46 Comments

Yeah well, you know what they sat: if you remember the 60s then you weren't there. Chortle. I remember it well, though I never was in san Francisco or saw the cream. Great times, Sharron, thank you for the memory

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I believe you have a photo to put in the album right along with mine. I am older, but we could have been twins if you ask me. What happened to us...?

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Nothing. We're still children of the 60s, but the world around us has changed, and not completely for the better

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hey ! Bonus ! Your Photo from long ago ! And that Band ‘slayed ! & Love the ‘Detail re Guitars ! !

Recently posted to Notes - re Gord Lightfoot’s Guitars & Amps ‘going Under the Hammer - upcoming Auction Nov 8 in Texas.. Now with a big sense o humour - believe 2 persons noticed or ‘liked’ ..

Havin approx Zero Visibility here.. no surprise - but Anne & I laughed thinking about the difference in the sort of ‘Bidders or Buyers’ who

A - have the $$ & B - have the Specific Interest - In a Clapton or Lightfoot Guitar ! ! !

You’d burst out laughing re my ‘imagined bidding scenario .. as it comes down to An Arabian Sheik ‘Footie’ versus a secretive Japanese Band of Financial Arbitrage ‘Footies .. or Elon Musk dreaming of sending a Clapton / Cream Amp to Mars - ‘because he can ..

PS - you spot my ReStack yesterday re ‘The Rockstar Must Die ? 🦎🏴‍☠️🧨

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What an imagination. Write it up for Substack. I did not see your re-stack. I will look for it. Thanks

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Great pics, esp. of you - what fun!

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Ha ha ha! Yes. I had to dig around a bit to unearth that one. You'd not recognize me now, that's for sure.

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Sharron, did you really see Cream live!? That is amazing beyond belief!

When I lived in SF, way back in the 90s I could walk to the Fillmore, and did a few times.

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I did. So memorable! And Jimi Hendriz, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Grateful Dead, Moby Grape. I was a bit of a rocker. You wouldn't know it now by the looks of me.

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It’s like you saw everybody that was at Woodstock!

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Hair let down, Doors open, Janis wails, Disraeli Gears grind surrealistic pillows followed by Stones “cCan’t get no satisfaction” let the Peace rain down Woodstock found a buzz just waiting to be free. All now foggy memories.

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Memories, that's for sure. Some foggier than others. Thanks, Richard

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I arrived in S.F. first day of spring '68 - best I can remember. In the Golden Gate Park Panhandle were the very hair styles you describe , high and dancing to bands at the live concert. Wish I'd seen Cream. Ginger Baker was my favorite drummer. Very cool photo, Sharron!

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Ginger Baker was a MADMAN on those DWs. He looked like a fierce, drug-crazed LION with his frizzy, flaming red hair around his shoulders. He was the first drummer of the era to use double bass drums. His solos slayed.

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Loved the poetic lilt of your description of hair…..

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Thanks - I adapted a few words from the musical "Hair" and tried to make them rhyme. Right on the edge of plagiaristic ... but we don't mind, do we? Thanks for reading, Wade. I wonder if the 1968 - 1974 music scene is anything you could identify with? I think you were not in California?

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GREAT music, and a wonderful account of the age of the "Flower Children." At 16, and on the brink of of full-on freak-out mode with my father's stereo (which we were not allowed to touch, but which we did when he was not home), blasting Cream, Hendrix, Doors and Jefferson Airplane, I sadly was not allowed to go to the City for concerts, but my brother filled me in on the happenings there, and living in Santa Cruz, I was close enough to the pulse of the music scene to see a lot of great local bands. I so enjoyed your story and music, Sharron!! Thanks for the great memories!! And an adorable photo of a "little hippie" you!!

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Thanks for these remembrances, Sharon. Yes, I really had to search to find that one!

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You were a PRetty flower child ))). I missed that whole thing. I was aware of it, but there was no impact. I was already living in silence with husband and 2yr old daughter. No room for music or sound added. 60 yrs since then. Thread took over before that. Thread is silent and beautiful. Bartle understood silence. That makes us friends. )))

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Someday, you will have to write me an email telling me what "living in silence" with husband and baby means. And why no music? I am curious.

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"Of course, my reality may have been slightly altered at that time." LOL!!!

Fantastic words, fantastic picture! Beautiful, both. ❤️

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I rarely write my memories as autobiography. I DO write a lot of memories, it is almost always in the third person, as if writing about someone else. For some reason I am shy about using I, me, my and mine. And yet, when I read Dear Reader I Am Lost, I delight in hearing your first person accounts and always feel we have had a visit.

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Oh gosh, that’s so interesting! You’ve really made me think! Although this isn’t something that ever even occurs to me when I’m reading third-person accounts, I guess it feels unnatural to me to represent myself in those terms. And actually you’ve just given me an idea: any attempts that I’ve ever made to write fiction have ALWAYS been in the third person, so perhaps I’ll try writing as me/I instead! X

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Good plan! And conversely, you could try writing a personal story using “she” or a woman’s name, and embellish it to make it fiction! I didn’t mean to say I don’t like READING blogs or other writings of personal experience or opinion ( such as yours and Terry’s and Chloe Hope’s) . I meant only that I, in particular, don’t care to WRITE it. If that makes sense.

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Makes perfect sense, Sharron - I didn’t think you meant you didn’t like reading first-person writing! Ooooh, I might try what you’ve suggested about writing one of ‘my’ stories from ‘her’ point of view! Thank you so much! x

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Memories become the new spark for us don't hey?

My Hair certainly was long back then and my ability to toke was something else!

Times, as Bob Dylan knew, 'they are a changin'

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They were definitely a-changing in 1968. I , myself, was out in the streets protesting - peacefully, but adamantly. I would like to see 2024 begin a new wave of change. Where are our young demonstrators today. We are facing real disaster, and we need those who will show up and speak out. We will wait and see if history can repeat itself.

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Sooo glad to hear what you were doing--me too!! I'll vote for democracy versus tyranny ANYTIME!!

I hope this is a wake-up call for the next generation

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1968. A year that was so pivotal, Time dedicated a whole magazine to it and I got a copy. It was the year I graduated from high school. MLK was murdered that spring and Bobby Kennedy followed close behind him. I remember walking back home from the school and feeling like the world was falling out from under us.

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As did I. Thanks, Sue

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Big Cream/Clapton fan. I still play the Grateful Dead too often for my wife's taste. You were lucky to experience the Fillmore in it's heyday. Loved your ode to hair.

Young Sharron looks almost as lovely as....mature Sharron. Rock on!

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"Mature." How kind you are. You could have said elderly, but then I would've had to go to Florida seeking revenge.

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Oh wow. I was only 10 in '68, but I remember a lot of the music, as well as so much other stuff. I was the youngest of six, and there was a lot of music in the house. So great to see the video to this piece, though, and so great to see the younger you. Somehow, I don't think you were like my (now) "born again" brother, who was an advocate of Leary back then (and now tries to deny his past.)

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Tune in. Turn on. Drop Out. And keep the faith. Thank you, Ben.

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Of course I remember the 60s. Not in the States but in London, England. It was very special too. Carnaby Street, SOHO, etc. It was a good time to be young and alive then!

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Oh, yes it was!

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Love the photo of you!

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Thank you Amie. Had to scrabble around to find it. I get a glimpse of myself in a mirror once in a while and ask, "Who the hell is that?"

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Same…

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