26 years ago I was living in the street. I didn’t have anything better to do than hang around, and keep myself as loaded as possible. A local artist, a man who sketched Berkeley’s street life and then sold prints of his art in a little stall along Telegraph Avenue asked me to pose for him for a few minutes. I asked for a few bucks, he gave me a cigarette. I sneered at him while he sketched furiously for about ten minutes.
Today I found his pen and ink drawing of that day on a friend’s blog. Here it is. I remember all those faces, I remember that day as if it were just a few months ago. That’s me in the middle with my hands tucked into my belt, and funny face, head cocked to the side. The tall man in all black behind me is Baily, and the Pretty girl with the long hair in the lower right is Kristy. I’m so glad those days have gone. But it was quite a surprise to see this drawing after all these years.
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This is somewhat eerie to me. JUST TWO DAYS AGO I was thinking of Baily and speculating whether I should post to the punk rock tribe about him, to see if anyone knew what he was up to these days.
Thanks for posting this quite incredible image. Leopolds - La Vals, the Renaissance cafe in the distance and even further than that the Berkeley hills where I spent so much of my “leisure” time and got to know some interesting things about my mind!
I could write an essay or short story about scenes I remember from Durant.
Whoa!
I’m telling you that with Mercury in retrograde, all kinds of things like this are happening…
Wow! I know what you mean about not wanting to go back to that time but this drawing certainly takes me there. All that craziness makes who we are now. I’m not sure I could have gotten here without having been there.
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Bailey walking the Ave. so I’m not sure if he’s still around or not.
What a surprise indeed!
While I was not there for that moment, I remember seeing you in that scene. Jack
Funny, I was terrified of you then. I watched you. You were so loud and angry. You didn’t know I was alive. But then we met and hung out years later when you were in your “dress shoes phase” :)
You are one of the reasons I got clean and stayed clean. You were an inspiration and a beacon of hope for me when I was just starting out.
Just wanted you to know.
* grins happily *
I’m so glad you are alive!
Wow. I used to hang out there then. I recognize Bailey and Kristy, and the man over her shoulder is Chuck, I think. He was a fixture there. I used to hang out at the Renaissance, or “the ren” as we used to call it. Interesting times, interesting people, and I can still hear “six up!” if I listen close enough. I still see Bailey around Berkeley sometimes.
This drawing was in a very narraw range of years, because LaVal’s and the Ren were open at the same time for a short amount of time. Before LaVals was the Come Back In (I think).
I remember Chuck, that’s totally him. I never named him because I was kinda trying to be discrete. Not sure if that’s still important, but it was back then.
I was never discrete then, so I’m making up for it now.