“Haight Ashbury”

Excerpt from “Osi and Isi: A Tale of Twin Flames”: “Isi found her way, after a number of wrong turns and questions posed to pedestrians, to Gemini’s place on Ashbury Street. The district was colorful and wild. Storefronts were painted in colors straight out of the Peter Max palette. Girls in knit rebozos and Birkenstocks strolled beside boys with straight hair extending to the middle of their backs. A man playing a guitar leaned against the base of a light pole, a small group of listeners gathered around him. Three mimes were frozen in mid-gesticulation in an ad hoc performance. The sounds of Grateful Dead music emerged, blended with fragrant cannabis smoke, from an open window above her head. A young woman in a long gypsy dress of many colors held a box. At her feet was a hand-printed sign reading, “I’m hungry.” Isi dropped a dollar in the box and the musky lady acknowledged the donation with a smile. Bright posters and black-and-white leaflets, advertising concerts, poetry readings, war protests, and consciousness-raising sessions were attached to telephone poles, store windows, and streetlights. Isi had never seen such a ferment of creative youth energy. She found it quite stimulating.”