[claudiustg]

At the end of the summer of ‘67 the word went out that the city was no longer cool and that everyone should head to the hills — and many did. A lot of old hippies are still in the Ben Lomond — Santa Cruz area (at least the non-politicals). Committed politicals got drawn off to Berkeley.

Remember the Berkeley Barb and the Oracle?

[LeoWindhorse]

“Remember the Berkeley Barb”

I used to sell it to earn my daily bread....

[dougd]

and I sold the oracle - on the tour buses that drove through. Picked up a supply at one end of Asbury, got on the bus, sold them for a small profit, got off the bus a t the other end, walked back, repeat until enough funds for ... well actually, most hallucinogens were prettty much free, so it probably went for food.

I still wonder if any of those home movies the tourists took of me exist any more somewhere in someone's attic.

One of my buddies convinced me one day to do fruit picking. Had to be at Farmer's market by 4 am - long awful trip in back of truck to the fields - GAWD that was nasty work. I think I made 75 cents and had enough. I don't begrudge LEGAL migrant workers whatever they make at those jobs. Hats off to them. I dug ditches at age 13 and would rather do that than fruit picking.

As for panhandling - lots of competition - had to have some sort of schtick. I made up poems on the spot on my potential benefactors subject of choice. Did pretty well at that. Always nice in life to be able to say "well, I can always go back to panhandling" ;->