Daschle hammond likened the season in which people knew for the hippie or stereotypes about to be, but i really wanted with season of the witch to tell the history of the city as Daschle Hammond might have written it, with the same sense of the citys toughness, of its mystery and of its kind of rugged atmosphere. Many people forget that San Francisco before the 50s era was a tough Irish Catholic, Italian Catholic town, very traditional in many ways and the first wave of hippies who came to this city really have the drawbridge pulled up on them. Many of the kids couldnt get treatment when they had drug drop bombs and other medical problems. They were given the Cold Shoulder by the city and city officials. The cops were after them. So that was only the beginning of what became the first first culture wore a pink right here in San Francisco. Americas first culture war was a civil war within San Francisco itself between these new social forces that began squeezing in the 1960s and 1970s with and once that war really took hold it became quite led the. I write in the book that San Francisco, socalled San Francisco work or in howling with blood and stripes. The book that i should say that a happy ending because they think the city ultimately triumphed or good results as differences after a very butyl brutal time and with the help of a mayor who was not terribly beloved in the city couldnt win the office because she was a little straightlaced in San Francisco, dianne feinstein, but she was the kind of calming hand, the stable political figure that the city needed after all the trauma that went through in the 1970s with jonestown and the peoples temple and the assassination of mary mayor moscone he. This city triumphed because of the 49ers and most people dont think of sports teams and think of having that kind of power but i think the 49ers, team that kind of mirrored the eccentricities of San Francisco itself were very poetic and coach joe walsh in more ways a gladiator really brought the city to gather with us or first super bowl victory in 1982 and finally the way the city dealt with aids was very significant. Heres a city that had gone through a fractious times over and violence directed against gays in the streets and the city could have gone really backwards. It could have gone into an abyss at that point. The early aids of the epidemic and there was panic that began to arise in San Francisco and throughout the country. People didnt know where and they could be in restaurants where subby were working or you can go to Clothing Stores or in the castro. And once again though, the city came together though and again because of Dianne Feinsteins leadership in part, someone who had a medical background and was married to a doctor, and the medical community and the city led by some heroic young doctors, nurses and aides wart, San Francisco general. They didnt know at that point whether they were taking home the infection to their children or their families but they stood their ground and began to treat the sick and the ailing as if they were our children and we were part of San Francisco family. That in essence is what San Francisco values are all about. We take care of our own to gues here. In the rest of the country was rejecting patients and actually dumping patients and putting them on the airplanes to be flown to San Francisco on their dying days, San Francisco took the man into care of them. Really take care of our own. That is the value here and one of the few people who did that going back to the 1960s who is here with us today, dr. David smith who was the brave young doctor back in the 1960s who stood up to the medical establishments in town when they were not treating people on the streets, the runaways who are swarming into San Francisco in 1967, st. Marys hospital nearby would not treat young people who were having drug overdoses and emergency situations. They Haight Asbury free clinic under dr. Smith in his braves staff scraped together 500 to open a clinic in the first day there were hundreds of young people lined up outside the clinic in the next day there were even more. They ran out of medicine and bandages. They were treating people with problems that were more akin to problems in third world countries than a prosperous american city. That but they stood their ground and thats the kind toughness that San Francisco really people forget how to top of the town this is and because of that toughness, we do have lasting institutions here that it become the embodiment of San Francisco values and they Haight Asbury free clinic is high among them. We also have a wonderful resident of the Community Back in those days someone who lived across the street from the grateful dead, maryland kreegel who i interviewed in the book and tells wonderful stories. I hope she tells some about what it was like. The hate was like a small town in the grateful dead and janis joplin wondering around the neighborhood, the jefferson airplane. Maryland, glad you are here as well. Want to end a reading of section from the book that i think also conveys the sense of toughness about haight in particular. Calvin wells told me about this group the neighborhood activists and i was amazed, never read about this group before. To commune called the gay the gooders commune. How many of you have heard that before . Good earth commune had several houses in the neighborhood here. We were not the stereotypes hippies. They were excons and Vietnam Veterans and had been on the streets for a long time. They were tough and they knew how to take care of themselves and they stood their ground. They moved into some of the abandoned houses in the area and fix them up to start businesses, clothing businesses, car mechanics and painting business, housing business and they became a fixture in this community at a time when other distressed neighborhoods like the fillmore were being bulldozed by the redevelopment agencies in San Francisco and that is the great tragedy of coors once thriving black neighborhoods in sand and cisco which was once called the harlem of the west, it had been leveled and the haight couldve gone in that direction as well. By the late 60s hard drugs were taking over the neighborhood and it took the good earth commune in part to stand their ground and help clean up the neighborhood. That is the part of the book i want to share with you right now and then we are going to go to questions but i would love to have backandforth with you all and hear from dr. Smith in maryland. This is chapter 17 in my book. Loves last stand. The haight was a war zone by the time Robin Mccarthy came in 1969 but he had seen worse. Mccarthy had served in vietnam as a counter on a patrol boat on the upper mekong river near cambodia. It was the whole apocalypse now experience he said many years later. I was terrified the whole time. Mccarthy lost a number of friends there. When mccarthy returned to the United States he was based at Treasure Island and Sanford Cisco bait. He tried baking mental him is to get a medical discharge but it wasnt that far from the truth. One time while way too high on white lightning acid he considered suicide. The reality was setting an nfl good to have a gun he recall. Really crazy ones on Treasure Island for the guys who clenched pouches they had made from the scrotums of deadbeats. The navy patched up their heads and put them back into action. The haight beckoned to mccarthy from the choppy cold waters of the paper going Christmas Eve he went strolling in the hippie haven in life magazine. He wasnt looking for but for mystical camaraderie. It was a harder connection to find in those days. As you walk down the haight street some were hanging out in front of him hang hassling anyone who went by. She broke away and a navy man high on lsd fix them with the look of death and they backed off the one. After vietnam it was look the came naturally to mccarthy and it was only enhanced by the acid. 20 yards past the toll bridge mccarthy heard aloud scuffle and the sharp crack of a gunshot. As he spun around the young man blurted out my god they shot me. The kids who ventured the haight from outlying suburb had been shot through the side. Mccarthy threw him over his shoulder and cured into the corner where his friend and girlfriend were waiting in her father steeper. A kartheiser introduction to the haight started out with pure misery, but then he got lucky. He stumbled upon a store called the ever loving trading post where a swarm of young men and women were caught up in the christmas celebrations singing and dancing and exuding good chair. He began talking with them. They had long flowing hair and men and women alike looks beautiful to mccarthy. Even though he was trying to hide where he was from the took one look at him and knew he was military. But they received him warmly. They understood mccarthy, they knew what i was looking for. I was looking for it. Mccarthy spent the night in a dilapidated house in the haight, no vibes, just junkies crashing around. On Christmas Morning he woke up and went back out on the street still searching. He ran into one of the young men he talked to the day before at the ever loving trading post. He had a strong body and his long blond hair and beard he looked like floor. I just wanted to touch not his hair dogun, but his vibes. He asked what he was looking for. He invited mccarthy for christmas dinner at his communal house that evening. When he showed up in 1915 oak st. Headquarters for the good earth commune mccarthy and simply felt he was stepping into a dream of what the haight was supposed to be. The ornate threestory victorian was well kept with shiny oiled wooden floors and staircase and heavy velvet curtains. The high ceiling was dominated by huge tables that look like was constructed of Railroad Ties and then bolted together. The table was built with patterns of food, winter vegetables and mashed potatoes and the room was spilling over with people, men, women and babies of all ages, white, black brown yellow and red. Mccarthy stood there quietly in the midst of the chaos and took it all in. He knew he had found home. The good earth commune was a central part of the second wave of the Haight Asbury settlement. The commune was founded in 1968 i am exconvict whom he had met in prison where he served four and a half years for armed robbery. The idea came while he was on parole and working on the Rapid Transit those being constructed in and debate. He in this excon friends pooled their resources and move to the haight. At first it was a small group of the men and the women you love them but the good earth rapidly growing to us a Sprawling Network of the halfdozen houses in the haight and the loose everchanging membership that was estimated to number over 700 people. The good earth commune took over where the dickers left off in many ways they were tougher and more resilient. The core group is in the commune were lighthearted young men and women, excons vietnam betters streetwise runaways who knew how to survive through to that call themselves the church and claimed pot is a sacrament and preached the useful peace and love philosophy. Still there were no pushovers. They love their neighborhood but they knew it was turning into a juggle jungle. They made it widely known that it was prepared to end the fight. At first it was escorting female members from house to house through the haights streets but then it became a campaign to clean up the streets themselves. By 1970 the neighbor it was swimming with heroin and speed, scrappy crew of junkies that moved into a boarded up house. With communes decided to go. Calling the police was not considered an option. They took the opportunity to raise the good earth commune. Besides the place closed down nearby places and abandoned the Haight Asbury area to the institutes in cloth. So one day a group of the tucker members including mccarthy now known as mouseman simply paid the junkies of visit and convince them to leave. The good earth took over the house fixed it up and moved in some members. Heroin dealers still roam the neighborhood as if they owned it but good earth began to run them out. One afternoon is not pusher named rico came more roaring down the street in his flashy car nearly running over several commune members. They loudly let the dealer know what they thought of him. 10 minutes later rico later rico returns and stepped out of his car with a gun. What are you going to do now he said. He and several commune members began walking straight at him. They had no fear. Rico freak out and raced away said a commune member who was there that day. He and his posse if they have backup. Houston who had grown up in the bible something family and served briefly in the air force for station on the roof of the good earth house with a rifle. I was ready to shoot if necessary he recalled and i knew how to use a rifle from my military and hillbilly background. Not long after rico moved out of the haight. On another occasion said Darryl Ferguson known like many other good earth members by their astrological nicknames witnessed a gangster roughing up as grover and on the street. We stepped in said ferguson and we didnt tolerate that kind of behavior. If you beat a girl youre going to pay for. A big mistake said ferguson have learned how to handle himself on the streets after being kicked out of his familys house when he was just 16. We chased him like lightning down the haight treat and he kept pointing like he was going to shoot me. When we caught and we smashed them over the head with a gun in the hell out of him and drum dumped them in a trashcan and left him for dead. Good earth became a bulwark in a neighborhood battle by crime and deserted by the citys authorities. Some longtime residents like the free clinic dr. David smith credited with saving the haight. Smith no other urban neighbor that admin rescue this way once the scourge of heroin had taken over the streets. Good earth one because they were warrior tribe. They knew how to fight. Thank you. [applause] that is your history, haight. You are tough. So im going to take questions now and we would love to hear from you, particularly neighborhood residents like marilyn and dr. Smith. Do you want to say a few words . Thank you, david. The book was absolutelabsolutel y fascinating and david has played an Important Role in our history. He asked to share memories of our favorite stories that so many thoughts came back as he was talking. The Haight Asbury free clinics played the good earth and touch football. [laughter] who won . Well, thats my story. [laughter] they had a cheerleading squad. Very Haight Asbury and their chair with some like it hot, some like it cold, we like it anyway, go team go. I see one of our former cheerleaders. [laughter] that is a story shed probably rather not hear. I think he told the country here david. Their fullback, was racing for the gametime touchdown and our ceo was the former wrestling champion, knocked him out of bounds and assumed a giant fight fortunately since he was a champion he subdued him. They won the game and everybody smoked a joint and that is the way it was. Peace pipe. We had the fillmore and the Haight Asbury clinic and the good earth come down. This booksmith brings back so many memories and we used to have this building for a rehab center and upstairs we had our board of directors meeting in which many of the people were there. That is when Diane Feinstein was on abortive direct theres. I saw her a month ago and anybody who has been to [inaudible] everybody has those memories. The 49ers and watching the games from the rough and one story was david asked us to share with you, its 1967. The neighborhood was totally crazy. I am a graduate of Uc Med Center and my professor of medicine said david where youre going . Coming down here was a sign of career failure or Mental Illness or someone who was totally insane. And what happened, we were built on rock n roll, the concerts and that is how we survived and we had all of these celebrities come that wanted to visit us. Then of course i would try to get a donation from them. That is all we did, one of which was preminger coming to make a movie. We were totally on volunteers and another part of davids book that was so good was when he said the hells angels ran a Daycare Center or Something Like that. Only at that time but that makes sense. [laughter] so what i did was i worked at San Francisco general you see during the day and the clinic at night. So a Arlo Preminger was going to come and make a movie and make a big donation. There is a big limo parked right out there and had dinner at one of the now closed restaurants just down the way. I told everybody that Arlo Preminger was going to come and this might the an opportunity for a donation for us. We got a lot of volunteer doctors and nobody checked anybodys credentials. The patients, and the staff and whatever. There was this volunteer physici