My day to day life was mostly pretty easy. The handsome worker at the Zoup Kitchen and i became pretty friendly. His name was Scott Squat...named for his dedication to living in empty buildings and finding squats for others as well. he and i even pent a few night together on the les than clean floor of a practice pace we had for a while at the notorious Turk St. Studio we shared for a hort while with the band Tragic Mulatto. i had also met a wonderful woman named Hilary. what a wild, go getter she was. very much a part of the anarchist collective that ran the Bound Together Bookstore on Haight. Skinny, like a model big eye and really mart as attatude. she and a few friend had started a big squat in town. they kept out the drug dealers and fixed the place up really nice. they even had movie night and big dinners for the community. at a show one night in the Russian center off Diviadero st. I ran into her. we talked all night and realized how well we got along. she was a big flirt sexy person...with boys and girls...and i was a bit of a flirt myself....although queer only, i had had oral sexx once at a party in austin with a south American beauty, a rich girl visiting and somehow ended up at Little Mexico on a prty night. I don't know how but public sex came up, and she asked me if i had ever had sex in a bathroom i said yes, of course but only with guys. she asked if i would have sex with her in the bathroom...beitng drunk i said yes! we went into the bathroom and she sat on the side of the tub and i used the. knowledge i had picked up from porn movies and buried my face in her crotch and ran my tongue un and down her pussy. She loved it and i sort of liked it too. -- however, lots of people had figured out what was going on and everyone started beating on the door.
So, i wasn't completely n the dark about what might be about to happen with Hilary. She asked if she could come over to my house and spend the night sometime. I said sure he could. Sure enough the very next night a knock came to my bed room door and it was her. I was very sober and very shocked. she did spend the night and she crawled into bed naked. I was born gay. End of discussion. but i was also flattered that Hilery was so into me and so up front about it. I kept thinking, "on my god, Phillip is just int he other room and i am in the bed with a naked girl! hat will he think?" we slept that way that night. me fully dressed and her completely nude. The next night a repeat happened, except i sort of flowed with it and let her take charge of it. we ended up hving sex! like everything! i knew how those straight guys felt that keep saying, "but i'm not gay" while getting you give them a blow job. Hilary started hanging out a lot. and she and i became really good friend. one night in a pizza place we both thought a guy in the cafe was really hot. Sex was the common topic of out conversation and a three way was something both of us wanted.
he noticed us looking at him and we were makiing it no secret that we were looking for trouble. a he was leaving he looked back and Hilary asked me ,"do you want me to ask him?" Hell Yeah!" i told her. she ran out of the restaurant and i watched them talk. i saw her write down what turned out to be his number. she came back and we laughed at our brazen act. he was into it, she said, but could not do anything that night. call him tomorrow and make a plan. well, we were both waiting all day to call and see when we could met up. when she did call another guy answered the phone. when 'out guy' got on the line he was acting all butch and both Hil and I were sharing the phone trying to listen. he said. some crap about he couldn't do it that day because his room mate was around. we both heard a loud "Room mate?" iin the background....then our guy sheepishly, "I mean my lover.." Great, he was a queen. cute but i wasn't looking for a three way with another gay guy. my stupid fantasy-- was some big strapping straight guy was going to be in the bed with us...not going to happen. we told the guy we might call him back. we were both disapointed, but not that surprised. Debbie got a little jealous of Hilary and i hanging out all the time and when i told her we having sex, she was pissed. Not that she wanted to do anything like that with me....she just looked at me as her best friend and me having a 'girlfriend' seemed to threaten that. My other girlfriends didn't like it either. The Torn Panties all later told me the idea of me having sex with a girl made them feel a little mad at me. i laughed one day when talking to Hil and said, "funny, after all these years finding out i am bisexual".. she quickly put me in my place and said, "you mioght be having sex with a woman, but you ann't bisexual--honey you're a queer!" i was de-butched pretty fast. soon Hilary found a girl friend and she and i went back to jut being dear friends. besides an occasional drunken eating a snatch or two in the bar or party bathroom i stayed on the queer road and have been better for it. Even Scot Squat turned out to be Straight but just sweetly into hugging and an noce nasty kiss now and then. Most of my sexual outlets were in adult video booths. "I'm in love with a glory hole" was more than just a song line i came up with. Aids was now tarting to be a real plague and public sexual outlets were drying up , so to speak. Aids was starting to be an real issue. One ignored by government funding, but very much not ignored by the right wing religious, anti gay fundamentalist. 'God's punishment' was a creepy catch phrase used by the good folks who hated the homosexuals anyway and were happy to now have a real reason to want to round us up and kill us. i feel lucky to have remained Negative during the years. the atmosphere was charged though with solidarity of anti ragan and and ant-war, Gays were dying but at the same time starting to recognize their government did not give a shit about them.
i remember getting on stqge at the huge anti government demonstration at the Moscone Center Parking lot during the 1984 Democratic Convention. 1000's of people were there on the sunny, beautiful day. I even saw Peter Jennings walking in the crowd. I thought of the wars the uS had been in and how Viet Nam had changed so many people's lives. Mine included. the Injustice of money over rights when it came to the lives of the poor and now the homosexuals dying in the misery of a disease that no one understood. The last song we sang during out 30 min. set was No Fucking War. i think i never sang it with more feeling and 1000's of people singing along, fist in the air and pissed. these are the times being in bands that say something has given my life meaning.
there is a picture of Dave Dictor and I hugging each other on stage that day. we both felt lucky to be able to express out feelings with so many who felt like we did. later that day a riot went down in downtown SF. horses running over people and cops beating up everybody. I had ducked into a bar to have a few drinks and missed getting the shot beat out of me. who says drinking can't be good for you?

The 'new' Dicks were completely different people than my Texas band mates. Lynn and I were close from the very start. Her energy brought a whole different side of me out. I felt a total dedication to the band and was able to define it by actually saying those words with no shame. she had been drumming since her days with the Wrecks in Reno. All young girls playing the pure punk rock sound with out the need to dress up an look punk Joan Stebbins later played with Imperial Teen. She also became one of my really good friends. Bessie on guitar. i never got to know her very well, but seemed sweet. Singer Helen Pardy was the crazy one of the band. and in day to day life too. great singer and a blast to hang around. she and Lynn were best of friends and Helen was always a part of he picture. Phillip, Lynn, Helen, and i would spend lots of Sunday after noons drinking boxes of cheap wine. playing AC/DC at top volume they lived tight on Haight St near Clayton so parting was on the menu all the time.....Sebastian was a very pseudo-macho, German in every way. A little defensive and ready to get pissed at the drop of a hat. He was really a handsome guy and had tons of girl friends. Usually beautiful girls willing to take care of him. . He respected me a lot, though. And he played good. He was really into being a punk rocker. Sweet, but it was hard to bring that out sometimes. He never thought Tim was punk enough to be in the Dicks. This, of course, caused problems right from the start. I was compleatly infatuated with Tim. He and I spent tons of time together. He was a very creative guitarist and loved playing music.. i had this big crush on him and gave him total freedom to sort of lead the direction the music was going in. This started a little bit of trouble with the other members. Debbie hated it when he and I would leave her notes offering ideas how to do business better. I mean she hated it. Although we were practicing almost everyday at the Vats and writing lots of songs no body was having too much fun.
The Vats were starting to get a bit scary with a new crew of crazy people hanging out. Meeting up with nuttie people in the hall ways became common. A busy dominatrix lived on the top floor...like 7 flights up. her whole trip was humiliating straight married men. 10 or so of us would be drinking beer on the stairways outside the building. a cab would pull up and out would come some guy dressed in a skirt and blouse, tacky hand bag, and lipstick. we knew the dominaatrix had ordered the guy to dress in simi drag and climb the stairs to her beautiful abode and get his ass beaten for an hour or so. Dave Dictor made friends with her and used to watch from a closet or something...in her room while she "worked". i wanted to watch too, but men in hose never turned me on. when they walked by us we always yelled at them and laughed and asked real loud..."gee, i wonder where the pretty lady might be going tonight?". soon, though, it was starting to get a bit crazy so we began looking for another place to practice. we knew of a cool woman, Carrol Lennon, who had a practice studio on Capp St...the street of the poorest prostitutes in SF. Capp, between 16th and 17th. Rough. However, we went to look at the place and it as very cool. plus Carol was so kind and so cool. an English women with two young teen boys. we decided to move into Capp and start practicing there. we practiced three days a week, and some weeks more. although we didn't get along to well as friends we were all very into the music. we wrote the songs that ended up on the album THESE PEOPLE. we were playing lots of shows around SF. Black Flag and Fear and MDC and DRI all still were bands we played with a lot. a new place in SF became a venue for live music. The Farm. a cultural center, really much like the places i would see later on in Europe. People lived there and used the space of everything from day care to after school places for kids. all kinds of music as going on in the Farm. it had a big music room and big stage. Playing there was always good. Soon we started recording These People. Klus Fluoride was producing. although Jello came by the studio almost everyday to check on the progress. He and I were always friendly. he loved to talk and give his opinion on everything. He is one of the very smart people in the world. He never failed to give me a great deaal of respect and always complimented my singing. Recording These People is another bit of a blurr to me. I never had money for day to day livin g but always had money for beer. Phillip was there druing the recording almost every day and Debbie was also there as manager. she and Phillip and I loved drinking ith each other so beer was always on hand. Lynn, Tim, and Sebastian never had much to drink. I do remember Tim and Sebastian having lot of different ideas on how songs should sound. the sound i was always very proud of was about my child hero George jackson....the Black Revolutionary who was killed in prison. and i loved Sidewalk Begging.
a ong about the new population of homeless people that were starting to be on the streets of the city--everywhere. the recording went smooth, i guess...because one day it was finished and we had a big show record release party. i loved record release parties.
Reagan was becoming more and more fascist. he had invaded Granada, broke the airline strike, laughed as the streets were filling up ith homeless people. and the atmosphere in the punk rock scene was geting more and more political. one of the meeting places of the political gatherings was a free lunch room known as the Zoup Kitchen. people started lining up about an hour before it opened this was at the Methodist church about half a block from the apartment Phillip, Debbie, and I shared. so i was there everyday...along with the MDC guys, and most other bands of any street dignity! a block from haight St. and tons of hippies and punks were coming together to eat. Skin heads were starting to appear in SF, but most of these guys were yesterday's punk rockers, and so every body was pretty friendly with them. Most of them came to Dick's shows and were nice to me. Uniting us all was an older guy called Diamond Dave. He would tell us he had been the one who turned Bob Dylan on to marijuana . i believe him. he was a street poet and looked upon himself as the thread to tie the hippies, punks, and skinheads together. Dave Whittiker. still around SF. the Cozmic Lady was also an older hippie poet. she would get up and say poetry ato the eating crowd everyday. punks would do acoustic shows....the cooks and cleanup staff were all dedacated to feeding the hungry. It was a real moment in SF political conscieness. i espically kept an eye on a volunteer. he was there everyday. thick build, black hair and big dark eyes. a beautiful smile and seemed really shy, but very dedacated to being there to help cook and clean everyday. i found myself looking to see him hen i went to the Zoup, which was about every day. the 1984 democrtic convention ws in SF that year. so huge plans being made to demonstrate. The Dicks were planning to record a 45 single around this time. we had written a song called I Hope You Get Drafted. Pointing to the apolitical folks i so disdained. I as wishing the 'give a shit' types would get drafted. i had to go through it o iwanted everybody else to. it would certenly put ome thinking into a blank head. MDC included thi on one of their compulation albums. they were running their own label now R Radical Records. when the Dicks recorded Hate Teh Police we made up our own label since we did not have one and knew we never would. we called it Radical Records. I knver knew how R Radical came to be but it did, so ironically WE ended up doing the single ep on R Radical. we got the great punk rock producer, who had produced KILL FROM THE HEART, Spot. i thought the ep should have a name. PEACE? i called it. it came from my wanting peace in the world, but wondering if it could ever come. the song on side one was NO FUCKING WAR. people loved that song and sang along with it at every show.
we recorded it at Howie Kline's studio... one Sat. all three ongs. No body asked me, I hope You get Drafted and No Fucking War. Somehow we Had Spot in town to produce the project. what a great guy to work with. a ture nerd and musical wonder. That he liked the Dicks was a real honor for us. His method was to let the band play and do it's thing. ever so often giving a little hint of what might make the song ork better. for No Fucking War we had a bunch of friends show up and sing on the Chorus.....everyone shouting as loud as they could..."we don't want no fucking war..and e don't want to fight no more..." It mde me think of the last time i had lots of friends inging along in the studio. When the Texas Dicks were recording Kill from the Heart and we recorded Anti-Klan Pt @, with Tim Kerr from the Big Boys on Dobro and all ou friend doing back ground vocals on the "We'll fight you" chorus. Most days i was thinking of Buxf, Pat, and Glen and wondering how they ere doing and what they were up to. i figured they hated me so i didn't call.
I was living a sweet life, always broke, eating in soup kitchens and living free with my two best friends. sometimes though i felt a little empty nd lonely. who dosen't feel tht way sometimes?

Hanging out is Austin was good. but i knew the other guys were not planning to return to SF. why would they. they had lovers and friends to live or ty with. they had jobs waiting for them. i on the other hand was having a blast in SF. Phillip and i were like brothers and i lived with him. Debbie and i were like family now, too. i had gained a bit of populairity in SF amoung the punk scene so going back for me was not only easy but i looked forward to it.
During the time we were there our SST album KILL FROM THE HEART got shipped to us. too bad it missed the whole tour but we tore into the boxes and were thrilled to see the big beautiful album cover. it looked so cool. Carlos had done a great job. too bad, upon openning the album the wrong record was in the covers. open another one. another etc. every record had the wrong vina. i went ballistic we had a instore record release party the next after noon and a show in a couple of days. Debbie got on the phone and fixed everything. They promised to send a batch in time for the party and the show. we had to ship the ones back they had sent. i wish now i hqd kept a few for collector's items. the records did come and we did have the party.
soon i knew every was getting a bit pissed at me and i felt the same. Debbie's parents sent her the money for both of us to fly back to SF and leave the old van with Buxf. i soon left Austin to reform the Dicks. a san francisco Dicks.

As our time with the RAR tour was coming to a halt i did have a few fond memories to cling to forever. Meeting Doc Dqrt was a special thing. a great guy from the old school of weird and wondeful. i remember him on one show in a small croeded club pulling a bic disposable razor out of his pocket during a song and reun it down the side of his face as he sang. as the blood started pouring down his chin some fan standing near the stage started yelling and freaking out. to comfort him
Doc jumped off the stage and ran right for the guy...with razor in hand....of course the happy fan, fearing for his life dropped his beer and ran as fast as he sould to the end of the club, Doc close behind. i never knew what really went down but after while Doc rejoined the band , who had never stopped playing, back on stage. that Doc. always good for a laugh.
another time in new york the yippies had called a meeting of all the bands and workers to figure out what was going to happen and who was staying with the tour and who was leaviing. at this point we really weren't sure what we were going to do.
It's funny to look back on now and i relly can laugh. but i wasn't laughing then. none of us were. to many turkey dogs and crying babies and cops pulling plugs. the meeting was compleat and utter chaos. a packed room on Beaker St.. at this time it was rough and nasty part of town. im sue nw it's part of the clean and pretty new-nyc. we were ll packed into a airly big, but stuffy room. too many turkey dogs had left everyone a bit miffed and e were all getting tired. people were getting really stoned and then making decisions for all of us--nice, well meaning people but a little lopsided in their thinking.
i was really worn out and at one point of some argument i had had it..i got up and stormed out of the room and down the stairs to pull open the door and get some air on the dirty street. i was in a fury at how silly the scean had become. i yanked to door but it didn't come open...ipulled again and looked at the young hippie looking girl who i suppose was a receptionist. she looked terrified at me pulling on the door knob and cussing.."this godamned fucking shit...even the door is fucked up"...at this poing the knob came off in my hand almost sending me into a fall flat onb my ass. Buxf had followed me down and was telling me to calm down. i felt foolish at being so mad but it was too late to stop now so i took the door know and threw it as hard as i could at a blank wall. "wham!!" it hit the wall with uch force it stuck there. silent and still looked scared the young woman salked over to the door and said, "it opens by pushing it." while saying this she slowly opened the door with ease by ever so slightly pushing it open. there was the door know sticking in the wall, and me with a shocked look on my face. Buxf started laughing and said, "let's get the fuck out of here....there's beer in the van". i felt stupid but, oh, well....afte a few beers i started telling the story to anyone who might listen to me....oh, what a day!
another night after being lot and getting the wrong directions for a couple of hours....cot and i finilly got to the little packedgarage apartment everyone had settled into. I think it was Amhurst and the show the next day on campus was supposed to be really big. lots of local young political punks were there adding to the crowd and noise and the juicer was buzzing and i wanted any thing but a fucking turkey dog to eat. already in a pissed mood dur to getting directions in the wrong little town instead of Amhurst....an it being late and walking into a nest of punks, and hippies, dogs barking and babies crying...seeing Buxf, Glen, Pat, and Debbie looking miserable , but drinking, i said something like, "is there any fucking beer or something to eat...." some hippie kid started heading toward me with his arms open. everyone got tense---"dude, you just need a hug". as he said this i grabbed him and picked the tiny rat up up and headed to the window to throw this mother fucker out the second floor. "Ill give you a fucking hug", i told him. Pat and debbie had grabbed me and made me put the kid down. i remember him scurring away and under his breath saying.."dude.."
i eneded up sleeping alone in the van that night...i needed the lone time to clear my head. i woke up feeling pretty good and knew a big plate of turkey dogs was all cooked up and wiiting for me.
the show was great that day and we were about to leave and drive on down to Texas to rest, play a few shows and then head back to San Franisco.
I could tell trouble was coming by some hints and actions from my dear band mates and best friend.. i ignored them mostly and just kept it going for myself.







Christy compleatly saved us on he tour. she could deal with the leadership, and yes, their was a real leadership in this anarchist unit. she would screem and yell to get sence making points across. without her we would have stayed about a week, but instead we had fun staying at her crowed 102nd and Broadway apt. one of the most fun nights we all had off and were having a meal together with MDC, Christy and Rob, the sound guy on the tour and lots of other folks i can't remember. Beer somehow was there in many cans which the Dicks were gulping down. that night after eating and while we were all sitting around the living room Glen started playing every ong he knew on the guitar...old top 40 radio songs and i started singing along, only adding my own filthy lyrics. In stead of Stop in the Name of Love....it became Cum When I Suck Your Dick....with all the lyrics changed to fit the night. every one was laughing and getting drunk and it was great. I, for once, felt it was a bit of history for us all to be gathered there involved in this cause. this anti right wing bull shit Reagan was doing to out country. no matter how crappy i felt the 'turkey dog tour' was, i belived in the reason we were all there and espected the others for being there, too.

may 20--09

Scot soon showed up to met us and i was again back in the little truck i loved so much. we were setteliing into the day to day traveling and laying and meeting new eole along the road. Dealing with the RAR eole was a tri in it self. WE ahd made really good friends with Tour manager Chrisy, though. Although she hated us as eole at first....only due to us being added at the lat momen and being a ersonal hasle to her, she did like our music. She had to deal with us everyday and soon found us to be funny and rolling with the punches of the turkey dogs and odd places were were put up at night. we had mistakenly thought Chrisy was one of the hippie elements since she had long hair and worked with the yippies. we were proved wrong one day whn the poor baby that was on the tour was crying and hungry and in that little baby talk was reaching and saying, "my bottle, my bottle...". the gross stingy haired father, not even looking at the kid said "it's not 'your' bottle, it's 'everybody's bottle".Chrisy who was, along with everybody else was getting sick of this jack ass dad, snapped his head off, "Shut up hippie and the kid his bottle...it's his fucking bottle, not everybody's!" . the guy looked painfully shocked as he handed the baby the bottle. we looked at Christy an all felt we had seen a hero in action . a comrade and friend. shelaughed seeing us so aproving of her beheading of this creey weird-o.
after that we had a great relationshi ith her. even till this day a close friendship remains.
the days and nights dragged by. another close friendship srang up between the Dicks and the Crucifucks. Doc, the singer and main force behind the band, and i shared a sence of humor and made fun the silly hippies on the tour. Steve Shelly, now drummer for Sonic Youth, was Teh drummer for the Crucifucks. He was one of the nicest people i ever met. even though he didn't drink he loved hanging out with the Dicks who were always drinking. some shoes were tired and smll and others were huge and exciting. i remember an outdoor show in a ark somewhere, here their were more cops than audience. the y olice hated us. the whole thing irked them. i wa looking real good too. fat as a bear, and a big bush of badly bleached blond hair, iped up clothes....handsome. so i aalways cought their eye as i was walking near them. Singing Dicks Hate olice during these showswas a test of my paranoid
thinking, but i did it. over and over i did it. One day glen told us he had worked up the old soul song Love Train...so we started singing it at every show. some of the punks thought it was lame....so we moved them into the catagory of daum ass hippies and stupid no humor punks. a big "fuck you" went out to them. when we played Kent Ohio we played the Neil Young song OHIO....we loved doing that song and put it into our set list most of the rest of the tour. one of the biggest shows was in Central ark in Nwy York. thousands of people were there. It was wonderful. about 20 eople were staying in Christies one bed room apartment. noone going to sleep till it got light and not getting u till almost dark. Scot and i made sure to do tourist stuff everyday. MOMA, aks and the filthy adult book stores in times SQ. even Christy, who was born and raised in NYC had never been to one of these places went with us one day and watched as the gilrs behind the windows in small booths let men stick their hands up their legs and fingers nto a hole where ever it might be. sad to watch. again, aids was not a thought in any ones heads, although it was coming, we didn't know it yet.
the Cantral Park gathering was a high point. The dicks were about ready to leave the tour so it was almost a good bue show for us. the cops were getting ready to close down the show due to noise permits not being right or something. really they were just afraid it was all about to get out of hand.MDC had stirred up the crowd to a near frinzy, then We came on. the crowd was slamming and the it was wild. a mid day chaos the olice had gotten sick of. I yelled into the mic, " we dedicate the next song to your friends and ours....from New York to Texas to California.....it's called DICKS HATE THE POLICE".....well, every one went nuts....about half way through the first verse the cos pulled the plug! they were staring at me from the generator just daring me to say or do something to insite the crowd. i just raised my fist and yelled, THANK YOU NEW YORK CITY" and left the stage.
our three months with the tour were nearing an end........

RAR was a traveling caravan from hell. MDC had their own van. fixed for touring with a loft and all the comforts of punk a rock touring band . We had a van but it was not all fixed up and was bare bones. I;m not sure if DRI had a van or not. some of the travelers had cars and the Crucifucks were stuck on the Big yellow sschool bus which had the cooking things used by the staff of RAR. some guy...a driver or omething..a tall kinny long haired hippy dude had his baby on the tour. a little kid, maybe three...always in a filthy diaper. dogs, weed, lots of different types of us were there. the big guy with huge hair that i had seen on stage doing, i think, a sound check, when i walked in the club the first night was a poet...of sorts. doing spoken ord while playing a little cassieo key board thing....i remember he had a clothes hanger tangle in his hair....and a very skinny wife that waited on him handd and foot. what a couple! i really can't remember past that. to many people for the project. the agreement being the staff would provide a place for the band to stay and feed you two meals a day.the first night we met a woman who was the tour manager named Christy. I think she hated us due to MDC insiting e be added to the line up. e ere nothing but an added head ache to her. she a nice enough but i could tell she could be scary if needed. Allen, her partner, was the sound man. skinny, buzzed hair and cute guy. both were a little spactic, but nice. after the show Chisty told us they had lined up for us to stay at the apartment of one of the local club promoters. it sounded ok to us. He told us he lived in a walk up old building in downtown cicncinati. the club got pretty croded and at the end of the night e lokked and looked but couldn't find him. everyone was in the van waiting and Debbie was searching for him all over the place.. hen he came back to the van another guy aswith her. he told u he lived at the same place and could guide us there. the other guy had already left he said. somehow during the night Debbie had twited her leg and poped her knee out of place....she literately had to pop it back in order to walk. her leg was killing her. as e pulled up to the old, what looked like an abandoned office building, we asked the guy, "people live here?". "Oh, yeah, it's the best squat in town".
Oh, boy, i though....the cops are going to come and beat me and drag me to a Cincinnati prison.
everyone grabbed their bag and headed to thee door. Poor Debbie was mortified when we saw the endless stairs ahead of us. like, hundreds of stairs. 5 floors up. the room was big but very dusty and messy. Debbie and i yelled, "we get the bed". since her leg was so fucked up no body put up a fight. Glen, and Buxf piled sleeping bags at the end of the bed and Pat wasleeping in the van.
a huge window was right at the head of the bed with a long ripped up curtain hanging above us. the as a fight eh Glen stole Debbie's pillow in the middle of the night. but the real fight was with the window and curtain. a huge rain storm movedd in and i was awaken with rain blowing through the glassless window and the long curtain had some how blown around me and Debbe both sort of tying us together in a wet knot. after untying the roap like thing and moving the bed we slept till the sun was shining through the same window. i had to pee really bad. i had no idea where a bathroom was, but went looking. the place was so different in the light of day than the night before. it was a hughe old office building. no electricity and when i found the toilit in a dusty hallway and lifted the lid i saw theplace also had no water. a dry toilit with piles of shit in it looked at me. more than making me sick i couldn't wait for Debbie to see it. i pissed in the filty sink and went back to the room where everyone was gettin up. hangovers and a sence of wanting out of the place hit us all at the same time. Debbie's knee was better and we all filed down the stairs to a balmy morning. hot and steamy and ready to go.
the plan was to meet the rest of the crew a some address we had gotten the night before. and to have our first breakfast with the whole bunch.
who knew that some kind person had donated thousands of Turkey Dogs to the Yippie to feed us. thousands. not being a variegation at the time i had a fw with some white bread offered. MDC ere very political with their no meat policies so they had a huge bag of carrots and a juicer supplied by the RAR staff. so while they were buzzing their carrots and drinking their juice the rest of us were downing turkey dogs and while bread. soon we were all off the the next city where some poor kid had agreed to put u all up....the surprise came to him qnd his horrified parents when a school bus, 4 or five vans and about 50 or so freaks piled out to rock against everybody.

Teh Dicks were supposed to play that night at the Jocky Cub in Cincinnati-Newport Kentucky. As we drove as fast we could e realized we were never in hell going to make it. we were pulling into Salt Lke City when I toid Scot we had to call the Yippies and let them know what was going on. I wanted so bad to talk to Debbie or Buxf. but really there was no way to track anybody down.
I knew Scot felt bad for fucking up and wanted to make things right. also knowing the other folks had not wanted him to even go, he was not looking forward to meeting up with everyone late. He had the idea that he would call the contact number we had and try to get them to fly me from Salt Lake City to Cincinnati. and he would meet up the next day where ever the show was. He was on the rod ide pay phone for ever. of course they didn't want to di it, but he talked them into it! #hen he returned to the truck and told me we had to get to the SLC airport at once to get me on a flight i was shocked ... but happy to know i was going to meet up in time to do the show plus reunite with my band. the plan was made to have scot meet us late the net day or so. and before i knew it i was landing in the beautiful Cincinnati Airport. All i knew was 'somebody' was supposed to meet me and drive me to the club. i had no idea who to look for, but leaving it to fate i got off the plane and stood in the passenger meeting area...in my foggy memorie i barely remember the two guy ho strolled up and asked if i was Gary Floyd. Here i as about 250 lbs, wild bleached blond hair, a torn up black safty pinned sweater, a cloth bag with a picture of Chairman Mao on it..."yep, tht's me", i said.
they were too cool to b very talkative to me. they chatted amoung them selves, but motly ignored me in the back seat. i thought they were pricks. it took a while to get to the Club. and what a club it was. an old, dank, dusty place....much like many punk clubs i've played in. Once it was most likely a fancy place that time had not been too good to. as we pulled up i was Buxf and Glen standing around outside. i was never so happy to see anybody. i couldn't wait to get out the car driven by the two coolsters. the whole way neither spoke to me. fuck 'em. i jumped out of the car and ran up and hugged my two friends. they were already drinking and i and i wanted some beer bad. When i saw Debbie we ran and hugged each other. :What th fuck happened?" she not so sweetly asked.
"You don't want to know...a nightmare happened", I told her and the band. i told the story and we all laughed at the situation. i looked around the place and saw Dave and Ron of MDC. we hugged and laughed with me telling the story again and again...with each beer i added more details and lost the mad feelings as we laughed at the thought of Scot browsing through his photo album as i panicked and waanted to chock him. "there's a lot of hippies on this tour", Debbie tole me with a scowl. " I can see that." i said glancing at the guy on stage. a sort of one man band playing a little keyboard and singing some silly crap i could tell i was going to hate.
"Is this guy on the whole tour?" i asked
"I'm afraid so".
He was just one of many hippie extream weird-o's who were 'rocking against
Reagan'.
i started to notice the whole buch of us touring together. MDC, Dicks, DRI, the Crucifucks and then a bunch of bands and other's i never saw play a note if i could help it.
we played pretty early on the bill, which was fine with me. i got drunk and we all had a blast.

Waiting for Scot to finish his packing and taking things from the upstairs bed room to the down stairs garage was a mad, almost insane feeling inide of me. The other band mate and Debbie were going to b so pissed off at me. They wrned me and now the trip had started on the worst foot. i would have helped him but he really did not want me to. i just kept walking to the door of his room and asking, "when are we going to leave?". once when i looked in the the room to see why things were so silent he was setting on the bed looking through a photo album!! Like reminessing on old times. i blew up! i loved scot and he really was one of the smartest people i'd ever met, but i almost attacked him. i had to get out of the house and walk around a while. an hour or so later when i got back he was working to get the job done.
We left early the next morning. i had to drive since he had not slept all night. i never was much of a driver and hated the fact i was forced to listen to his snoring with in inches of my ear. this was before cell phone so we were out of touch with the other van.. luckily just befor we left Debbie had called Phillip at his place, who called over and over and finilly Scot anwered the phone and made a plan to meet at the club in Cincinnati. that meant us driving like mad. A phobia of mine, of which i have many, is going to high over the speed limit. i always think the cops will stop us and for some reason i will be wrongly thrown in jail and die. this little strange weirdness of mine has caused problems for all my bands. 'when i grow up i wanna be an old woman'....so, i am.
as i drove, headed toward Reno ,the weather was starting to look funny...and the over cast sky started to snow. we were headed to the fmous Donner's Pass.
Where in the winter of 1846 whie traveling wet a wagon train party got trapped in the snow on this mountin and were forced to eat each other to sty alive. Before i knew it, the snow was pouring and i could barly see out the windows.
"Wake up!" i yelled......"ake the fuck up!"
huge truks were starting to pile up behind me. honking. i tarted slipping into groves made by the trucks in front of me..."Scot, wake up and drive!"
He jerked up when he saw the nutty driving i a doing and the potential for a big wreck. Soon we were forced to pull over at a check point set up by the Hiway patrol. "you got tire chains?" they asked
'No" scot told them
"well you gotta have em"
the cop's big red cold looking face was yelling in the window and little bit of spittle were flying into the car. Of course we didn't have snow chain so we had to buy them from the 'snow chain stand' just off the road. If i remember it wassome rip off price like $70. With cot all work up and snow chains on, e hit the road again. Reno was only a few mile ahead when i was the most beautiful sign in the world on a bill boad.."10 Miles Ahead--ALL YOU AN EAT" i started thinking...Well, things are looking up".
When the sting of having to wait hours for him to get on the road scot and i started having fun. Litening to music and planing on seeing the USA on this tour. Looking out the window i did not thinik this would the first of hundreds of times i would watch as tours took me all over the US and Europe. It was music that took me. On my own i never would have been able to go anywhere. But as corny as it sounds, my music was and always will be my best friend. and it was just starting to show that to me.

the big day came to leave. the van was packed and i was going to be dropped off at Scot's house and we were all going to meet up in a few hours in Reno...jut tto keep together. the first show we ere hooking up with the tour was in Newport, Kentucky, which is right across the bridge from Cincinnati. The Jocky Club.
everyone was happy and ready to go. Debbie andi had becme really close. she felt a bit funny about leaving me with Scot and not having me with the rest of the band. i think everybody thought i was being a little selfish wanting to travel in a more private way... but i felt it was going to be more fun with my old friend and easy for me to relax and see the scenery. so we all were laughing and joking and soon the others were getting in the van to leave...Scot said we would b leaving in an hour or so because he had a few last minuite errands to run. as we watched them pulling away, he turned to me and sid..."well, i guess i should tell you.." my house mates have kicked me out and they want me to enpty my room before i leave!"
"you're fucking kidding??"
"no. they will let me store it in the garage till i get back, but they want the room empty so they can rent it out."
I sat the for a few seconds letting the reality of what that meant sink in.
"so, are you telling me you have to pack all your hit up and move it into th garage before we leave?" i saked.
""Yeah. I'm going to go score some speed, though to help me do it fast...it'll only take a couple of hours".
"Score some Speed?? Where?"
I sort of faded away at that moment and didn't even hear what he said. the band had just left. and here i sat with the wort news i could hear.
this was around 2 in the after noon. around 6 the next morning we left.
the mood way a sort of harrow-night mare feeling of rage in me. the night was really a test of out friendhip. but really what could i do? being buzzed he wa taking forever to every little thing.

RAR con't-----------Leaving San Francisco to go on a three month tour having no money in my pocket, no real place to com4 back to was not even a thought in my head. Isort ofassumed Phillip would be there when i returned and again let me move in where ever he was. and money--i never thought about it. i had about $90 worth of Food Stamps so i felt ready to go. Debbie had gotten in touch with the AR people and we had a loosly put together itinerary. I did not know then but later found out. the leadership of RAR did not want us to go. they really had not heard of us, and felt they didn't have the money to take on another band. Dave and MDC had really fought to gt us on the tour. It came down to they would not go if we were kept from going! I never really knew this and it touched me wwhen i much later found out. ofcourse it made the crew not exactly in love with us when we did show up.
My old friend Scot form the Palo alto days had a little truck and offered to drive me and help roadie if we could get him fed daily and gas money to drive. He would also help carry some of out bags...since the only equipment we had was Glen's guitar, i think Pat had some drum sticks....maybe. the day before we left Buxf was able to get a Bass from a pawn shop--we were depending on the 'kindness of strangers' to get us through. the band was a little hesitant to bring Scot along. even though he was one of my oldet long time friends he did have a reputation of "being late"...for everything. always. but i really wanted him to go. instead of being in a crowded van with Pat, Glen, Buxf, and Debbie...i opted to ride along in the little black truck and turn it as muh into a vacation as i could. i had never seen the most of the country. never ben to NYC or anywhere on the east coast. so having my buddy along sounded good.
as time got close to leave everyone was happy to be going on a real tour. I never really knew how but one day we had an old van...i think Debbie had bought it with the understanding wwe would pay her bqck when we ere able. leaving Phillip and San Francisco was hard but i was also ready to hit the road. i knew this was going to be real experance. i was nervous, too. but i was with my family, i felt.

a few weeks before we left Tim Yohanan from Maxium Rock and Roll had done a big interview with us at hi house in the East Bay. Tim was a great guy and always seemed to lik the Dicks and seemed to be fond of me, too. we had done a few interviews at the Radio station where MRR had their show over in Berkeley. we were known as the 'drunk rock' band since e always had beer...wheather in the radio station or whereever. once while being interviewed by Jeff Beale (sp-?) on the radio i hryad said "Russia was a revolutionary country until Khrushchev
became it's leader. Meaning, of course, that Stalin waas a great leader. Of course i was drunk as hell and happy to have put dumbfounded looks on everyone's face's. A bit on air arugment followed....i really didn't believe this none sence but i wanted to be the baddest communist in town so i fowwowed up by spouting a bunch of drunken jibberish. i really don't think we ever got asked back. But Tim wanted to do an interview with us before we left for the RAR tour. He even told us we going to be on th cover! the issue would come out the day e left. it was another drunken party asfar awe ere concerned. and another chance for me to shock everyone by my "more red than Mark" attatude. years later i tried to read the long, rambling bullshit i was spewing and really couldn't get more than a couple of paragraphs into it. the other guys were not even talking much. so e came off like crazy people. when the magazine hit the streets the picture on the cover indeed was us. a live shot taken i don't even know where....buxf had a mohawk and looked like the meanest murderer in prison. glen looked nuttie and demented. pat, as usual couldn't be een. I had a Mu-Mu on....sunglasses and bleached blond hair screaming into the mic.....the words scrawled across the top were....The Dicks--A Commie Fag Band From Texas. i looked at Debbie when she handed me one to see for the firt time..after a long gaze i met her eyes and sort of nervously ask, "what do you think people are going to think about this...about us". she looked funny and said, " just wait till you read the interview".
I kept thinking to myself, 'i'm bound to get my ass kicked before this tour is over". however, the day came to leave and off we went.

As we started writing songs and playing sshows i found myself becoming compleatly infatuated with Tim. he and i would sit in the tiny kitchen on Clay st. till all hours of the morning talking about what to do to make the band ork better. he would write down thing on a 'to do ' lit for Debbie and leave it on the table for her to ee the next morning. I can not say how muh she hated that. i mean he really hated that. i had a big crush on Tim, who was straight, of course. he was looking at me as a good friend and i was thinking how i would be a perfct boyfriend. how tupid i was. in my zeal to b honet i told him one night that i liked him more that jut for a friend,,,that i had a super crush on him. he as real nice about it, but things were never the same. thinking back i really don't know why i felt the way i did. i guess i was lonely or something. but i'm became pretty depressed about the whole deal. Phillip and Debbie hated the idea that i liked him in that way.
Mean while the band ws getting better and better. Jalter all, we were practicing almost every day. Jello Biafra and i had been friendly since th Dicks from Texas had played with the Dead Kennedy' s back in Austin, and a few time in SF. He had also been a fan of Lynn's old band The Wrecks. He asked me if we were ready to record an album and if so did we want to releaseit on Alternative Tentacles ? we did. i was wtching as we moved away from the hard core sound. we never hadth gritty dirty sound of the Texas band anywy. but we were tarting to move in a whole different direction. again, thi would have been the perfest time to re name and move on. but i didn't. Debbie and Biafra had thought it would b a good idea to do a little tour before recording.

I missed Pat, Glen, and Buxf a lot. I felt like i had lost my family. but i was where i was and i needed to do what i had set out to do. i knew i was not going to ever be able to replace the look or sound or attatude of the Texas band so i was real happy to look t the new band and see the exact oppisit. tim was a ine looking guy..sort of dirty looking and unkempt, but cute in a tame way. Sebastian went out of his way to look tough. model good looks and attitude to match. Lynn was a strong and beautiful young woman. and she could play drums as good as anybody. i knew a lot of fans were not to happy to see the new line up. they wanted a more hard core look to my band. meaner and more punk. i didn't give a shot about anoy of that crap. i wanted music to be the priority. between dave and MDC we always had a space o practice in. as soon as we starte playing shows we seemed to be right back in the spot of being a pretty popular band. we all bonded pretty fat and debbie ws starting to be a great manager. we were getting good shows and getting more money for playing. the atmosphere of the punk scene was changing in the City. the Democratic national Convintion was going to be heald in SF that year. thesignof the day was the A with a circle around it. i was not int the fad of being an anarchist . i had early on proclamed the Dicks as a communist band. i like Chairman Mao and loved to ware a big mao badge to prove it. the only problen was i was certenly never an atheist .

While i was gone on the RAR tour Phillip had move from Hyde St, where we had lived before i left, to a small but really sort of cool apartment on clayton St. half ablock from Haight---which is one block form Haight and Ashbury. Not only was he a saint to let Debbie move in and share the rent, but let me, of course paying no rent, also move in. Debbie got the big bedroom and Phillip and i had each a small couch in the "living" room. It was great. Phillip had areal talent of making friend ith the younger punk girls around the scene, and the clubls. He looked like the straightest person in the world...clean cut and always neat. but inside he was a hard partier andcould keep up with the hardest core of any of us. He tole me he had met two extreamly cute, funny, and friendly girls hile i was gone nd had started hanging out with them. They had moved to SF from Reno and had been in a band called The Wrecks. The Drummer was named Lynn and was into tryng out for the Dicks. I had been at the Vats almost everyday for a week hearing different people try out.for all th4 parts. Even though i was never the ideal of a hard core punk the Dicks had the reputation o lots of the guys trying out were trying to 'out punk' each other. i found that tired. so when Phillip sid Lynn and her bet friend Helen, 3ho had sung for the Wrecks lived right around the cornor and were coming over to drink a huge box of wine.....well, i was happy. I knew Lynn was going to be the drummer as soon as i met her. That is if she wanted to. i think she was 17 at the time.....beautiful and shy.. but ready to have fun. as the four of us (me, helen, phillip and lynn) went through the gros box of wine, laughing and playing music, i asked Lynn, "Do you want to come tryout for the Dicks?" i knw she did. i knew Phillip had told her all about it. She had seen us play once and liked the band a lot. but he had seen a rough, bunch of sloppy loud man looking men and was unsure of what i wanted from new members of the band. but i assured her i was open to a different thing now. and most of the guys who had tryed out to too macho for me. She said "yes" tomorrow she would be there for the next try outs. Oh lord, why didn't i just call the band another name.....but i plowed on thinking i was right.....
Lynn did how up the next night. there were a couple of other guys before her. she told me she was so nervous she threw up before she caa guitar player who everyone had pretty much decided was me in was there for the third time and a german guy on bass. Sebastian was his name. waiting to try out on guitar was a neerdy guy named Tim....compleatly not the look of what a 'Dick' should look like. but i thought he was super cute o i told th4 other guitar player to let Tim Play....Lynn, Sebastian, and Tim...i yelled out Dead in a Motel Room...it sounded great to me. the firt time i heard the sound i was looking for. tim was a grat guitar player nd Lynn pounded and hit the drums so good it compleatly blew me way. Sebastian was a beautiful looking guy and very punk rock looking---leaather jacket and bleached hair....to me that was it. this was the new band...we pleayed a bout all the songs nd i asked all of them..."are you ready to work?? Prctice everyday and tour and write and be dicks?" everyone was happy as hell and said YES.
i till felt like a traitor under the skin but put that feeling aside and there we were The Dicks a Texan, the student-cab driver from Ann Arbor, a German and the girl from Reno. a long shot from The rel Dicks. but to prove my point i had forun a gret new cast of musicans. Debbie was happy but looked to me and said,"you think people are gonna buy this?". "Time will tell, honey".

When we left RAR the Dicks made our way back to Austin. To play and also to rest and sort of see where we were. The long weird tour was a very draining and much of a learning time. Debbie and i had become almost sister and brother. my belief in reincarnation comes from meeting people like Debbie. Something clicks right when you meet...something deeper than just liking each other...a long time feeling of knowing each other. When we arrived in Austin everyone had old lovers to stay with. except me...and Debbie, For a few days we stayed with the Dicks friend and artist Carlos and his wife Alice. Carlo had done the art work for Dicks hate Police and Kill From the Heart.
Alice was a hardcore radical from the 60's and 70's. Like a real radical. FBI file and all that. She had just had a baby and was probably not that thrilled to have two punk rockers staying in the house. She was not a huge fan of punk rock either.....however, i had always idolized her as the hard core commie beauty of the left. So when Carlos told us it was going to be hard for us to keep staying with them, we went and stayed with Do's husband and co producer of Dicks Hate Police, Bryan Flarity. He and Do had seperated and she had moved to Boston. For some reason he was staying somewhere else too, so we were welcome to 'move in'. it was ummer in exas and the house was hotter than hell. He asked us to not use the air conditioner because the bill was too high already. the house was pretty messy, whice as fine, so we decided to clean it up. itook the dishes....when i moved an old rag near the pile of filthy plates one hundred million huge shiny brown roaches ran in every direction. i screamed and thew the rag. Debbie came running to see what was wrong. she cought the tell nd of the roach's run. aa night mare to wittness. the dish washing was putt off...forever. i ent and turned the the heat was abut 98 nd i really felt like i was in hell. i ent and turned on the air conditioner ashigh as it would go....we both looked at each other and said we would tay that night then we had to get back to San Francisco. we lept thre that night and were both woke up more than once with the huge water bug roach legs skipping cross our bodies. i told deber that they would drink from the corner of our eye when we went to sleep. e got up very early and left the house....i forget where Debbie went, but i had her drop me off at Mr. Peepers...a huge, super air conditioned adult video store. two stories. a refrigerated glory hole heaven...hundreds of booths and dark and onderful.
when We all met up later in the day the other guys told us they didn't want to go back to Cqlifornia. I can understand why now. i had it pretty easy. Phillip let me live with him rent free. He pretty much supported me. except for food stamps i had nothing. pat, and Buxf were living andstaying where they could. Glen and Cindy had forun a room in a hotel right near the corner of Broadway and Columbus.....not a grand hotel, i might add. During the tour Cindy hadmoved to Oklahoma so even she as now gone leaving Glen with nothing to go bqck for. they all felt that was. In Austin everyone had great friends and lovers and easy access to jobs, which no body had in SF. it just made sense to stay in Austin. Except to me. I selfishly could not understand why they would give up the band's chance to move up instead to move back. Debbie liked the people in Austin but being broke and hot and now hearing the other guys intened to stay she was now totally into leaving at once for SF. we had a long meeting about it and it was decided that i was moving back. and they were staying there. Kill from the Heart had just come out. Im sure they hated me and could not undertand me moving. i could n't understand them staying. i remember telling Pat i was going to go to SF and reform the band and they could do the same in Austin....and we'd see what happened. we all said good bye and i left with Debbie the next day to go back to SF.
i wish i had just started another band with a different name and played the same songs. how much trouble and hurt feeling would have been avoided. i look back and wonder why i didn't do that. when e got back Some of the guys in MDC picked us up at the airport. they were all excited and told me how they had put out the word that i as looking for new members for the band and the whole Vats were playing Dick's songs getting ready to try out for the band. i was even more shcoked when they told me they had set up try outs and we were going right then to have the first try outs! when we pulled up in the parking lot out side the tall old Ham's Beer Factory a crowd of people ere hanging out. Waiting for me! A whole lot of people who had never given me the time of day were now being real friendly. acting all happy to 'welcome me back to town'. i really could hear our songs being played in different 'studios". it was a bit exciting, but i felt funny. i felt like i as

San Francisco was buzzing during the early mid 80's with a punk community deep in the politics of the day. MDC were very much in the center of that community.
before the Dicks even moved to SF MDC had sort of taken over an old brewery and turned it into a living and practice space. It was so odd to think you were standing in a Hamm's beer vat. long yellow tiled hallways with big round doors all the way down the hall....doors that were once holding vats for brewing beer. Somehow sweet talking Dave had talked the land lord into letting the punks use the place and pay a little rent and there it was---the center of an underground community of the hard core punks of SF. The Dicks showed up and wow, it was a sight to behold. a 6 or 7 story tall skinny building sticking up from a parking lot in the boarder of the Mission district. we used the space of different bands. since nobody had jobs we practiced almost every day. Teh Vats became a huge part of the scene in SF. Thanks to MDC we fast became part of it.
Drugs and drinking and loud music were boiling over in the day and night happening. It was sort of a scary place that i loved. But thanks to Phillip, i never had to live there. leaving at the end of the day was good for me. Phillip saved my sanity more than a million times.
Talk of a big tour was starting to be passed around. Rock Against Reagen.
There was even talk of us going MDC was already planning to join up. DRI, also transplants from Texas were going too. At first it seemd too much to even think about. three months on the road with a big caravan of punks, hippies, and yippies, kids, dogs, and playing almost everyday. I was pretty lazy and loved my comfort zone of home, tv, and a clean place to sleep. However the Reagen erea was insane and meeting up with people around the country who felt the same way seemed like a great idea. plus, though a lazy guy on the outside , i did live for the music. i really did live for the shows and the song and meeting people so i was on board. Glen, Pat, and Buxf wanted to go too. It became a decision for the Yippies to make. the real Yippies from NYC were the ones putting the whole thing together. Dave was trying to talk them in to letting us on the tour.
We needed a van, and we needed a manager too. someone to do business and deal with these people. the fact that nobody had drums or amps or mics didn't stop us from wanting to go for a second.
soon Dave told us the big guys in NYC said yes...we would be dded. they would feed u two meals a day. a place to sleep at night and gas money for the van we did not have.
i was about to began the tour of hell.

When MDC formed and started playing the Dicks were already going pretty good and since Dave and I were pretty good friends we put them on lots of our shows. so when they got the tour thig going on and played in SF they pretty much got us on the shows with them. we shared a lot of political views so we got lumped together as the benefit bands. we played so many shows for so many causes. I was always happy to do sshows and give money to things i believed in. i wam especially proud to play for the John Brown Anit-Klan Group. It's funny to think back and realize their was no Aids back then. Lots of fucking and sex was going on. ths did not hurt our timing using sexual images as a political motivation and enjoying the time.
Dave came to me one day and said MDC was moving to SF. I wanted to go too. I always felt the Dicks could move up and really start writing and playing big shows. when i brought it up to the other guys they all thought it could be fun.
so in Oct. a few days before Halloween we moved to San Francisco. it was 1882.
Buxf and Pat were staying with Barry Gavin who also had moved to Oakland. My dearest friend Phillip Guilbeau had moved out as part of the whol Texas migration a couple of months before me. He, being a talented office worker, got a job at SF State and was staying with our old friend Scott from the Palo Alto days. He had made some great friends who went to school there. Dtella and Debbie became his week end buddies. when he told them The Dicks were moving out Debbie told him she was moving in with Stella aand we could move into her apartment. Glen was hanging with our friend Cindy so they drove out and moved in with Phillip in the new place.. i flew in and they all met me at the airport. it was a happy reunion and we stopped and got a few six packs of beer and headed to out new home. a big surprise waited for me.
First it wa up a huge hill in the outter Mission. once up the hill there were about 70 stairs to climb. as a fat guy me and stairs never got along to well anyway. Opening the door once to the top i walked into a tiny space. the "bath room" was a toilit with bar room swining doors....just big enough to hide the body but the legs showing. a tiny shower stall. not really a room but a cornor.
a small kitchen and then the bedroom. we all spept in the one room....on the floor. after the beers and as i was passing out i could only think...."san francisco open your golden gates..". i was home, though, and i knew it.