. In the bar itself was a picture of LittleHawk flashing the "peace sign" A peace symbol was hung and The Dead could be heard from the sound system.
Nobody was shaking down cars for beer money. There were a few who watched for incoming at night but they mostly sat...and drank. After a little prodding the trash at the front was separated, bagged up and taken out. In my time there there was an ebb and flow with the trash. The water buffalo was almost always kept full and available.
They also kicked down what they could scrounge for CALM.

Of course, the downside. Yes there were fights. Fewer than usual but still....
I don't condone violence and have done Shanta Sena many many times. At risk of life and limb on occasion. There are, however, times when I must look the other way and allow street justice to prevail. Not my way but I am no judge.
Most of the serious violence I witnessed was precipitated by those outside the Family.
( I hope all understand what I mean, y'know the bellybutton thing.)
A child molester was found. (I know the story firsthand) He took a beating and was sent down the road. Earlier Front Gates would have nearly killed him. FYI. This asshole went to the cops. The cops got the story...shrugged about the guys damage...found his travel bag that had been put aside. Full of opiates. Last I heard he was in custody and in deep shit.
Locals came in to drink and caused trouble and got beat up. Dude hit a sister for no apparent reason and got beat up. Dude beat his dog so they beat him. Wrong? By my standards....but not theirs.
There was absolutely senseless violence. Poobear received a broken nose and possible severe eye damage because he backed into a $4000 truck. Some very schwag sisters started fights with bros knowing they'd get beat if they fought back. Other dumb shit happened, too.

All in all things were much improved. They deserve some credit. JMHO...if we stopped bitching about them and showed them more love and compassion it just might rub off.
Is it fear that keeps so many away??? I can hang at Front Gate at any time I want and never fear for my well being. Now I know I ain't nobody special nor do I have some magic hippie aura. I don't do "new age" I simply love and serve these folks to the best of my ability. They see this and love in return. They ARE capable if you give them a chance. If more people would care about the fuckers and spend more time loving than bitching it might just help.

"What you do unto the least of them, you do unto me"- some hippie named Jesus

There sure was alcohol getting in. Front Gate caught a lot but they weren't as "demanding" as in previous years. I heard Niggas-R-Us and Toxic Waste had a big drinking bash. I mentioned to the TW "focalizer" that it was schwag. He listened...whether he did anything...?????

Front Gate is not A-Camp. I saw no A-Camp regulars that I know.

Dank bud sold "over there" was $60 an eighth not a gram. Parking lot middies went for $30 a quarter.

That's my story....and I'm sticking to it....maybe.

Zen

 

as one who left home at 15 WAY back when all i can say is AMEN to that brother!!:cheers2:

all the same,we were a pretty crusty and shall we say mischievous bunch back then and the same holds true today..nothing ever really changes..

still,,gotta love gutter punks,a lot of us were one at one time..