Every once in awhile the police would do something called a "sweep" of the street. They were looking for run-aways and minors who could have been run-aways. When they got there, the news of their presence spread like wild fire and lots of the kids would scatter and hide in designated areas. I remember one girl that I got to know who was about 15 and was working in a little shop on the corner of Cole St. and HAIGHT. She was a run-away and had to hide during the sweeps. Even though my folks knew where I was, I stayed pretty much out of sight when the cops swooped down. They rarely searched inside the shops which was a good thing. Many people could have been arrested for smoking pot out in the open. It was in the late 60's and pot was a major crime at this time. It seemed that the police were more worried about the run-aways than the pot. At least that is what I would like to believe. I had a hard time understanding why kids ran away from home. I had never even considered it since my home life was pretty good.

One of the first times a friend and I took a bus to San Francisco, the driver was jacking us up, asking if we had run away from home. He was very nice and we assured him we hadn't. He told us to watch out for weirdoes and to go home if we had run away. We laughed about that for years, but I now know he was really just thinking about our safety. We had no fear~literally!

I have fond memories of the older man who had the Fish 'n' Chips place on HAIGHT St. He was always so nice and for 50 cents he filled up a newspaper cone with tons of fries and great fish! He was British and had an accent, which made him even more interesting. He turned me on to putting malt vinegar on the fish 'n' chips and it was so good I continued using it even to this day, though I haven't had any fish as good as his was. He never put anyone down and all of the folks respected him and didn't give him any trouble. He was generous and kind. That man fed a lot of hippie's!!

One thing that really sticks out in my mind is when I went to the infamous Altamont concert on December 6, 1969 in Livermore, California. The energy was high the days preceding the Altamont concert. People were getting together to get rides and drugs. I was walking down HAIGHT Street and this tall dude with long, strawberry blonde hair asked me if I wanted to go to Altamont with him. He handed me a bottle of Red Mountain wine to take a swig from and I immediately said yes. I didn't even know him! But that is the way is was......... I think his name was Kim and he was a Capricorn. (I am a Capricorn, too.) We left San Francisco the night before the concert. The traffic was crazy~people coming from all over the U.S. to attend what was hopefully to be like Woodstock, which had taken place about 4 months earlier in New York.

We went alone in his car and it took forever to get to Livermore. Once we got there, we had to park and walk over the hilly land for several hours. We arrived at the gates at sunrise on December 6, 1969. Thank God I was so young! The walk was something else!

When we finally found a spot, we were a million miles from the portable bathrooms. I didn't eat or drink anything for 3 days because I was afraid I would get lost if I went pee. The lines in front of the portables were extremely long as well. Here I was, with this strange Capricorn, in the middle of 300,00 people. I did see some of my friends from Castro Valley there, my older brother was there too, but I didn't see him.

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