SIXTIES QUIZ 4
THE MARCH OF TIME
TIME MARCHES ON
Questions from Daniel T Boron-Brenner
Answers from the other side of the O'Reilliken Galaxy1. In the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe described the Merry
Pranksters as a proto-religious movement as much as it was the
fermentation of a counterculture. Is this the truth or did Wolfe
exagerrate?Gotta remember Tom Wolfe was at the peak of his whammo blammo new journalism style and coming up with all kinds of exaggerations in the name of freedom of writing religion.
1.a. If Wolfe is on the money, did the Pranksters realize what was
going on at the time or is Wolfe's observation borne out of hindsight?Pranksters knew what they were doing they just didn't always know that they knew it. In hindsight the heavy weight of knowledge is borne best by bowing one's head in obeisance.
2. What role do you think LSD has come to assume in its modern
incarnation?I don't know, maybe as a recreation or party drug. I certainly hope its role remains one of consciousness expansion, for that was its main purpose back in the day
2a. My first introduction to it was under strictly recreational
terms. After having taken it, I I discovered it to be a much more
expansive and cerebral high than marijuana or alcohol but the fact remains
that it has lately been lumped in with them under the all-encompassing
label of "Drugs". Do you think this is a fair assumption or a knee-jerk
reaction stemming out of conversative fears?The irony is that the CIA experimented with LSD to use it as a means of control or brainwashing but even they caught on that LSD freed up the mind, not tied up the mind. So nothing to do but make it illegal and lump it with cocaine and speed and other mind numbing drugs. Did the same thing with mushrooms and pot.
2b. Do you still take LSD?
As Kesey once said, "We are like Pavolov's dogs. All you have to do is bang on the side of the bus and we begin to hallucinate."
(to be continued)
heres a little something called the" Swamp Stomp" I penned while da bus wuz still in the woods just before Zane annouced Furthurs intrepid trip to ze orchard;
Theres a Bus down the road,though you,d never know ,
unless you feel it in your Heart,
Shines a Psychadelic Rainbow about da round world,
May our Freak Flag always be unfurled,
Furthur by day, Furthur by night, Furthur we go
On our conciousness flight, like a Pilot in da Sky,
in da center of God's Eye,we fly, Sky Pilot High,
Sky Pilot High, Sky Pilot Fly, In da Sweet Bye&Bye,
Wake Up your Soul w/a blend of Blues&
Righteous Rock&Roll,Pioneers on de Orygun Trail,
Pioneers of a Mystical Frontier, And da
Trees & da Bus & da Fog & da Moss, Tree Frogs
& Rain, Atypically Insane
Tanks Much,
Further A. Head
email from a guy calls himself 7up Well... isn't that special... These A-heads portray themselves as all conscious and shit and then dump an oil leaking old vehicle in an ecologically sensitive wetland area. Oh, forgive me, I meant "The Swamp". Right. But, yay, now it's out of there, after how many years of polluting the groundwater and aquifer?
my answer:
If it weren't fer the fack the engine and tranny and rear end are all sealed up and not leaking anything I imagine the nutrias and other critturs and all those blackberry bushes and other fauna mighta been kinda upset, but yeah, it's probly better the bus isn't in the swamp any more jest in case . . . jest in case . . .
I should clarify something about where the bus was parked in the so-called swamp. The swamp was a name Kesey gave to a swath of land on the east side of his property where a ditch ran through that carried runoff water from the slopes of Pleasant Hill a couple miles south of his farm. The ditch ran through several different properties, through Kesey's, under the road through culverts that are too small in diameter to handle the heavy rains of winter, then across a huge pasture and on to the Willamette River.
In one part of Kesey's the ditch is wide and shallow and in the winter the land there floods and that is the swamp proper. Just north of that, the ditch is deep and that area doesn't flood. There is a high wide spot just east of the ditch with trees and a pasture. That's where the bus was parked, next to the pasture, nestled in the trees. Can't call that a wetland or a swamp in actuality but you know how those names stick.
Anyway, just to reassure you there was no ecological disaster in the happenings; but as aforesaid, just as well the bus is out of there and sitting now in the orchard.
A-head
Kapn, a few questions. Respectfully yours, John Budan
1. Enclosed are 2 pictures. The picture with Kesey on the roof does NOT have 3 little lites uner the FURTHER sign, also it doesn't have a plastic bubble on the roof. I'm confused? Is it because these are not the same bus or were those 3 little lites added later and the plastic bubble added later?
John, the pic with the bus with kesey on the top was taken in 1964 on the Oregon coast after we got back from the trip to New York City. By then someone had repainted the name on the front and spelled it with 2 Us.
The pic with the 3 little lites and the plastic bubble was taken much later, when the bus was retired to the swamp at Kesey's farm. Those lites and the plastic bubble were added to the bus in 1966 in San Francisco. The plastic bubble was used for shooting movie film from inside the bus while we were moving down the road.
2. When you guys visited Kerouac did he go down and look at the bus or look inside or was he ever actually inside the bus?
Kerouac stayed inside the apartment we were using in Manhattan. He, as far as I know, never went inside the bus or looked inside. But he could have. When Cassady and Ginsberg brought him over to the apartment they might have had him look at the bus which was parked out in front.
3. Do you know if the bus has the original motor?
The original motor was replaced in 1964 in Minneapolis at the International Harvester garage when the motor went kaplooey on us. The replacement motor is still in the bus.
4. On the original bus I saw a photo was there with a poem written on the glove box door. I wonder if that was a poem with some writing.
Could be, I can't remember.
5. Why would he want to store it in a swamp for so many years if they were planning on restoring it?
Kesey never planned to restore it once it was rusting comfortably in its home in the swamp. He had a new Further that is the working Further and he said many times, "The bus is like the starship Enterprise. Despite its many incarnations there is only one Starship Enterprise." The idea to restore the old bus is something that has come up in the past few years.
