21

I put wooden sideboards on the sides of my truck bed and went into business cleaning up after construction. When they finished the foundation and plumbing I would haul off the scraps and garbage. When they finished framing I hauled off the leftover wood. After bricking and then again after trimming. When the house was complete I'd make it look nice for buyers and then cash a check.

Pretty hard work. So when Kathy M. came by asking if I'd go with her to San Frisco to Benny Jo's 21'st birthday party I agreed. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was gorgeous and I didn't have a girlfriend.

We set out with about $50.00 between us, a sleeping bag and some rolled up blankets and clothes. We had a cardboard sign that said FRISCO.

She knew some folks in Oklahoma City. She seemed to know some folks everywhere. These Oklahoma City folks that she knew had a store that was popular with the hippie culture. It was a head shop connected to a health food store. So we stayed there that afternoon and night. People were impressed that we were headed to San Frisco. We were cool. They bought us beer and gave us some pizza. We stayed somewhere, I'm not sure where. Then we left real early. Somebody took us out onto the highway and let us off and we got a ride right away. I had to ride in the back while she sat in the front of a pickup truck between the two guys who picked us up. She, like many youngsters at the time was into 'free love' and I fully expected her to repay the guys with affection for the ride but they let us off in, uh, gee. Where did they let us off? Somewhere in the desert like-land of Arizona.

I told her that it was my birthday. My 21st.
She bought me a strawberry shortcake at a diner.
We split it.

Got a ride on into Frisco soon after that. One of the best and easiest trips I'd ever done.

When we got there we went to a "hip help" place. All the major cities had them. There were many young travelers back then and they would hit town with no place to go. This caused problems for some towns so they had places where the police would tell you to go for food and shelter. Volunteers there would help you find a place to stay, feed you, help you get temporary work. Lots of good things. You would hear the warnings and recomendations of the other travelers and hitchikers who were staying there. You'd get news, get friends, get love, etc.

Kathy got invited to stay at a home with a lot of hipsters and I didn't. I stayed at the hip help place. Next morning we hooked up again and went down to Haight Ashbury looking for Benny Jo. Benny's gone now and I'll not say 'rest in peace' because that'll never happen. He was once a fantastic person who was fun to be with and who everybody loved. But Benny, like the Haight, didn't stay innocent for long. In the late sixties, about the time we were there, the happy- go- lucky world launched by the 'summer of love' was quickly decaying into the never ever happy life of heroin. Hard drugs had hit the Haight.

We had a wonderful time and had a great party. People from long distances came to be at the party. It was the last time I knew of Benny Jo being worth seeing. He died of a heart attack in prison quite a few years later. No one I knew mourned.