Church of the Good Earth 1963 and Beyond

I wasn't dissing Debbie really. I just remember that she was so desperate to find a "one on one" that she was not using what she was learning on the spot. But then again, as I said before everything was happening so fast. Like you said before Steven, we were all coming from a sort of post WW2 potty training bg and to be our own optimistic selves was getting crushed. I remember JFK getting gunned down, then Malcolm, and so on. It seemed like anyone who was willing to guide us to a positive and limitless future was being taken out so we would follow the "tried and true" and remain status boring quo without expansion of consciousness. I think Debbie meant well of course, and wanted what she perceived as happiness by seeing other people pairing off. It's just that she didn't take chemistry into consideration as a vital component. Kind of what Zev says... Selflessness v. Selfishness. And Debbie was confused by the compromise.

When I was dealing out of Upper Cole with Leo Ron we were bringing in thousands of dollars a day and all of the money went to support the family except for a little that we would sock away for ourselves. Not greedy at all as Ron and I were each other's moral compass. I would not let him be self serving and vice versa. But the very real possibility of spending time in the gray bay did provoke us to sometimes to take care of little ego trips. That's why I bought the '39 Dodge coupe that I did. Got it for $300. Steven came to me and said, "Okay, fine. That's yours. But always remember US because that is what matters most." And you were right, Steven. I never again did such an ostentatious thing.

Hey, I'm listening to Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain". Wow. We had a time didn't we?

 

hey wild bill!!! We did have a good time!. i still have dreams of the oak street house. i remember that one christmas when i got the american flag leather jacket that was something! fringe down to my waist. it looked like that fringed coat that roger daultry wore at the isle of wright who concert. needless to say, we later found out someone had met their demise behind the jacket so i had to give it up. whatever happened to misty and sonja does anyone know??? hey big steve r u out there? sagdarel calling big steve!!! i'am listening to in-a-god-a-da-vita iron butterfly. anyway spud thanks for the group pic i appreciate that very much. dana, steven still looking forward to saying high to the both of you in the near future,be safe sagdarel

 

In the scheme of things, I spent about a year - maybe a year and a half - in the Haight with the Good Earth. So, I don't have as many experiences or connections like most of you do. I moved up to Ash Valley in 1972 (I remember turning 21 that year).

I lived in the Downey Street House for a while. Kelly was in charge of the house. He taught me a lot about communal living (food conspiracy, organic foods, etc.). From there I moved into Upper Cole and then to the garage on Haight Street. I worked on the paint crew and learned a lot from Leonard about work ethic.

I helped on the rennovation of the Airplane House on Fulton Street. Remember that gig? We must have used about 10,000 tanks of butane to heat and scrape the lead-based paint off of those huge redwood pillars in the front and the rest of the house.

Breeze was sanding and refinishing the hardwood floors inside (see the album cover of "Bless His Pointed Little Head" and you will get an idea of what the dining room looked like). Taurus John was up on the ladder painting on the outside one day and looked in the bedroom window and noticed that there was a big zip lock bag of weed on the bed. He carefully opened the window and crawled inside and retrived the bag for later distribution. One of the perks of the job.

 

I never lived with GE I only stopped by because some of the old Stpers had moved into the heaight and everyone was mixing now. I was allowed to crash on particular visits as I passed through to Orygun or Low Cal. I was thankful for the tempory space tho. Candy Buddy Happy Rocky Sharoon ended up Staying with and some becomming GEs as time went on.

Hey Spud do you remember Chuck MF and Mike MF? Anny Fanny? Truck Driver Diane??

Also on that Airplane house renovation do you recall working at all with Greg wah? I seem to remember a window box made of I think Madrone maybe, from up in Orygun, which surprised me as madrone was not the best wood to work with.? Greg used to speak about that House renovation and that window box planter.

I recall a visit to AV around 72/3 when AV had the sweat lodge and the big barn then across from your place?? Was that big water sistern built yet at your cabin then? Do you remember the mobile sawmill I had. I had it up at Skyline for a while to mill some trees that had been decked I think for J. T, this was before the A frame burned a bit....That may have 73/74 ish, Then I moved it to Diamond Creek to Fatmans place he worked for the forest service over there. I do not recall Max showing up till after 75? I left the mill out there for a year when I moved back to DC to marry Sheila and have Ryland. I wanted to do the wedding at upper Cow Creek but Sheilas Mom wanted her to marry back east. Sheila was pregant with Ryland and we went to Maryland from Upper Cow Creek and did this for her mom! We got stuck there for almost 1 year.

On a visit back to D.C. I also rememeber Happy Rocky and Sharoon(very large Breast) all leaving our house in Bethesda to go to SF as everyone had gone west already!!!

When we were able to leave to go back west to our stuff to start a life again Happy was now being recruited by WPs!! Rocky was MIA and Sharoon was working with the P Union helping folks, Boy what a change! I was not even sure my stuff was ok in Orygun as Greg was supposed to live and watch the place.

When I got back up to Orygun all kinds of things had changed dramatically too!! Greg had left Cow Creek and moved to a shack behind the Co-op his unfinished bus was there too! We were amazed at the changes and a bit freaked out! I moved the mill to Cowcreek let Butler and his Nancy live in my Bus and we went to MOLOKAI! Sheila got pregnant again in Molokai, I went blind in my right eye and I sent Sheila back to the Bus as we had to make some decisions!

Do you remember the Forest camp up past AV, That is where our three busses parked for a while around maybe 76? Buddys bus Gregs bus and My bus were there for a while?? I had to stay on Molokai but Sheila went back to our bus to get stuff ready for our move back to Cow Creek...

We ended up in Milo and Tiller for the next few years. Caleb was born on Flecks farm in the bus (over by the Relows across the river from Duna farm) Then we moved the bus to the Whirlpools and we moved into the little house in Tiller about 1/2 mile from B ans Cs The mill was at the 80. We brought the mill back to Skyline when Happy moved into J.Ts, A frame to mill timber for the house he was going to build. Sheila and I also bought Farmers Dome in Drew but the folks there did not want that to happen we gave Farmer back the ernest money and let him out of the sales contract! That was a tad weird but whatever.

By the time my last son Tiller was born Happy had moved up, Max and Frannie had shown up(max worked with me on my sawmill) J.T. opened up the Tav. AV was way different!! Robin had shown up by now! Oh well BRIGHT MOMENTS.

Spud I do not recall you ever comming over the hill from Drew to my place. I rented on the little applegate creek then in 72. From there I bought the "80" acres(108 with slope lol) on the top of the south side of Cow creek? You could see the Crater Lake peaks from that ole homestead! That was real remote Sheila did not like being so remote and alone. That was the place Greg was supposed to be taking care of our place on Cow Creek but he had moved back over the hill and when I returned for good he moved back in with us over on upper Cow Creek. Till we moved over to Tiller side of the mountain. Tiller was civilazation compared to upper Cow Creek!

As I recall the Crew let me sponser Happy and Max to Join but this had to be 76/ at least??

WOW that was a memory flood! Geez hope it did not piss anyone off!
peace/love
wickwah

 

Why would what you posted 'piss anyone off ChrisWah, these old memories stir the emotions in a good way, no negitivity in what you have said. Be yourself and let your feeling flow.. show the love brother

And BTW, where did all the womens go..

Steven, it is all of us that make 'it' work.. whatever it is . We all contribute in our own way, with what we have, what we know/experienced. We are all 'special/unique" in own personalities but yet we have conmon ground to lay our blanket on.

I am thankful we have this time together to rejoyce in our reunion. We shall see where it leads.

Blessings
nc

 

I was refering to being a long read and mostly personel so probally BORING to many! TY tho Nails as this site has awakened a lot and you and R have a lot of folks back in touch!

peace/love
wickwah

 

At hippie epicenter, a sign of new times

Haight-Ashbury takes modern turn

There is a moratorium on head shops in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district. Above, a tobacco and record shop on Haight. (Eric Risberg/ Associated Press)

By Michelle Locke


Associated Press / September 17, 2009


SAN FRANCISCO - First came a moratorium on head shops. Then neighbors turned out in force to support a new development that includes an upscale grocery store. And the local street fair banned open containers of alcohol. There are signs of new times at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets, the neighborhood that was the epicenter of the hippie movement during the Summer of Love in 1967.




“It isn’t drugs, sex, and rock ’n’ roll anymore,’’ said longtime resident and neighborhood organizer Ted Loewenberg. “It’s a different neighborhood.’’

Drugs and music have not disappeared entirely from the Haight, and judging by the baby strollers seen rolling along the sidewalks, sex has not gone out of style, either. Still, you know this is not your father’s Haight-Ashbury when one of the burning issues of the day involves whether a Whole Foods should move into the neighborhood.


“Haight-Ashbury is a wonderful, iconic place that wrestles with its past, present, and future,’’ says San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who lives in and represents the neighborhood. A walk through the Haight illustrates his point. Here are lovingly restored Victorian mansions, glorious with details accented with gold paint. Steps away is the slumbering form of a homeless man stretched out near the front steps of a public library. A “Tiny Tots’’ diaper-service van zipping up the street spells out the latest trend of the Haight - families.


On the main thoroughfare of Haight Street, wisps of the past are brought to life in gusts of patchouli oil wafting out of vintage clothing stores and vibrantly detailed murals painted on storefronts. Interspersed along the street are more modern accents: bustling small grocers, upscale coffee shops, and new retailers.

One of the newer stores on Haight Street is The Booksmith, an independent bookstore operated by husband-and-wife team Praveen Madan and Christin Evans. More than two-thirds of Booksmith customers are locals who like browsing shelves that carry a wide range of titles. Naturally, there is a robust “counterculture’’ section. The rest come from all over the world, drawn by the lure of 1967, when thousands of young people came to San Francisco, with and without flowers in their hair. It was not a long-lived moment. By fall, residents held a “death of the hippie’’ funeral. But the legend proved hard to kill. “The narrative of what happened in the ’60s is so powerful people still come from all over the world; they come in here and want to know where the hippies are,’’ Madan said. “Well, the hippies have been gone for 40 years.’’


On a recent sunny morning, Jacob Rivers, 18, sat at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets, trying to interest tourists in his geometrically detailed drawings. Tanned and towheaded, he hails from a suburb of Minneapolis, drawn by something that happened years before his birth.

“We studied this stuff,’’ he said. “It’s a beautiful place. It’s crazy to think of the legends that went down here, you know. Jerry Garcia. Jefferson Airplane. It’s a cool place to be.’’


These days, there are fights, often at the city Planning Commission, over what to preserve and what to change to make the neighborhood more livable. Take the proposal to bring in a Whole Foods Market as part of a mixed-use housing development on the site of a closed food store.

Calvin Welch of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council said he does not oppose a Whole Foods store per se, although he would prefer to see local grocers at the site. But he said the project as a whole, including the housing, was out of scale with the neighborhood and would have generated too much traffic.


The project won approval from planning officials after supporters showed up at a key meeting with more than 100 people. Historian Joel Kotkin, author of “The City: A Global History,’’ sees the fight over the heart of the Haight as quintessentially San Franciscan. “San Francisco, in a weird way, is the most conservative place in America,’’ he said. “People went there for a particular ambiance and, even though it really is not what it was, they are desperate to hold on to it.’’

 

WOW Returning to the days when my mom was a young woman. She was born in SF and lived on Clayton(sp). Most all the folks in the District were ok many she said and owned small businesses. She used to tell storys about the Depression days. She remembers how some of the houses in the area were "MARKED" by people who were 'Hobo Homeless" and could get a meal from some of the marked better off folks who did live there at the time. Her Dad owned and operated a couple of Pharmacies (Real Drug Stores back then).

Her stories of the Haight Ashbury were sorta like what it seems to be returning to? WOW. She said that when the war came many people were opening up their houses to rent rooms to people as the Military was bringing in so many people to work on things! Then as some folks moved to like Palo Alto, Marin, San Jose etc they started renting their entire houses or sold them? She left with two cousins and went on the Matson Ship to Hawaii. TO MEET GUYS in the military and experiance the world! lol Ended up working for the Decoders and worked with a lot of Native Americans. Then she went to Korea with special services. She meet and married my Dad there. When they returned her parents had SOLD the house on Clayton, and tne Drug Stores and moved to La Jolla and open a new Drug Store in Lo Cal!

Funny how the wheel of the City turns!

Will there again be a generation like us???
peace/love
wickwah

 

Greetings Folks, sorry to impose here, S.H. I need that thread asking Hippiebilly to help me post something taken off.I dont want to bother Cinnamon as she just got home AGAIN from the 2nd hosp.stay. Hi Chris,,, it's neat to hear all ya'lls stories.I am so happy that your finding one another. I found my old friends about 10-11 yr's ago, it is a wonderful thing. As we say at rainbow,"thanks for all you do" Well, thanks for all ya'll did, it paved the way for alot of us.

Thank you SH for everything you do here! Big hugs and love!

 

Chris Wah: Hey Spud do you remember Chuck MF and Mike MF? Anny Fanny? Truck Driver Diane??

I remember Chuck MF and the names of the others (but I can't remember their faces). Was Dianne with Dennis Menke and the kids; Eric and Jake?

CW: Also on that Airplane house renovation do you recall working at all with Greg wah? I seem to remember a window box made of I think Madrone maybe, from up in Orygun, which surprised me as madrone was not the best wood to work with.? Greg used to speak about that House renovation and that window box planter.

I remember the madrone window boxes for the Airplane House. We cut a bunch of trees (oak & madrone) at the Ross' place on Woods Creek Rd. and milled the trees with Louie Roger's alaskan mill. We also collected a bunch of madrone burls and milled those too. I think Sampson (remember him?) and Aquarius Tony came up the the Ranch (in Meg) and hauled the wood to the Haight and then it was either sold or made into planter boxes, etc.

CW: I recall a visit to AV around 72/3 when AV had the sweat lodge and the big barn then across from your place??

The big barn was called the "Goat Barn" and it was up the road from my place. I remember we slaughtered and butchered a pig in the goat barn and Doc hung the head on the barn door and it freaked out the ladies (gross man!).

CW: Was that big water sistern built yet at your cabin then?

No, me and Louie built that later on after Risa and I bought the 2nd House.

CW: Spud I do not recall you ever comming over the hill from Drew to my place.

I did not come over to your place on Cow Creek. I remember we had a brush piling contract over near your place and we used to pick up Greg in the Roach Coach and go to the unit.

 

Wow. Something like three pounds of greased up fries drenched in salt, pepper and malt vinegar, wrapped in the latest edish of the S.F. Chron. For the astronomical price of 35 cents. Such a deal! Hey, just saw a very recent show about hidden secrets of S.F. and they went to the ZibZam bar and lo and behold I saw Robert's Hardware as the host walked by it.

Hey, Chris. I don't know where he is now but Rocky was kind of losing it in the late 70s. Whatever happened to Major from STP? Or Neighbor? Any ideas? Annie Fanny went back to Palm Springs in the early 80s and then...poof.

And yeah, Cakes, where's de womens?

 

Hey Bill,
A lot of the STPers went over to Rainbow. Ask Luvione, she is all over it. There is a large tribe over to Austin Tx. where Rainbow and STP join together. Luvi is like the census taker

Hey Luvi, I handled the post you requested deleted in the Rainbow Forum, and you are welcome here @ any and all times sweetie

Blessings Family
NC

 

WB - I talked to Neighbor at one of the Woodpecker reunions. He was doing well. He is living in NY state (upstate, I think) and runs a profitable garden supply / landscaping business.

 

I heard from Shills today..he'll be in as soon as he allowed, I believe there is a 72 hr waiting period plus the email you have to respond to within 24 hrs..

There use to not be a waiting period, but our webmaster is now flitering through the new registrations bc of the huge ammount of spam the site has been getting lately. You know, there is always the few that tear it up so others cant have it anymore.
That's another reason why live urls are not accepted in this site. Otherwise it would be just one spam after another and that is never good for a website that does not like commercials. You can rent a space and spam yourself and that would be ok, as long as it was contain inside your own forum I suppose.

Hey Spud, Cathy may be interested in a storefront in here, well not in this forum but over in the store area.. We might could pool it and combine everyone's craft/s.. If you are a site supporter which I know Zev is you can open a shop as one of the benefits of site supporter that's included.

I know we got crafters amoungst us. Or even your boys band spud, selling CDs/vedios. There's a lot of opertunities in having an outlet, say like The Good Earth Hippie Shop on Haight Street over by The Straight Theater. We could do it as a Family thing. We may even use some of the coin to fund events for the family.

Just a thought. Another thought.. Good Earth Crafter's Imporium

Blessings
NC

 

What ws the name of the old Cockney Jewish dud who owned the fish N chips place on Haight Street. To have that extra buck for some great fish was heaven.

 

IFyou all wan tot opena GE shop on my name that'd be fine with me. let me know.

 

Hey Now, Thanks SH! I am friend of many families/tribes. I was 16 when I met my first one, and 17 when I met another, and 18 when I met a couple more.It wasnt untill the reunions(2 "99" & "00") that I met who all was alive at that time. As for the others they are scattered. I will pass on the inquiries. It was a different scene by the time I was hanging out. I'm just on my path, and it's a trip where it takes me sometimes! Again SH,, thanks for helpin me out with that post.

 

Dont be so modest Luvi...xoxo

 

We have a space in the 'store' area if we want it. No Cost It would be EZ to get paypal accounts for each 'vendor's products and only the vendor could access it.

If anyone is interested let me know and I will get it set up. There are over 1/4 of a million members in Hip Forums. There will be a good potential for a nice clientle.

Being Old Hippies from The Haight, Orginals of that era, we draw out a cetain nostalga in folks. They want the "Real Thing' and that brothers and sisters are what we are. Now, while the iron is hot would be a good time. There has been a lot of publicity on The Hippie Culture due to the aniversary of that era. I know we all could use an outlet that reaches so many ppl in one place.

Basically all it would intail is to post a pic of your product in The Good Earth Emporium(?) and an ID number/email addy or something as simple as that to do. No Muss, No Fuss. Well, you may have to address a question on one of your products if asked, but that's part of the happening

We could sell whatever we made or created and 'keep it in the family' as to say, only good earth would be involved, and like I mentioned, everyone would have their own seperate paypal account or whichever electronic pay system you choose.

It's safe here, there are a few other stores that have been around for a while and havent had any bad experiences. I've been here five yrs or so n never heard of anything negitive happening.

I know Ranger is a vendor, Sag Darel, Myself, Spuds wife, Mouseman vends also. I'm not sure who else, but I'm sure there must be a few more.

So, the opportunity is there if we want it y'all. It's no maybe, it's a done deal if we choose it.

Blessings
NC

 

I dont like to say SH is wrong about any thing, but to set the record straight,in my opinion, we are all Rainbow, wether we know it or not. Now as to stp family, I wouldnt say they went over to Rainbow. Ron Kelly did in 76. I know that for a fact. Ya'll overlap with other families,& vice versa. After all these yr's it seems to me when it comes right down to it that we all have things in common. We all do some kind of service in our lives. Even some of those who made problems can finally see the love and have done beautiful things over the yr's.I see it at Gathering all the time still. I am truly happy that folks are finding one another. Even if I dont know them! Cuz they might know someone I do, and maybe they wanna say howdy. But I gotta say, I am glad I found my way back to Rainbow, so many layers, so many wonderful folks doing so much all over. I am way blessed in this life.
I truly only want to touch people in a positive way, and so I hope I have touched more in a positive way than not.But we all have our moments!!
Thank You SH for all your love,,, dont ever think I'm bein dissrespectful,,, just had to put that out there about "went over", you gonna get me yelled at!!! I never ever sd that, theres alot of the old gang in Austin, yeah, but we aint stp. I love you,,,,,,,, : )