Author: Joan Rivard
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Busloads of Tourists
❦❀❦❁❧❀❧❦❀❦❁❧❀❧❦❀❦❁❧❀❧❦❀❦❁❧❀❧❦❀❦❁❧❀❧❦❀❦❀❦❁❧❀❧ THE NOMADS BUSLOADS OF TOURISTS The hippies have been chased away from sitting on the front steps of the McDonald’s that’s on the corner of Haight Street and Stanyan. It’s too bad because their gathering there was a major tourist attraction, giving people a taste of what they were looking for in coming to…
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A Lifetime of Kindness
A Lifetime of Kindness He sets up a camp on the lawn with many of the comforts of home, within inches of the drum circle. Early in the day he spreads out blankets on which he arranges an array of musical instruments like shakers and drumsticks and cowbells. He brings out bags of free pastries…
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Going Home
Going Home # 6 At the end of the day a vivid procession is seen, as the homeless move across the meadow toward the woods where they make their camps at night. They have all their belongings with them, tents and bedding and clothes, arranged in strollers and carts or piled high in backpacks. They…
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A Reliable Audience
A Reliable Audience # 5 The homeless are the audience on days when there aren’t many people on Hippie Hill watching the drums. You can tell they’re homeless because they’re under blankets, trying to stay warm in their thin castoffs. The rich picnickers around them, with blankets placed only underneath them, enjoy the brisk air…
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A Reliable Audience
The homeless are the audience on days when there aren’t many people on Hippie Hill watching the drums. You can tell they’re homeless because they’re under blankets, trying to stay warm in their thin castoffs. The rich picnickers around them, with blankets placed only underneath them, enjoy the brisk air in fancy down jackets…
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Drums on Fire
The drum circle is a good place to consider the problems of the world because a lot of the same things happen there that disturb nations. Even here there appear dominant types who want to control everything, lead the drums, decide who stays or who goes. The power they’re addicted to is to control those…
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TRASHMAN’S CABIN
Now he was close enough to see the outlines of some of the cabins, and the white smoke curling out of their chimneys. He liked the way their glowing windows looked in the grove of white birch next to the pond. It looked like a Christmas card, or a dream. The ground was uneven around…
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Drummers in Pain
The drummers suffer for their political art. Their passionate activism through drumming sends them to doctors for their hands, arms, necks and backs. The taping of their hands and fingers with yards of adhesive tape is not for decoration or just to look cool. It’s not even just to protect from injury. It’s to try…
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Chalk Drawings
There are chalk drawings on the pavement where the drum circle is, big ones in rainbow-colored chalks. There is a peace sign about five feet wide, a heart, and various words written in big letters like “LOVE” and “PEACE.” As the drums play, people dance around the drawings and on top of them, as if…
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Feeding the Multitudes
Some people wear costumes to Hippy Hill, emphasizing the fact that here you can be who you are, or who you think you are. Top hats with stars on them are seen. There was a girl in an incandescent green outfit with rhinestones, that made her look like a mermaid. There was a man dressed…