San Fran '60s: Stories of San Francisco and the Birth of the Hippies

San Francisco in the Sixties, the Summer of Love, the birth of the hippies, experience it for yourself in San Fran 60s, a collection of autobiographical short stories. San Francisco in the Sixties was the epicenter of the biggest cultural transformation of the second half of the Twentieth Century, and of course it has had its histories and memoirs, but this is the only time a participant has used the devices of literary fiction to put you there, living it. San Fran 60s is darker, edgier, and more intimate than anything on the subject before. In addition to sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, there is murder, madness, and God. One of the murders officially ends the Summer of Love. William Burroughs and Janis Joplin make an appearance, as does Jim Morrison in the sequel More San Fran 60s. And it all really happened. The stories are based on my journals and experiences and there is less invention than in many memoirs. I have lived in and around San Francisco since 1965 and present myself, friends, and acquaintances as prime specimens. In the Sixties and Seventies, I was a free lance journalist, among other things. Now I am a retired English teacher. LSD and free love, Haight-Ashbury and the Hell's Angels, the Hip and the Straight, it's all here. One of these stories is a present-tense, stream-of-expanded-consciousness stroll the length of Haight Street at the height of the Summer of Love. In another, three dealers driving through the night on LSD taking LSD to LA must contend with rednecks at a truck stop as well as their own demons. In another, a college love affair beset by an outraged husband and a predatory junkie culminates in a night of sex on LSD. And one story, with a legendary junkie burn artist and armed robbery between dealers, culminates in a meeting with William Burroughs. The longest story has two murders and ends in the mental hospital. All of the stories are interconnected but each is also self-contained so they can be read in any order.