Hippie Elder
Greenlighter
- Joined
- May 8, 2018
- Messages
- 1
I am a California native, born and raised in a small farm town. At the end of the last ice age, massive run off from melting glaciers cut channels to the sea. The ancient Stanislaus River was three miles wide and fifty feet deep. Today it is snuggled-up along the base of its ancient southern embankment. My home town hugs the edge fifty feet above. Not surprisingly, it's called Riverbank. Its legal limits extend to the edge of the precipice, anything beyond that point is the river bottom, which belongs to us all. I grew up down at the river.
As it happened, shortly after I entered puberty in 1967, radio DJs declared the Summer of Love. Riverbank is exactly half way between Yosemite to the east, and San Francisco to the west. The highway between them cuts right through my little town. The hippie ethos of sharing resources made it easy to hitch a ride, and the highway was only two blocks from my house.
There has never been a more interesting place and time to come of age. I tasted tear gas and dropped acid before starting high school. I was in the last draft lottery. I ordered a sitar from India in 1972. The FBI opened an Anti-American Activities file on me because I was the school president and editor of the newspaper. . . oh yeah, and I was trying to give people accurate information about drugs.
That was 1974. In 1978 I was certified as an expert witness on street drugs, and called by the judge as amicus. The issue was whether Thai stick was "concentrated cannabis" and therefore not decriminalized like regular marijuana. I testified that I didn't even think hashish was "concentrated cannabis". The Judge dismissed the case. The DA wasn't happy about it, and when the judge was telling us interesting facts about pot, like why they used to call an oz a"lid", the DA started to leave and the judge snapped at her that court was still in session. "Instead of grasping at straws to try to make a name for yourself," he said, "perhaps we'd all be better off if prosecutors learned something about drugs." Amen to that!
BA cross cultural/comparative social sciences; MA psychology: JD. The rest should be easy to guess: liberal Democrat, bisexual, I baptize people in hot tubs, I drive a 1985 VW Van, etc. ((And my stories are way to long, worked as a public health educator, college teacher ...
))
As it happened, shortly after I entered puberty in 1967, radio DJs declared the Summer of Love. Riverbank is exactly half way between Yosemite to the east, and San Francisco to the west. The highway between them cuts right through my little town. The hippie ethos of sharing resources made it easy to hitch a ride, and the highway was only two blocks from my house.
There has never been a more interesting place and time to come of age. I tasted tear gas and dropped acid before starting high school. I was in the last draft lottery. I ordered a sitar from India in 1972. The FBI opened an Anti-American Activities file on me because I was the school president and editor of the newspaper. . . oh yeah, and I was trying to give people accurate information about drugs.
That was 1974. In 1978 I was certified as an expert witness on street drugs, and called by the judge as amicus. The issue was whether Thai stick was "concentrated cannabis" and therefore not decriminalized like regular marijuana. I testified that I didn't even think hashish was "concentrated cannabis". The Judge dismissed the case. The DA wasn't happy about it, and when the judge was telling us interesting facts about pot, like why they used to call an oz a"lid", the DA started to leave and the judge snapped at her that court was still in session. "Instead of grasping at straws to try to make a name for yourself," he said, "perhaps we'd all be better off if prosecutors learned something about drugs." Amen to that!
BA cross cultural/comparative social sciences; MA psychology: JD. The rest should be easy to guess: liberal Democrat, bisexual, I baptize people in hot tubs, I drive a 1985 VW Van, etc. ((And my stories are way to long, worked as a public health educator, college teacher ...
))
