Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

I'm taking myself back over the years today, to my later teens, ages eighteen to twenty two, when I was mad, bad, and dangerous to know, well I thought I was, and I have to admit I met more eccentric people in those four years than I have done in the rest of my life. I trailed around in long velvet dresses or faded prints, wrapping myself in a vintage shawl. You always knew when I was approaching by the clinking of my bangles, the rattling of my numerous necklaces and the cloud of patchouli oil [which I still love as incense] that enveloped me. My feet were sometimes bare, my eyes were decorated like rainbows, with my tin of Mary Quant greasy eyeshadow crayons, my hair was very long and dark and I was known to occasionally wear flowers in my hair. This is a photograph of me towards the end of that time, with my cat of that era, Jasper. The eyeshadow art had calmed down by then. Sorry about the state of the photograph, and my head chop, but it was the best of a bad bunch if you can believe it.

I began thinking about this time and what were the cultural influences in my life, what were the books, the music and the icons? I started thinking along these lines purely because of a chance remark I made to another blogger. I noticed in her profile she had a book listed that I had read around those years, she had recently bought it again, and I happened to comment that I loved that book, but it probably tells a different story now to the one I remember. Sometimes talking to old friends, I find you would not think we were all talking about the same incidents, we all seemed to live in this wonderful world of our own. Some of these mad years I spent at Art College, and I have to be honest and I look back in astonishment at what we did without thinking about consequences and got away with.

I'll cut, with great difficulty, the list of books, and music down to the five greatest influences, and I will be very interested to see if any of you had or still have any of them in your collection. The numerical order means nothing, it is just five greatest influences, apart I have to say, from the one listed first in the books.


The first,and surely one of the best book manuals ever is The Whole Earth Catalog.
I still have it tattered and falling to pieces, it was always the first thing you used to look at for information and to find further books on the subect. I remember sitting up all one night reading the small story that was serialised in bottom corner of the page.








The second book is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. The adventures of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters traveling America in their madly painted day-glo bus. How, at that time, it seemed like it must have been the adventure of a life time, we all wanted wildly painted vehicles. There were five or six of us who used to travel around in a wreck of an old car, and my did we have some adventures in it, chugging around the country music blaring from the speakers.





Third is Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. A fictionalised account of his friendship with poet Gary Snyder, a contrast of his outdoor life, climbing mountains, and leading to his stint the next year as a fire lookout, and his wild city life and its drunkenness and parties. This made me think more about Eastern thought and religion amongst other things.

The fourth book is Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan. I adored his quirky books. Trout Fishing was a series of sketches, about such things as a character by that name, a hotel by that name, and actually a fishing tale with the name.

The final book is Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee, a beautiful book about a small boy in the earlier years of the 1900's, living with his family in the country. I have since reread this books many times.

There are other books I could have mentioned such as Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny, The Country Girls, by Edna O'Brien, I loved the sass and cheek of those girls, and Women in Love by D>H> Lawrence, which I am no longer keen on, but then I loved the two sisters in the book, their clothes and their penchant for wearing brightly coloured stockings, and I began a craze of wearing purple, red or blue tights based on that.


Onto music, I think I will just list these musicians and my favourite album by them:-
Joni Mitchell - Got to admit can't decide on a favourite I love them all
Grateful Dead - American Beauty
Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
Neil Young - After the Goldrush
The Incredible String Band - Wee Tam and Big Huge



Well I know that is five but I have got to add a Bob Dylan, its my list so as a bonus I'll add Blonde on Blonde.

What are your favourites from that time?

I was lucky enough to see The Grateful Dead twice, when they toured England, and also saw Jimi Hendrix play in my local town cinema, on the stage, which seems incredible now to think of, and he wasn't even top of the bill. I loved poster art from San Francisco and loved making candles and brightly coloured Mexican eyes from sticks and wool. I went to a large music festival, living for three days in conditions [a sea of mud] that makes me shudder to think about it.

It's fun to look back at those days, and remember how I used to be, but its a calmer life I live today and thoroughly enjoy, but everyone should make the most of their youth, as I constantly tell my children.