Church of the Good Earth 1963 and Beyond

When I read what Mike wrote I took in to mean the he was fearful that someone might have passed away or something. Because, we do end up hearing about and finding out that a lot of people are long dead or have just now passed away, here in this thread. We see that all of the time, here.

I guess that maybe I read it all the wrong way. Heck. What do I know. LOL

But this is a great place to work things out. Just look at Me and Cakes! LOL A Great example.

 

tony, you hanent changed a bit and thank god for that. You were and still are straight up with people. I lived alot of my life in the fast lane of the survival mode before i learned how valuable and important being straight up is. I have always looked up to you with respect, admiration and appreciation tony and back then to me you stood out as a giant oak tee bc in the mist of all us crazy hippies flopping around to figure out who and what we were you stood rock solid on your path and by being a living example showed us the best way to travel our paths. I never once saw you you in judgement or critascisem of others and if you did im sure it contained compassion.
Tony, im not here to blow smoke up your ass with nonversation i do want to say that behind my fearfulness was missing out back then of allowing myself to make a solid bond with a brother who is a true treasure.
I have aged, i have grown, i have learned and i have evolved and being straight up tony i wish i had known then what i know now and pray that we can make that brother bond now
written in brotherly love with respect
mike bedell

 

Mike....Its o.k. knowledge being unlimited, take it to a higher creative level...peace.

 

Capricorn Leonard Breeze Taurus John & I were working on a house at the corner of Oak & Clayton Streets. We removed all the paint down to the wood surface. Primed & painted. During this time Tom McKay, the gardener for the Airplane, started hanging around. He had a 1939 Chevy yellow coupe,110. He was a flashy dresser. Snake skin boots and two girl friends. When you talked to him he was a down to earth, good guy. He worked with me the next 20 years. One night someone said there was some wired guys parked in a car at the corner of Oak & Cole Streets. Ken Ross, Sleeze John & I went up on the roof to see. I went back and got a apple, threw it under hand. Was able to hit close to the center of cars roof. All of a sudden these 4 Plain clothes guys dashed out of the doors, then took off. Tom was the guy who introduce us to the Airplane. Breeze and I went to meet them. I gave them the bid which they accepted. I also suggested striping the wood pillars at front. I told them $600.00, it took us 4 months. Libra Ray made the 3 flower boxes, which we installed at the second floor office. With 2" wide brass straps for holding and to match the gold leaf painting. Ray also carved the two oak panels at the sides of the front door. I found some six sided light fixtures to mount on panels, They are still there today. Ray was a good craftman . We had some problems with Ray(G.E.) we kicked his ass, out. No one was living at the Airplanes, except Sammy Piazza the drummer at the third floor octagon room. The details of the interior were Wow! After the painting Leonard and I were the only ones left. They gave me the front of the basement, which I used as a shop. They had the back of basement for rehearsals. Jack Cassidy had a house in Marin he wanted to sell. Two acres with a Olympic size pool. Leonard, Tom & I did the construction job. At the close of job Jack says, hey guys come see this. In the basement he grabs the wall and it opens to a secret door. It was a old bank vault door from Wells Fargo.3'x6'x 8". That went down to a large concrete room. He told us the house belonged to some gangster who stashed his liquor during Prohibition. That cool to see. Around that time I picked up my Contractors state licenses B,C8,C33,C44. Just in time for Leonard and I to jack up another up another Airplanes house member. To install a new foundation. Then it was building there stages. Equipment boxes. plumbing, electrical, cars, security. It became a full time job. At the side of the white house was an empty lot. Were we had picked up a older boat, about 20' long. We were rebuilding it ,had some leftover mahogany wood. Which I made a flower box and put outside third story front of Oak Street. Some times when I drive by. I look up to see if its still there? It is. Yesterday drove by, its still there, amazing...

 

We made it a point at the start of the job(after two weeks) to bring in any man or women to work on the Jefferson Airplanes house from the Good Earth Commune. To teach them a skill, values, put money in there pockets ,give back to the commune and have some fun.

 

As a bystander, this just gets better and better. When you folks were doing what you were doing---I was in Santa Cruz nailing on roofing and wondering what the hell this hippie stuff was about. '67, she was. Oh, I soon found out.

 

one night the some (4+) got to Cole & Oak there parked at the fire hydrant was a squad car with two uniform smoking a joint with the windows down. We were equally stoned and stood there gaping until they looked and noticed us! Up went the windows and they burned rubber outta sight!BUSTED!!! LOL

 

Another time we decided to go deer hunting. The party included Leonard, Leo Ron, Herman the plumber and me? We were in the red Ford van. All of a sudden Leonard yells stop theirs a deer. We stop , Leonard out there with the scope rifle. POW POW, down goes the deer. Many might have not known that he was a army sergeant in Viet Nam. Expert pistol & rifle shot. Were driving back to the city and that deer gets up and starts jumping around. I can laugh about it now but back then we had to jump that deer with those horns. Lucky none of us got hurt. Then we ran out of gas. Leo Ron & Herman were able to find some. We finally made it back to the commune and had a party.Barbeque roasted deer. Another time we were up south of Chico. The beer guys wanted their beer. Kid came back with two cases. We open the doors with half a dozen rifles laying there. I guess some one saw what was in the back of the van. Down the road one cop car had the road blocked and other from behind. Here we come out long hair ,beards, I still wore my jungle boots. One cop pulls out a gun. Yells stop right there.Lets see some I.D. We pulled out are military I.Ds. Expert pistol shot, expert rifle shot. Army, Navy ,Marines. They said you guys were over there, with wide eyes. They let us go right away and thank us. Next day Breeze shot a good size buck. One shot thru the head. After we skinned him we put him in the lower Cole street bathtub with vinegar & salt. Another Barbeque party.

 

I appreciate all of you who took the time to say hello to me. Thank You!

 

Yeah, and I am so very glad that you, Tony, are here and having FUN.
That's what is important. Your Fun.

This to me is Joyous. A beautiful thing. To see you having fun.

And yeah I do remember somebody telling me at that time about the guys in the van with a deer coming back to life and trying to gore them with it's horns, in a closed space. I was so thankful to hear that nobody got killed or injured seriously. Wow. Really.

It's so cool that you are here. It's a Kick.

 

Goodmorning ALL.

 

Kenny,,, you brought back some thoughts of play land at the beach. The roller skate ring,when we were teens. We you to play tag race in and out of the normal flow to the sound of organ music. The manager or some of his guys would chase us down and remove us. Busted. Sit for ten mins. Then we were doing it again. Laughing all the way. They had two merry go rounds. One had all white horses , six wide. It was big. The other one, 100 years old ? It had the lucky horse. Years later when they build the Mosconie Center down town, They restored, installed that merry go round. Its at the corner of 4th & Howard streets. All the horses are the same yet different. But if you take some time. You don't have to look to close. The lucky horse is there. Maybe some one might pass thru and want to ride that lucky horse. It will put a smile on your face.

 

I did a web search, using the words: carousel, 4th & Howard street

A selection of images.

http://www.google.com/search?q=caro...h&sa=X&ei=33O0UobCEueBygGik4CQAw&ved=0CAUQ_AU

 

Another great merry go round is the one in golden gate park. Its been restored. At the end of Haight street ,thru the tunnel with the spike ceiling. By the playground.

 

let me warn everybody that Tony is one hell of ping pong player. Tony do you recall
our ping pong matches at the Airplane's house? You got the better of me most of the time but win or lose we had fun and I gave yhou a good run for youyr money.
Airplane Tom was the inside guy on G.E. sneaking a bunch of us into that sold out G.Dead show in old Airplane equipment cases. what o hoot that was

 

LONG LIVE THE GOOD EARTH
Hi Kenny, Mary, Ranger, Rita and all I spoke to Sag Darel on the phone a couple of hours ago. He's fine. Been away in Vagas the last two weeks. He was happy to hear that Toiny is back and I'm sure he will be checking in soon.
love mike

 

Wheres miss roamy?

 

I sent her an email tonight asking her to return and telling her we all miss her. Sorry it took so long to find her addy.

 

Where the hell is Mary?

LOL

 

I'm here.. I got 30 odd ppl coming here today for Clanton's Christmas. I been in the kitchen for two days cooking.. Ohh myy The house is full of Christmas smells. Trukey ready and out of the oven, Ham in the oven cooking. All the side dishes are prepared and ready to heat up. The desserts ( cherry cheesecake YUM) and other assorted goodies ready to devour.. I have been multi tasking cooking and wrapping presents, doing laundry.. ohh my.. I am getting to old for this..lol.. Nevah!!!

Love you all and I will be back tomorrow. Love Love Love