From Stage 4. Late Adolescence – The Wanderer in the Cocoon, 

Grateful Dead party at Rancho Olompali,  and Bands

The transition out of Stanford had been in the works for some time, but it started “officially” when I took my Leave in Winter Quarter 1965-6 (January – March 1966). Since Mount  Rushmore started in early 1967, I always thought of 1966 as The Lost Year. I was 22 years old.

For me the Lost Year really started on December 10, 1965, when my drums were stolen after the Mime Troop benefit at the Fillmore Auditorium. I was living at 1341 Laurel Avenue. The next weekend I went to my first Acid Test, which was a fitting start for a lost year. I’m guessing that I had my exit interview from Stanford just before or after those two events.

As Winter Quarter ended I worked for a month at the Shell Oil Refinery in Martinez. After that I was out of school, no job, drifting, without drums, not in a band, taking LSD with no supervision (Trips 5-14). My primary navigation guideline during this time was a mantra of things to avoid: “Army, hospital, jail, job, school”, which I would subvocalize whenever I needed a reminder of how to stay free.

I did a lot of wandering in the forested Santa Cruz Mountains adjacent to Stanford, ending up at a little commune called Medway Forest. It was while I was there that Warren found me and invited me to San Francisco to join his new band.

Putting this web site together has allowed me to fill in a lot of what happened during The Lost Year.

12/10/1965 Vipers payed at Fillmore, drums stolen after gig

12/12/65 Dylan and the Band at San Jose Civic with Warren and group

12/18/65 Big Beat Acid Test – Trip 5

1/8/66 Fillmore Acid Test – Trip 6

1/22/66 Trips Festival – Trip 7

1/23/66 John Coltrane at Stanford 

March 1966 Working at Shell Oil Refinery with John Zerzan

Weekend forays from Martinez to Haight-Ashbury 

Audition with the Final Solution in San Francisco 

4/15/66 Berkeley Blues Festival – Trip 14

June 1966 Grateful Dead party at Olompali 

Hitchhiking to visit Anonymous Artists – Trip 9

Hitchhiking to visit Manbeavil Band – Trip 13

12/23/66 Saw Steve Miller at Avalon with Manbeavil

1/14/67 Human Be-In

LSD at Medway Forest commune – Trips 10-12

January 1967 Warren somehow finds me at Medway and invites me to come to San Francisco to join his new band

 

Winter Quarter 1966

Shell Refinery – Martinez

Grateful Dead party at Rancho Olompali June 1966

Medway Forest