POLITIX
Sarah
the Palin accuses Obama of Palling Around with a sixties
bad boy.
This caused me to think
of who I paled around with.
It was like thinking of
what if the police raided your house
right now-what would they find in your boxes of
stuff?
60s PALLING AROUND
I remember one time back in the San Francisco Sixties heydays.
I was with my musician friend Peter Albin, bass player with Big Brother & The Holding Company (often referred to as Janis Joplin's first band).
He was on a business mission as we visited to the then president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Hell's Angels.
Maybe we were there 15 minutes maybe up to a half an hour - certainly not more.
They were making arrangements for a concert the H-A was sponsoring at Winterland Ballroom. BB&HC was the clubs favorite band at that time.
I was a mere kibutzer.
I remember he had a modest but cool Edwardian style house in upper Ashbury just below twin peaks. Tasteful and comfortable although decorus and unpretential.
And far from pre-conceived mental images that I am sure we would all have, he turned out to be a nice every day decent guy to chat with.
I wish I could remember his name.
A few years later I attended the giant free Concert at Altamont that the Rolling Stones threw together in a hap hazard ad hoc manner.
They unfortunately hired the Hells Angels as the "guards" of the event.
Definitely and unfortunate choice.
There was a killing there, in plain site of all.
I was unable to listen to the Stones for many many years afterwards without cringing in my own private embarrassment.
Years later I attended a Willie Nelson concert that was also sponsored by the Hells Angels.
By this time they had developed a professional concert promotion business, that regularly scheduled their favorite performers.
Now I wonder, since I was in the living room of H-A club chapter president, was at an event where a murder and another mysterious death occurred, and then gave money to that organization to witness a pot smoking rebel singer, will I be unable to run for office?
Was I palling around with radical criminals?
What would Sarah the Palin say about this?
by steven bolstad
