Guys in Their 20S in the '60S

What I remember most about the 1960s are the friends and acquaintances and classmates and colleagues who helped fill my life with rich memories. We did our own thing apart from those given the spotlight. In the 1960s, the media had a good time covering the hippie movement, which started in Greenwich Village and spread to Haight-Ashbury. The overblown coverage, sensationalized for a mass audience, left permanent images of the period. For the media, the hippies and their lifestyle, so colorful and outrageous, were the draw. Stories about sex, drugs, and rock and roll made good copy. It was either the influence of a higher power or peer persuasion that led me to San Francisco in the late 1960s to finish college. I dont disown any portion of the eras values that influenced me. To reject the excesses of the establishmentconsumerism, racism, war, and television addiction in favor of peace, love, tolerance, and real experienceswas a no-brainer for me. However, assumptions of others about my life and activities during that time have usually been off the mark. The stories I tell in these pages are works of fiction based on those Ive gathered then remembered for over fifty years. These stories are only representationsa small samplingof how some of my friends lived, worked, and survived during the seismic 60s.