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If this were/is a true story it might start like this!
It was somewhere between September of 1973 to the spring of 1974 that everything seemed to start. I was in San Diego's Balboa Park with my guitar as I had recently become used to going to on a regular basis. This particular day, the date of which is totally fuzzy 26 years later, was when I first met BoB and Don. I believe they had just met that day as well. Further, there was another person there, who I believed was the character who called himself Charlie Brown.
Anyway, we talked a bit and Don invited us to sit and smoke some pot, (inhaling not required). As we sat near the Botanical Gardens on the grass smoking same we were suddenly joined by Betty. She came suddenly and gave to Bob a handmade macrame' necklace with a white bear on it. She spoke briefly, and then left. We did not have any idea at that time what was about to start.
As the next couple of weeks/months passed, we saw each other more often, and eventually it was almost everyday. But life and fun was not limited to us alone. As we sat, sometimes partying, sometimes philosophizing, sometimes entertaining, we slowly began to grow as a group.
People walking by hearing the music would sit on the lawn and enjoy the sunshine with the rest of us. Many, many names moved in, out, and past the group. I could not even begin to record the order at which who came in where and when. There was Steve, Patrick, Jessie, Mark, Sue, Ann, Phyllis, Chris, Lil' Chris, Margaret, Gwendelyn, Fred, Dee Dee, Mason, Kara, Debbie, and lots of other names who I mean no disrespect by not including them in this initial list. I'll depend on others to let me know some of the names they remember.
We were a close group. The closer we became, the less we had to talk. We were getting expert in transmitting paragraphs of info with only a few words. So close and intense we wander unknowingly towards a kind of psychic connection. A single glance was enough to relate imporatant information quickly.
We were always experimenting in the arts, changing venue from day to day. We grew so fast, that at one point, Betty was hosting a birthday party for her daughter Robin. 125 parkratz showed up that day. Everyone talking and smiling and obviously quite knowledgable of each other. The park officials could not understand who all these people were and they became panic stricken and so ordered the police photographers to take there bounty from the bushes just beyond our perspective viewpoints.
All this of course was totally unnecessary as we were a peaceful bunch. We weren't out selling drugs to kids nor were we being a nuisance of any kind. We were just being ourselves and being happy with each others company.
You see, although we were from dramatically different backgrounds, each of us needed each other. We were more than friends, we were the family that we hadn't experienced from our own families. We were the lost and the lonely. Sometimes the outcasts of society, sometimes the busom of the family unit, sometime not either one. But we knew and trusted those who came to be loving called amongst ourselves.... PARKRATZ!!!
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