I met Rocky at the Crystal Towers Apartments in Arlington, Va. in 1969.

[panader0]

He was a junkie and a dealer and I was there for the summer staying with
my buddy's parents for the summer. The father of my friend was a general at
the Pentagon, working on plans for Vietnam and stressed to the max.
My friend and I had both been expelled from our different colleges in Oregon,
and we were working at Mayflower Van Lines in Alexandria. We were the only
two white guys out of 100 plus employees.
Rocky had it bad. He shot several bags of heroin a day and was suffering
from cotton fever when I met him. He had cigarette burns between his fingers
because he would fade with a smoke in his hand and it would burn while he
passed out from dope. I was young, 18 at the time. It was the summer of
Woodstock.
He had good Nepalese hash. My friend and I would score and go up on the
roof and get high. One day at work, packing dishes in boxes in a suburban kitchen,
I saw a guy
walk on the moon. Vietnam was raging, casualty counts were a part of the
news.
At summers end we drove back across the country to a new school in
Oregon, Lane Community College in Eugene. That didn't last too long either.
Then I picked fruit with Mexican migrants for a while.
I wonder what happened to Rocky. Strange days long ago. Another life.

[NBachers]

1. A scene from your Kerouac times

[panader0]

2. I've read everything by Kerouac and the Beats,

hopped box cars and listened to jazz floating over the streets. I feel
sometimes like I've lived several different lives.

[NBachers]

3. The fact that you're still here to bear witness means you're not yet finished.

Now you've got me riffing on my wayward life over the same time period; longing to revisit some Kerouac all over again. Maybe I'll go all Japhy tomorrow and cruise down to the Santa Cruz mountains and hike along some rain-swollen streams into the redwoods.

[panader0]

4. Ah, the Dharma Bums, Gary Snyder.

Kerouac was a complex guy. Reading his stuff and listening to bop jazz
opened my head somewhat.
Check out Kerouac's daughter's book
'Baby Driver'.
And Neal Cassady's "
'First Third'

[lunasun]

5. "sometimes like I've lived several different lives".... yeah me too &I suppose I have few lives left

Packing up a kitchen in dish packs then unpacking at the other end . Been there already
The bigger the house the more useless stuff to pack up but now you can look up the house size on the phone before arriving , so you know what is the job you are in for and can use the phone when arriving to take walkthrough pics / vid first to avoid people looking to falsely claim later
At least that’s what they tell me .
I still have friends in local residential moving .
I only did packing and for a short stint when young to help out friends one season when they were short handed and desperate for anyone even me
(but of course the company they worked for paid me too )
Had worse jobs and stranger coworkers.