Drinking Cheap in San Francisco...1967

NOB HILL--Yesterday when I talked about all the dope at that poetry reading in San Francisco in 67 or 68, you have to remember the context of those times. There were so many young people breaking the drug laws in SF that it was impossible to do much about it. But Yours Truly Johnny_Mango was not into drugs much anyway. No...I already had a pretty serious alcohol commitment and drugs seemed to interfere with my responsibilities in that arena. I had 2 big ideas on the "cheap ways to drink" chart:

1. OLD ENGLISH 800 (tall boys)
2. RED MOUNTAIN WINE (50 cents/fifth)

Perkovich and I had no refrigerator until the sweet old lady downstairs died and her relatives asked us if we wanted one. We cooled the wine in the tank of the toilet. You did have to cool Red Mountain--believe me. After a couple of fifths I would usually go fishing. Sometimes I'd walk over and watch the Italians play bocce ball in the park. The Old English malt liquor was finished off in front of the store before it ever had a chance to get warm. The good thing about 800 was that nobody could drink more than two. Two would get you high and any more would get you sick.

Everybody seemed to be on something. I met a guy once through Perkovich. We got talking about poetry and he started swigging something out of this little medicine bottle. I asked what that was. He said, "Codine...I'm trying to quit drinking." Well, he WAS trying.

Don't get me wrong. I am not proud of any of the drinking that I did. I drank for 21 years...and for 20 of those years I was trying to quit. One day I did quit. I haven't had a drink since about 1980. But I would never deny what I did as a young man...broke, far away from home, living in what had to be the epicenter of youthful counter-culture. Thursday MaryAnn and I will be there. This time with some money.