John's Jamaican trip was even shorter than mine and Bob's. His treatment by the Rastas suggested that their opinion of us (Gates of Eden) had undergone some changes; they pretty much ignored him for all of his three-day visit and, at one point, a dispute developed between him and one of the disciples that led to a near altercation. Though he had been picked up on arriving at Kingston's airport, he wound up having to take the bus, from the station that was a 2 mile walk from the compound, to the airport on his return. He had failed to insist on being left to sleep at night (as I had advised him to do) so he had no sleep except on the planes home. Once he was home, he slept forty hours straight, interrupted only by a few trips to the head.
I was surprised. I really expected the Rastas to take to John. Brutally honest, lacking guile and artifice, completely. No sales pitch, no attempts to seem aligned with another's point of view, no show of prosperity, in grooming or dress; I wouldn't say he was Christ-like, but I expected the Rastas to see in him, a person somewhat like the one I knew. Admittedly, I had more time to get used to him, and he was extreme in, perhaps all his facets. But he was a pacifist (with the possible exception of actions I saw him take in response to a hornet which had somehow found itself trapped indoors) as well as a wild-man. When I think about what might have had "the current manifestation of Christ" (as some of Brother Ivy's supporters had referred to him) allowing John to be treated the way he was, while a guest of the Rastas . So much of what Jesus is said to have said, about how we must treat others, does not fit any of what John told me about his visit there.
By the time John was up and functioning, there had been a number of changes to GofE. One group, of about nine or ten, had left the place, headed for a "gathering " somewhere in Colorado or Wyoming. I had talked to a few of them, just prior to their departure: they were looking forward to the event in their future but had no idea where they might wind up going after that. A somewhat smaller group would form a co-operative in a nice big Victorian that they had found on Waller St. Will and Edna, like me, among the last to leave were, in fact the last to leave flat#2 and served macrobiotic meals to the stragglers until our last day there. Roena packed up herself and Ruby, Sharon and Twila and moved to a nice country house in Big Sur. It had been arranged for them by our good friend Laurie May,also a good friend and fellow tri-Delt of the lady who owned the house, was often traveling and not often at the house. She and the kids left within a day-or-two after the bus to the Rockies went it's way.
Just a few days after Bob, Carmen and their van were last seen, we had a remarkable stroke of good luck in the transportation department. About a month or two before Bob's and my trip to Jamaica, John met a group of young musicians, playing fill-in at the night spot, just at the corner of Divisadero and California.The close proximity of their work to our place, and perhaps having somewhat like minds in common, led us to pretty good relationships with them. We were in touch with each-others situations and had become somewhat in-volved with each other. We knew that they were four high-school buddies from New Jersey (Berkely Heights, a little town about thirty miles west of New York City. After graduation, (class of '68) they had begun a business (direct sales of high-end, mostly chocolate confections.) After less than a year they had reached their goal: enough money, and credit to get all the band equipment on their list, cash for daily expenses and the lease of a van big enough to carry them, and some of their instruments, inside and the remainder of their equipment bound to the top. Leaving New Jersey in mid 1969, they crossed the country, playing gig's along the way and making a good living. In San Francisco, their first gig was on Haight St. for a few weeks. About two gigs later, they were in our neighborhood. When I first talked to them they were planning to continue their journey after San Francisco. As weather and finances would allow they wished to take a six month trip up the Al-Can and back, before they went on to Monterey Bay, L.A. and San Diego, perhaps to Mexico. We were about three and a half weeks away from the date by which we had to leave two seven-room flats, and twenty-five hundred sq. feet of street-level shop space, empty of all our stuff, having somehow carted it all away to some nice high, dry and warm space, when John informed me that "Ma 'n' Pa Taylor's boys" had decided not to do Alaska right away. Instead, they would fly to China to some Buddhist temple and spend some months studying the sect and their music. Their problem is the van and all the instruments and equipment in it and on it. So, we both needed storage space, they until they returned from China, we until the materials and equipment we would remove from GofE had been sold or given away. But we also needed a vehicle. A big van like the one they had would be great to haul our stuff, not just away from Divisadero St.but would be very helpful when we put another place together. Could we arrange with the Taylors to store their stuff with ours and have the use of the van until they return from China? John and I talked at some length on this subject and when we felt that it should be good for all concerned, we presented it to them. Two weeks later, having already found space to store what was on or in the van, John and I and some of the very last to leave GofE gave the Taylors a ride to SFO in their own van, at that point on loan to us. That van was the key to the solution of our problem. When everything was sold and delivered or had been put into tight storage, we had beat the deadline by four days and used them to chase around the north bay in search of the next place.
I never again crossed trails with any members of the Divisadero St. Gates of Eden except Will and Edna, whom we saw a few years later while traveling in the mid-west. Never heard from, or saw again, Laurie May, Sally or Sharee. Kinda makes one think that all three of them might have been upset with me.
John and I did go on to set up another residence with nearby workshop, but in an area too rural for something like GofE. Even if we had stayed in the city, I think there was no way we could have duplicated the place. It was like no other place I've ever seen and was very close to my heart and still much in my head. I still miss it.
This entry will be my last for some time. Events of the present have become so interesting (even exciting) that I feel way out of step, writing about stuff that took place forty or fifty years ago. I don't feel qualified to write about current events so until I stumble on a place that I might fit, I'm going to give it a break. I wish for you, my reader, much more interesting reading than I've been able to provide.
Thank You, rg
