Stories of a Different Time

A friend has suggested that we keep record of events we experienced in earlier years, to set down history in our own words. I like the idea, so will add these in fragmented ,out of date fashion, most often taken from letters or messages I've sent others. I'm beginning with this May 18 entry. Enjoy!

May 18 entry:

I came through San Francisco in 1968 on my way to working /getting married in Hawaii and then was a week there again going back to Rhode Island in 1969  with my first husband to get a job while he finished out in Newport. I couldn't believe the playbill at the Filmore West. We went one night and saw the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble and some other groups. No rows of seats. Everyone dancing under strobe lights and old movies flashing on the different walls. Saw Hairl A double WOW The Haight was still a haven in '68. By '69, it was filled with stoned out runaways begging on the streets and cursing if you didn't give them anything. The love was dead, flowers wilted. I protested the war but not the vets. My first husband was one, as was his brother. Because he was a junior officer, we had a base sticker on the car, I would drive to the base on a weekend he had duty and platoons would salute the car. I felt really awkward, but it was procedure. I drove up the hill to Brown in Providence another time to meet a friend for lunch and a kid with hair down longer than mine saw the sticker, looked at me with sheer hate, gave me the finger, cursed me. It gave me some small sense of what the vets went through. Lived in a commune in Boston after my first marriage. I was working outside of the city. It was more of an experiment in community living by then. No mass sex. No drugs. I liked it. I was a bit wild before that time for a bit but monogamous,


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