LET’S SING: IF YOU’RE GOING TO BLACK ROCK CITY …

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by jim holt

I was a pretty precocious kid as a hippy.

I dressed more colorfully than any character featured on the Sgt. Peppers album cover – before the record was released. I wanted to go to Woodstock but I wasn’t old enough to drive and I wanted to go to The Summer of Love festival in San Francisco but my bedtime was 9 o’clock. I had all of Melanie’s albums. I knew all the words to Eric Burdon’s DOWN IN MONTEREY. I was ready.

I remember going to Niagara Falls with my dad and his mom who was visiting from Manchester. All the photos taken that trip are of me looking like Paul McCartney’s little brother – paisley shirt, sunglasses, Beatle hat…. what’s that I’m holding? Here, turn the light on that photo …. there it is. a wee box. it’s in every shot.

A wee black transistor radio.

If we could shine a light on that music the way we shine a light on photos, we’d see it clearly …. there it is …. there it is …..Scott MacKenzie singing IF YOU’RE GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO, MAKE SURE TO WEAR SOME FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR ….

Instead, i was going where my family took me. On the day of the photos, that meant stepping onto The Maid of the Mist.

But, i had the flowers. I put flowers in books and I enhanced every non-cloth surface with drawings of peace symbols. “I’m on my way, Scotty. I’m on my way.”

And, so, indeed, a bit late perhaps, 40 years exactly, i found my way to San Francisco on the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, my car loaded down with handmade drum shells, whispy sarongs, bulbous paper mache balls intended for art and flowers …. all for Burning Man.

I didn’t fully appreciate the fullfillment of my committment to Scott MacKenzie until later. You see, I had to pickup a friend from the airport, flying in from Canada for Burning Man. And, then, just as Burning Man left San Francisco and Baker Beach, so did I, following it out to Nevada and the Black Rock Desert.

Once in Nevada, It donned on me that if there was any natural transformation of The Summer of Love it would have to be (for me, undeniably) the migration of 47,000 people to Burning Man (and judging by my pocketful of names and numbers, most of them from Berkeley). The press notes issued by the Media Mecca staff at Black Rock City go great lengths to make sure journalists do NOT associate what happens in BRC to anything hippy-ish. good luck.

For me, it was, in part, living up to my promise made years ago to be there – peace, love & understanding – uh-hun. I’m there brother. And, i’m willing to bet that if Scotty was alive, and well, that he would be there too. Maybe he’s reading this.

But, jimmy, you crazy stuck-in-the-past hippy you, where is your proof? Just because this past summer was the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love? What proof, brother? What proof?

Well, at the risk of going a bit too ‘Age of Aquarius’ on your ass …. allow me to point out: a lunar eclipse on Aug. 28 at 3:30 am; a double rainbow over Burning Man on the last day of calendar summer, Aug. 31, followed up the very next day, on Sept. 1, with the earth’s rare trip through the Aurigid meteor shower, last seen 1911.

You can always put fresh flowers in your hair, brother, even if it’s grey.

Hey, Scotty, I’m home.

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http://www.jamesarthurholt.com http://web.mac.com/jimsgarage

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