[pauljeep]

a few times i went shopping with rick & marsha, colebrook,new hampshire, was a nice ride, going east. going past the avreill store, the woman and her family lived in the back, behind the counter. sometimes i'd goe in there to pay for gas, and i could see that they were in the middle of dinner. the gas pumps were still set for 21 cents a gallon, so after you pumped, you had to goe inside, she would ask how many gallons you took, and then use pencil & paper to figger out the total, using the current gasoline price for the day., ,, 7 & a half gal. @ 56 cents = $ 4.20 ...,,,,,,, such a bargain !?!? the rest of the store was like shopping in their pantry,,, who knows how long some of that stuff was sitting there.. going south to island puddle was the other choice. driving into quebec meant going thru customs,, and even though the border stop usually didn't bother us, i didn't like to volunteer for their services. . . just before entering isle pond,, there was another road that went west to newport. which got to be like the closest thing to a city, after looking at the the same crowd of people all the time..... .. island pond had an i.g.a market,, a bank, hardware/feed-grain store,a state store,, another little market/butcher around the corner, the joseph brothers notions and sudries,, they were a couple of sweet guys,, laundriemat, etc, etc,,,, it seemed like we were always in isle pond,, the sheriff & deputy were always there too,, rite at the T intersection stop sign,, waiting to see what kinda car was gonna make a left turn north. my favorite store was the e.charleston store.. bob and nancy ran it with their kids helping out. a few times i can remember we went there with whoevers vehicle, and we would pile out like a bunch clowns from a circus mini car, and this would be with our winter clothing on. twenty people with full books of food stamps, and some with fresh cash,, so after being there for over an hour or so, buying out half the store, and hardly stealing anything at all, as we would be packing up to leave,,, bob would come up to our car and maybe give us a gift for the ride,, couple bottles of wine,,, package of cookies for the kids, whatever,, it didn't matter ,, it was enuf that he would show the apreciation .. bob was also a preacher, but i perfered him as a butcher.. i would get a few pounds of his bacon at atime,,,,during the winter when it could keep. . ..i was hanging out with lynn, when i heard that bob & nancy's older boy had drowned while swimming,, the next few times that i would be passing/stopping there , i would hang out for a while, to help pump gas for their customers, while they were short of help and greaving ... newport mite've been the closest thing to a city,, but i was still four hundred miles away from a good slice of pizza.

[pauljeep]

most of the time, going to newport would be o.k. ,,,, an hour's ride each way, but if you got an early start,, you could have a good day, and still get home before dark. one day i got a ride there, and was walking around, just enjoying the sunshine. newport was big enuf, that you could walk thru town without being recognized by everyone you passed. there were plenty of other longhairs from everywhere else. as i'm leaving 'walts corner' ,, i see marc, ruthie, & some others across the street. an hour later i'm by the lake, watching the ice melt, and i hear some noise / yelling coming from an empty lot. as i get closer, i see marc & T.C. rolling on the ground, fighting, trying to kill each other. knives are out, and there's ruthie and some other people standing around, watching. i walk over to them and watch for a few minutes, the fight breaks up, and everyone goes their own way.. i wind up meeting tom at the bluebird diner, had a few beers, and we played some pool together. hitched a ride, and got home, and that was the end of that day. a couple weeks later, i'm back in newport, and as i'm standing there, holding up the wall,, some cute hippie chick comes over, and asks if i'm from the park, and if i know tom. then she pulls out the local paper and shows me the front page headline,,, " fracas in town ",,, with a picture of everyone watching the fight,, i'm standing in the middle, taller than everyone else. at the time, i never even realized someone took our picture. .... the girl seems o.k. ,, slender with long reddish hair,, which is always nice,, especially when the carpet matches the curtains,,,, and she starts telling me how she knows tom for a real long time. she tells me her name is lynn, and she loves watching " mary hartman,mary hartman " on t.v. and her favorite movies are woody allen. we walked over to the snack bar, and she orders the biggest, thickerest chocolate float shake malt i ever saw.

[pauljeep]

while i was in norton,, alot of my plans never pulled thru. i don't blame anyone but myself. in my jeep and camper i had hooked up 100 watt lite bulbs w/ lamp fixtures. the bulbs looked like house bulbs, but came from boat/marine supply, so they were 12 volt,, instead of 110.,, i would have fun, being in the middle of nowhere,at nite, and people would see me with a fifty foot extension cord drop light, 150 watts lighting up the parking space, and they're trying to figure out where i plugged it in. i was gonna hook up water heaters in some of the different cabins of the park,, but i kept getting distracted,, tom had a ' jacobson wind generater, in his attic,, but we never did that either. i did hook up a propane stove , but hardly used it,,, during the winters,, i would cook on top of my woodburner. mister 'liberty' had made it special for me,,, wish i still had it,,, the top was smooth flat ,, great for cooking the bacon and eggs rite on top of,, whenever we made it to town,, if we were able to hang out in someone's house for a while,, taking a shower would be a must,, rite after checking out the flush toilet.

[pauljeep]

i got used to kerosene lamps, and candles for the nite lites,,,, having a regular refrigerator could've been nice, at least in the summer,, might of kept the chip monks out of the butter,,, when i went to get a large propane tank, the retailer started crying about how he never gets his empty's back, i felt bad, and me and joe spent the next few days gathering as many emptys as we could find.. we had to,, other wise no more gas without deposit,,,,, the radio was fine on battery, so that didn't matter,, the t.v. was a couple of quebec channels,,, so i got used to not watching the 3 stooges,,, running water was something that i was gonna do,,, but as things develop out of control your control,,,, it makes you wonder about moving on. ,,,, .even as i left the park,,, which i didn't realize until after it happened, it started with a weekend,,,, i still kept thinking / believing that whatever else i was doing,,, i'd be heading back to norton rite away. it must of been a year and a half later,, i'd been staying in maine,,, i drove an 'el caminoe" back to the land,, saw some people i didn't know,,, caught up with rick and marsha,,, they were always home!,,, spent some time hanging out in their cabin , back then , the weed mite of been skunk, ,, rick gave me a pile of mail they'd been holding for me, ,,,,, they caught me up with some of the gossip i missed,, told me that whoever was left, was up in canada, picking apples.

[pauljeep]

as a kid growing up in the sixties, i remember 1967,, the summer of love, as some of the best music i ever heard. and that's without counting the beatles. i didn't have a drivers license yet, so to be in my friends car, crammed with a few other people, ,and driving along the parkway listening to the radio was the best we could do. passing a joint back and forth, and sometimes a hashpipe. back then, some girl would roll as we went along, leaving the seeds in with the weed. all my shirts had little holes in them from the seeds exploding. back then , the pot was mexican, or thai stick. they both had seeds, but the sticks were much better tasting. the sticks were probally a little over a gram each, kinda shaped like a pencil , only flatter,from being packed in the ounce. a long toothpick stick was in the middle with the buds tied around it with hemp twine. as i finished hi-school, columbian started comming around. oz's were 2 for twenty-five,, and a nickel was a handful.. no body had scales back then.. 1970 i remember buying kilos for $ 120. ,,, making the pound over 50 each. between whatever weed was around, almost half of it was seeds. jamaican showed up just in time, so there were the different flavors available under nixon. as the war ended, so did the thai weed. what a price to pay. ... during the fourth of july of the bicentenial,, newport was all decked out for the parade,, just as every other town in the usa was... . lynn and me were hanging out with the crowd,smoking and passing a pipe. i saw one of the local cops coming towards us with a look on his face that wasn't happy. i was feeling kinda brave, as if to get arrested for smoking a leaf, on this day of all days, would put me rite up there with the boston tea party. the cop comes rite to us, as lynn inhales and passes the pipe to me. i take a little toke, and the cop asks me to please put it away, lynn exhales a cloud rite in his face, while i finish and put the pipe in my pocket. i'm not sure if she ever forgave for that, she was more ready for a scene than i was, at the last second, i figgered, 'whatthehell ,,, it doesn't matter any more, lets just enjoy the day. ... by the next winter, as i was buying pot again, instead of growing it,,, weed was 4 /5 hundred a lb. quarter lbs. @ 125 ... columbian gold was 50 an oz. sensillmina started strong,,, then skunk showed up, $ 150 an oz. but what a difference in taste. and the sad part was it reminded me of the park weed, the homegrown that was free, and would give away. but the skunk was way better than the homegrown, much better. then hawaiian appeared, 200 a Z,,, and that made the skunk like the homegrown. the california ty sticks arrived .. nice and fat, buds on a stick, tied with plastic fishing line, and weighing a half oz a stick.... .. as regan became president,, the weed was either regular/commercial,, jamaican /ganja,, which almost always came pressed in brick, squeezing the seeds flat.. and the premium pot, loose buds, sweet taste, my favorite, except with the price going higher all the time. i still don't understand what the big deal is,,,, all it is , is just a cigarette with a different flavor,, it's not as if it does anything,,, i get more drunker on a few sips of heineken than the hydro ..

[pauljeep]

my buddy , ritchie, just reminded me what i forgot to mention about the weed during the end of the sixties,, panama red... between the mex. green, dirt weed brown, columbo gold, panama red , dark ganja, and some other plaid stuff,, there was quite a little rainbow back then ,,, but todays green is much better,,, so i've been told..... don't actually know for sure because now i don't goe near the stuff !!!! i can remember having to buy the pouch of bugler tobacco just to get the rolling papers.. some people were using wheat papers,, or stawberry,, i once had a collection of different rolling papers,, all kinds of names,,, some with a wire built in, insta-roach-holder,,, or a pouch pocket to hold the weed... E Z wider was popular,, i would rip off the bottom part before rolling... my friend ,, nybilly liked zig-zag cut-corners,,,, i went with ez wide 1 & 1/2 golden lites for a while,, but the past 30 years i've stayed with big bambu's, there was a big bambu hemp paper ,, but i've been unable to find
them lately.. the only thing i like about the big bambu's is having a longer joint ,, making it easier to relite the roaches

[pauljeep]

going to town [ isle puddle ] all the time, quite a few of the locals knew my name & would always say hello , and stop to chat, i didn't always remember their names, but we would still have conversations ,,, one summer, there was one or two guys that would always call me over, just to talk, and then one day, he says how we should all get together to play a baseball game. this goes on a few times in a row for a couple weeks, but i never think twice about it... finally, one day i must've said something like; ' sounds great, how about next saturday.?' and that was the end of that, once again, never thought twice about it.... . one thing about living at the park after awhile,,, days of the week didn't matter that much, except for trying getting mail on sundays. so anyway,one brite sunny morning i'm hanging out by the bridge,,, kenny and i were gonna have a "pee'ing contest, and all of a sudden, a caravan of cars come driving thru the sand dune pits, must've been at least 40 people from island pond,, many of them dressed in baseball uniforms, the rest were the cheerleaders, and they were ready for the playoffs, with their picnic baskets, and cases of beer. so they come up to me and say they're ready for the game. i told them to give me some time to get a team together, and told them to goe back to the sand pit, and put the bases down. i can't remember everyone that played,, trailer bill, kenny,,wally - with his beard,, laura, and a few others. the puddle people shared their gloves with us,, we shared whatever we had with them, and all in all,, a good time was had by everyone. what ever the score was,, didn't matter,, i'm sure they probally beat the pants off of us, but we all got along,and had fun for the day.

[motorcyclemama]

I am truely amazed to find your thread and even more amazed you remember anything from that time. I went to EPP after Watkins Glen. I stayed after the festival ended to help clean up all the garbage and then went to EPP in a van or bus, I don't really remember how I got there. I don't remember much from my time there other than the laid back pot smoking, wine drinking and tobacco rolling and acid trips. It is all a blur, but it is a happy blur of a time past. I often wonder if EPP is still there and am sad to hear it is not. I stayed in one of the A Frames past the bakery. I do remember wearing bells to let the bears know we were walking through the woods at night. Thank you for your stories. You have made me smile and remember a young hippie girl full of wonder and naivety.

[pauljeep]

hi ya motor mama ... are you hardly dangerous ? ,,, and do you leave wet drippings after you 've been sitting somewhere for a while,,,, it's o.k,,,, you don't have to answer, i'm at my best being a wiseass,, including you and me,,, that makes at least 4our people that i know of to have seen my ramblings,, ,, do you still live in the northeast? the rainstorm last week knock over half my crop,,, thanks to expensive vitamins , they were taller than the neighbors corn... there is a epp page/site on facebook,,, but rite now i don't know the address,,, will try to get it posted in the next day or so,, i miss the park alot,, to have a few good friends, no matter where you are, is a good thing.. one winter i was sick in bed a few days,, laying there alone,, fever & runny nose, and then i start hearing noise outside,, bobby & joanie showed up, bobby was chopping up some fire wood for me, and joanie came in with some hot food,soup. joanie's cabin was not exactly near mine,, and they had walked thru heavy snow coming down. there are somethings that happen, no matter how much time passes, that you just can't forget. i can also remember some other people that would search the whole park, during nice weather, just to borrow 5 dollars,, but life goes on, so i try to make the best of it. ,,,, were you on the land just once ?,,, did you stay a long time ? last week i found a posting from this guy ,,ira,,, his picture was included,, he looked older, and a little more heavy,, his hair is still long,, but i recognized his squinty eyes rite away.

[pauljeep]

ji've always been sorry to have left the park,, but one benefit was being able to catch up with movies,, which i've always enjoyed, at least the ones i like. growing up in nyc, we had on channel 9, the " million dollar" movie. one movie, repeated every nite, and then a few times in a row over the weekend. king kong played every other month, and i would watch it every time. along with dracula ,and frankenstein. i never saw the godfather, had no idea what it was about, except for reading the " mad " magazine version. .... then in the middle of the eighties, i got my first vcr, finally got to watch " the godfathers",, complete saga, along with the first couple "star wars",, and a few times i even saw some in the theater ; road warrior,, the forbidden zone,, raiders of the lost ark,, american werewolf in london,, blues brothers,, quest for fire,, armadeus,, usual suspects,, reservoir dogs,, goodfellas,, platoon,, snatch,, and a bunch of others. ,,,,,,,,,,, towards the end of the '70's,, i drove my girlfriend 'cookie' to florida in her rambler "pacer',,, which was like driving a fishbowl, we took over a week to get there,, there was no rush, but i remember as we started the trip,, the radio was warning about "the alanta child killer" the whole trip down we were scared to rest at nite in an empty gas station, i didn't realize the killer was only after little black boys,,,, stayed in daytona a few weeks, and flew back to jfk on a sunday nite,, got in my willy's to goe to the bar, within five minutes , the radio says that john lennon had just been shot and killed,, i still haven't recovered.... within that time frame,, either before or after,,, i'm hanging out in brklyn with my buddy,, cactus bob,, in bay ridge,,, the "son of sam " killer got a couple people 2 blocks from where we were,, this nut job was already on the loose for quite a while,, cactus bob told me " watch what happens now,,, they're gonna get this guy really soon now ! ",, he knew this because the last victims were italian,, which meant that the boys with the gold pinky rings were gonna goe after him and cactus was rite,, except the police got him first. too bad!!! ,,,,,, today is tuesday, and this morning was the anniversary of the 9/11 bombings, was it nine years agoe? i don't remember,, but i do remember some forty years agoe,,, one morning a french guy shot a wire across the top of the world trade centers and was up there for an hour,, doing somersaults and flips,,, tip toeing back and forth,, not letting the cops catch him until he was ready to give up,,, i was able to see phillipe pertite do his thing from a mile away,, he was like spiderman on his web, and from where i was, he was smaller than an ant,,,,,,, so if it was ' nine' years agoe, i was in manhatten on a monday nite,,, i was in "little italy" around 7: at nite,,,, finished my veal cutlet hero, and went across the street to chinatown,, spent an hour driving all thru the 'hood, and wound up by bowling green terrace. the streets were totally empty. i was by myself, with a pocket full of joints, i parked and walked around the trade centers until after midnite,, pee'd a few times on the cobble stone alleys and listened to the radio. for a few hours i owned that whole neighborhood,, there was no one else around at all. by the time i got home and bed, it must've been after 2:am,,, for some reason, i woke up early the next morning, went downstairs and put the t.v. on. .. the picture i saw was the trade center on fire,, thinking it was a stupid movie,, i changed channels,, only to see the same thing,,, within 5 minutes, the second building got hit. there are somethings i just can't forget. ... like when president kennedy was killed..