<laughing>
Indeed, the Beats were the vanguard of the 1960s. They were taking drugs, studying Eeastern mysticism, and transgressing sexual norms 10 years before the rest of us.
By the way, the Beatles chose their name in honor of the Beats. I remember seeing part of the Beatles Anthology special that ran on ABC some years ago. George Harrison was recounting how the Beatles were in some odd lab somewhere, and they looked at crystals of LSD through a microscope. He described the regret he felt at that moment that the Beatles had played such a big role in popularizing that drug, which turned out to be such a huge disaster for so many people.
Well, I enjoyed visiting SF when I was at Stanford in the 60's. At that time is was a very conservative financial center with a night life. Haight Ashbury was an attraction among many others. It is hard to fathom the stories we hear today, expecially if one follows the real estate prices. Though, after a history conference one collegue quipped that their were too many fruits and nuts for him.