HAIGHT-ASHBURY |
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I started going to Steven Gaskin's 'Monday Night Class' when I was about 17. It was so exciting being among all the folks...hangin' out at The Family Dog right on the beach. (Also, there was a guy I thought I was madly in love with that went, who I later married and less than 3 years later divorced.) Steven had a lot of influence on the people who attended and I often grew tired of hearing, "Steven says.........." Sometimes I would retort with, "Well, what do YOU say?" *Gasp* That was almost an unholy thing to say to his many devout followers. But after awhile, I settled in and began to understand what he was teaching us and how to apply it to my own life. In the beginning, there were barely 100 people at the meetings, but within a year or so, the group grew to a good 2 thousand. Folks came from everywhere to see Stephen Gaskin speak and I am glad I was there to witness it. But, of course, at the time it didn't seem like anything more than a good time with a large group of 'heads.' I guess the thing that struck me the first time I went, was all the colors in the room. The folks were happy and the feel of the place was good. I loved watching the beautiful Tai Chi routines performed by as many as 25 people~all in unison. I had never seen so many hippie's in one room at the same time! There were no chairs and the people all sat cross-legged, or in some yoga position, on the floor. Sometimes it got really uncomfortable and I could barely wait for the 30 minute intermission or the end of the class to stretch my legs. Actually, there were two chairs in the room which were occupied by an elderly married couple~a white man and a black woman. It used to blow my mind to see them passing a pipe load of marijuana between them~totally enjoying the smoke. It seemed so strange to see them getting high and being so old. Thinking back, they had to have been in their 60's, which is not old at all. But there they were, kickin' back and smoking pot. Steven sat in the middle and toward the back of the room on a raised platform with his "family" which at that time consisted of his wife, Ina May,....................and his other wife and the other husband. I can't remember the other wives name, but her husbands name was Michael. They all lived together as one in a group marriage. I don't know why it seemed odd to me, because there was so much going on in the way of sexual freedom as well as lifestyles. But I had a hard time understanding the whole thing and used to watch them in hopes that I could get some kind of clue about it. One night, during the break, I met this good looking hippie dude that I thought was way too cool. We snuck out of the Family Dog and ran down to the beach, laughing and playing. We ended up in one of the huge busses parked outside among at least 100 others, that had been converted into homes on wheels. I don't remember anything about him except that we had a lot of fun and lovin' during the next 2 hours. We managed to blend in with the crowd when the meeting was over but I felt kind of guilty about it. I didn't feel guilty about what we did, rather that we had split from the meeting and hoped we hadn't been missed. I never told anyone about it until now. I must have been out of my mind! |
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