Different places I have lived
I grew up in a very small and obscure town called South Pasadena. Maybe some of you have heard of it? Most people confuse it with it's big sister, Pasadena. It was an idyllic time and place. So safe and secure. I had no idea how special it was until I moved away. I hope it is as specials today as it was then!
I moved to Newport Beach within one year of graduating. I "rented" my parents home on Newport Island and lived for a while with Rich Elliott before he joined the military and went to Vietnam. We are still best friends today. I also lived for a while with Gordy Ryder who is also still an excellent friend!
Later I moved to Santa Barbara area and rented a small cottage in beautiful Montecito. I lived there with Gordy, Rich, Jess Kinser and Bob Whitney. We paid $155 per month in total rent! There was a Catholic nunnery up the street and we would go out at night and steal bags of Avocados, Oranges, Lemons and Limes off the trees. The place was semi-abandoned and nobody seemed to care. It was exciting and lots of fun. Rich was going to Santa Barbara City College in the diving program and would get us abalone. Wow, we ate like kings! I remember that I lived on $1700 for the entire year. It was great.
Later on we all decided to drive up to Northern California and look for land to buy. We were idealists and felt it was really time to drop out and get off the grid. Whole Earth Catalogues and back to the land stuff were like a magnet for us wanna be Hippies. Life seemed to easy and too bourgeious for us. So we drove up to Humboldt County and bought the second piece of property we saw. Eighty acres of pristine paradise? So six of us each coughed up $280 cash each and were terrified of the prospect of having to pay $50 each for 10 years. I remember we had a long a tortuous debate about whether we should or could do it! It was anguish! We were all terrified of the commitment! We did it after all and finally made our attempt at merging with mother nature.
