I am reminded of early years of exploring the world with Dave. Nice.
https://music.youtube.com/search?q=san+francisco+scott+mckenzie
We bought a van & gassed up & left for San Francisco with $600 & a
bunch of canned goods "borrowed" from our families. I felt proud I
paid toward the van with tips I earned when working at the Big Daddy restaurant
at the K-Mart Plaza in the Sault. En route to San Francisco we made stops
at a commune, met hitchhikers, & worked for a month in Vancouver to earn
more money.
In
Vancouver I found a job at a restaurant who had a cook I had first met when
working at the restaurant at Pancake Bay trading post. What a surprise!
(He worked different places in summer & winter because he was from Spain
& didn't like snow,)
Driving
further down the west coast highways our van broke down & policemen helped
us find places to have it repaired inexpensively. We thought people were
nice or maybe they just want us to keep on moving through!
When
we finally arrived in San Francisco we parked/camped on the park panhandle,
listened to a lot of music, went to concerts & made money by selling hippy
newspapers. Eating mostly tomato sandwiches, Hershey chocolate bars &
Pepsi Cola was cheap & fun. Exploring the Haight was fun.
We
sold the hippy outfits we wore (tourists liked to take our photos & give
tips) before leaving to go back home to find jobs & besides we had friends
in Toronto to crash with until we found a place to live. In Toronto our van
broke down on the street we ended up living for a while. I found jobs
without having a telephone but using a pay phone to check if my applications
were approved. My first job in Toronto was at Manufacturer's Life (head office)
as a file clerk. I had ambitions to be a key punch operator
eventually.
Dave
found day labor jobs for a while at the docks & other places. It was
then he resolved to go back to school which he did. I typed his papers on
an old typewriter which was handy when I tried to write poems. Maybe it's not
poetry but it is my own thoughts.
