Time Frame I.V.

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Thanks, Bekah and bandwraith, for stories that the rest of us can merely envy.

Laura

>-----Original Message-----
>>From: bandwraith at aol.com
>>Sent: Dec 7, 2008 12:46 PM
>>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: Re: Time Frame I.V.
>>
>>
>>
>>Thanks for this. If there are any grandchildren involved they
>>have a wonderful source of family lore- What it's all about, no?
>>Can't help but relate to much of what you describe. Could have
>>easily crossed paths hitching up the California coast after dropping
>>out of my first college attempt- fairly high lottery number- no
>>desire to continue pretending I had any sense of why I was in
>>school, at the time- so I hit the road, and it was packed with
>>an army of hippies- At all the freeway entrances, blue jeans being
>>the most common uniform, both (all?) sexes, hitching across America.
>>
>>By mid-September, '71, my buddy Wayne and I found ourselves
>>stranded in Barstow, Ca.,  at about midnight. Traffic was light and
>>indifferent to our pleas. LA seemed along ways away. We decided
>>to hop a freight, told by a real hobo in the yard which tracks led to
>>San Bernadino. We chose an open flatbed with new car carriers
>>chained on top. About dawn, it started to move. By midday we
>>were in the middle of the Mojave, and it was hot. Little flecks of
>>metallic dustrose in a haze from the flatbed floor. The air burned
>>our noses and throats. At one point, with the train stopped at a
>>cross roads, Wayne jumped off to seek water. He made it back
>>just as we were pulling away, with a canteen of brackish agua from
>>the sink of the gas station rest room. It probably kept us alive.
>>
>>Soon we were in the mountains- slitely cooler, but still real dry=0
>>D
>>country, and then, finally, we made San Bernadino. We were fried.
>>Staggering down the boulevard, I noticed headlines at the news
>>stand- "Hottest Day of.." at least that year, about 117 degrees.
>>There was part of a headline about ATTICA, the New York State
>>prison which had been taken over by inmates to demand an
>>end to truly deplorable conditions.
>>
>>We found a YMCA and bought a shower. In the locker room,
>>putting his neatly pressed uniform back on, was a mailman. He was
>>a big crewcut type, and as he spoke with an aquiaintance, he was
>>looking at Wayne and me- bedraggled, hair at least to our shoulders,
>>the usual hippy regalia. He clarified the Attica headline. The troops
>>had finally moved in- "they should have killed them all," and then
>>a rant about Angela Davis and how "we'll deal with her next."
>>
>>Discretion seemed appropriate on this turf, and winning a shower
>>was enough, so we kept quiet. After some food, we found the
>>freeway entrance and hitched to LA. Somebody with a coverted
>>pick-up, and a real big doberman in the back, picked us up and
>>finally dropped us off on the strip. It was dusk. There was a big
>>billboard advertizing "The Doors" at a local venue. Dylan's "Don't
>>Look Back" was being reprised at the cinema across the street.
>>The signs seemed right, but something had definitely begun to
>>change. The sixties were fading.
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>To: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>Cc:20David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>; Robin Landseadel 
>><robinlandseadel at comcast.net>; pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Sent: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 10:54 pm
>>Subject: Re: Time Frame I.V.
>>
>>
>>Okay, I watched some of those clips - my own kids (now ages 40 and 38) 
>>have told me they mostly had a good time in their childhoods. I really 
>>didn't allow the drugs around them (although I was certainly stoned in 
>>front of them). When we did acid we left the kids for the day or so 
>>with neighbors or family. One time my daughter (about age 8) came into 
>>the house and saw her dad dumping a large and wonderful, precious 
>>plant. (He was readying it for a move.) She gasped, horrified, - "What 
>>are you doing?" He looked at her straight in the eye and had no 
>>recourse but the truth - "It's marijuana," he said. "Oh," she replied 
>>and left the house again. We traveled a lot. We talked some politics 
>>but we had family around so they babysat for the protests and so on.....
>> 
>>