Fritz Perls meets his match
This took place around 1967. IIRC. The years fly by.
To make the story complete, you have to understand Helmut Deetjen. Grampa Deetjen was a crusty old guy, to say the least. He was known for coming into the tiny Deetjen's dining room, spotting a man with beard or woman with beads and patchouli scent and going ballistic. He would get red faced and yell: "NO HIPPIES!" "GET OUDT",like some pre Arnold Terminator. At one point he put up a "No Hippies" sign. Ed "Guardian" worked there then, an extremely gentle man who gave away little bells. He could never tell someone to leave, so the errant hippie would come in, be seated by Ed, order and sit and enjoy the wonderful ambience. Mozart, Vivaldi or Bach would play in the background and the sun limn the leaves in the front window. Peace
( A side note here. In Henry Miller's "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch", Miller talks about Jack (Selig) Morgenrath. The title of the book referring to the brilliant color of Big Sur Oranges, was almost certainly due to Selig. (At least he told me this. ) Henry was talking to Selig on Partington Ridge, and asked Selig;"Jack, why are the oranges so bright?" Selig replied:" It's the ambience, Henry, it's the ambience.")
Back to the Inn. Our errant hippie is sitting down, enjoying the 85 cent oatmeal and 25 cent coffee, perhaps considering a trip to Nepenthe for lunch, as Ambie's (Ambrosia Burgers) were about $2 with three bean salad. Suddenly a choleric elderly Dutchman comes through the doorway, looks at the blissed out hippie, and starts yelling loudly: "NO HIPPIES. GET OUDT!" The hippie would simply be astounded and usually frightened by this appalling specter, get up, and swiftly exit. I think Grampa had a particular fondness for this bit of tyrannical theater.
Into this particular ambience came a party from Esalen one night. Fritz's birthday party. Fritz, now, had a full beard and wore his trademark coveralls, and he had an enormous lech for younger women, a category that included any woman under 45 or 50. I now understand. Time and drugs have wiped the memory clean of the parties there, probably Dick Price, Teddy, me ( I had to be there, right?), Abe Levitsky?, and three or four others. I wonder if any of them are still alive today. So the party started, conversation sparkled, as usual dominated by Fritz's rather powerful presence. About halfway through, Grampa Deetjen entered the dining room and saw an "elderly hippie" regaling an audience with tales and conversation. ( Remember, Fritz was a student of Freud's and HAD tales, I heard enough to be aware of the course of history that had resulted in him being at Esalen). As the birthday party had reserved the room and paid a pretty penny, the only thing Grampa could do was stand in the doorway and glare. Which he did, as Fritz glared back and we all watched these two patriarchs give each other the stink eye for several minutes.
EsalenThank you for sharing some of these early days with those of us who arrived on the scene much later, and love Big Sur and Esalen -- light side or shadow.
Many blessings and prayers for your ill friend, too, as she copes with her life.
d.
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us
to an understanding about ourselves" - Carl Jung
How interesting to have witnessed all of that- One can just feel the sense of terror in being a hippie and encountering Helmut Deetjen and yet how he must have felt when Fritz Perls was there. What a meeting!
Why was the old man so incensed by hippies, especially when that whole area (I visited there for the first time in the 70s) seemed to me as a foreigner to be full of hippies. Was he afraid of the changing times. Anyway thanks I loved your story-telling style. Could you put it on Talking Stick ?
I'm not sure what talking stick is but would like to discover.
In the sixties, the influx of hippies from SF and all over the US, into both Big Sur, became a huge issue with the local property owners. For years, they lived in Big Sur ( or decades) with no contact with anyone other than each other and the tourists. A community 60 miles long with maybe 400 residents. Everyone knew everyone else and social and behavioral lines were clear cut. The older landed gentry ate at Nepenthe and knew Bill Fasset. They all sat together and played Dominoes. The working class ate at Post's ( which was then a small restaurant at the top of the hill.). The Coast Guard got drunk and fought in Redwood Lodge. The weirdos went to River Inn.
Then came the Summer of Love and suddenly hundreds of backpacking hitchhikers showed up, and their sanitary and cultural habits were not to the liking of some of the residents. Note that in 1965 you could drink out of any creek in Big Sur. By 1968 you were taking your life in your hands, as campers by the hundred fouled the water systems. I am sure Stirling has a few tales here. I remember chasing people away who were "doing their business" next to our well.
The locals were frightened, purely and simply. Their rustic lifestyle was being changed, and changed rapidly. One of the worst incidents I saw was when the Postmaster (Don McQueen's mother) was being threatened by a troublemaker who wanted his mail specially treated ( many of the hippies used "Poste Restante" to get their mail. ) This poor old woman was frightened to death and her son, Don, showed up waving a shotgun and yelling.
At this time, Esalen was hardly considered a community asset, it was viewed with suspicion and disdain by many locals.
There were "No hippie" signs at Deetjen's and Lucia Lodge.
http://www.ithou.org/talkingstick
Above is the link to Talking Stick on this site. I love it myself and have sort of monopolized it in the past.
I would, as I am sure many others would love to hear your stories through the spoken word. Not that essence of the written word is lost-it isn't. Just makes me want more!
Thanks a lot for explaining that-It makes a lot of sense how Deetjen and others would feel toward the hippies.
I hope we get to hear your voice to go along with the stories. Anjela
Thank you again Buzz.
Memories of taking my 70ish mother to a health food store where she applied a vice like grip to my arm, she was so terrified of hippies. But she wanted her yeast and stone milled flour, so she braved the den of... The Grain Train.
great stories Buzz