Hi Dolce,

Yes, I remember sliding down the slide at Cordonices and playing in Rose creek, Live Oak Park Annual Waffle picnics, swimming at Lake Anza, The Little Train, climbing Indian Rock, Washington and Franklin schools, King Jr. High, hail in the North Berkeley BART station lot when it was just a lot, National Guard trucks waking me up at 4AM on their way to the University, the Shanty Town riots, playing chess with classmates whose dad would smoke pot, friends whose parents didn't wear clothes at home, "Now Serving 100% Beef Hamburgers" on the BHS cafeteria menu, "Rollercoaster" at the 6th grade dance, playing on the People's jungle-gym at Ohlone on the way to and from school everyday, sprawling at Sproul, swimming at Strawberry, high diving from the King pool, Grove Street!, spitballs at Fat Alberts, skating at the ice rink, Luis Alvarez lecture on Dinosaur extinction at UCB, also at UCB a lecture almost disproving astrological prediction, Psychic Faire, working The Friends of the Library annual booksale and coming home with boxes of cool books every year, slurpies from the Solano 7-11. Seeing Disney's Bambi at the main library when I was 6 and crying. UC Theatre. (Whew! Its almost my birthday and I'm nostalgic for the past.) Swensons, Ortmans, Eddy's. T-Square and tetherball. T-ball League. Afterschool pottery class. "Hey, you kids!" Bicycle licensing. Giovanni's, La Val's, Bongo Burger, Blue Nile, Cafe Mediterranean, Roma, and Topdog! Co-op, Hinks, Globe Stamps, Games of Berkeley, Toby's Toys, Woolworths, REI, and Silverball...wow, the list goes on and on. "Farms in Berkeley?" and The Little Farm. Riding in my uncle's Model-T in the bicentennial July 4th parade. Shakey's and Woody Woodpecker movies. The Book Mobile. Better stop now before I become overwhelmed!

See you at the "How Berkeley Can You Be" parade.

Timbo

yes, remember shows at Ruthies, Keystone Berkeley, B'square, working at KALX when in High School. Lived other places but love Berkeley..definately have the same left leaning tendancies with a strange distruct of organizations/orthodoxies of any kind. Growing up here makes us all a little twisted I think.

The Waving man on MLK - we called him Mr. Waverly - he would shout "Have a GOOD day!" as we drove to school every morning.

The fruit stand on MLK and Dwight Way.

Ice cream parlors - Mccellans and??? on Solano... and >???? on Shattuck (started with an E?)

There was a burrito place on Oxford and Center - where the starfucks is now - that was my first burrito.

Rocky Horror was Saturday nite - but Road Warrior was Friday nite.

Keg-mont park.

The tennis courts at live oak - excellent place to bake.

and when people who are not from Berkeley mistake me for a hippie I have to illustrate the difference between a hippie and someone growing up normally in Berkeley....favorite memories....when it was quiet enough in the mornings to hear the, from the Berkeley hills, buoys ringing in the bay echoing across the water.......or tripping late at night in tilden with 20 kids, getting caught by the rangers and being made to swear on fig leaves we would not be in the part after hours again.....maybe it was standing in line in Freddys market during riot night in the 90s with the windows boarded up and only locals inside...I was next to this cop...we looked at each other......it was understood who we are and where we are from....he he he

Tear gas in the streets during kindergarten, living on a block (Russel street) with students sharing kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms, birthdays at Tilden Park ...

ASUC bowling alley and pool tables. The pool hall on University just above Sacramento.

Anybody here remember Kip's burgers? bonus for the backroom.
Buttercup Bakery on College with the waitress with the big hair and painted eyebrows?

You are so on the money when you wrote "a lingering distaste for orthodoxies of any kind"! And I really thought that was a particular quirk of my own psyche. I am blown away, and filled with pride.

Does anyone remember the name of the bar/venue on lower sproul, just below the steps? I think I am a little younger the many in this group but the couple who lived in my folks basement took me to see the Freiky Executives there whn I was 10- my first concert. I remeber them talking the doorman into letting me in and then letting me sip at their beers...
Also the Berkeley square and did anyone here go to Your PLace Too? under the freewat -Might be just in Oakland but whatever

Anyone remember the kiddy korrals at the old Co-ops? The one on Shattuck with the dutch door and the rubber dinosaurs and wooden toy cars? I vaguely remember the one on Telegraph, it was far down a hallway...would love to hear memories of these places. The old Co-op on Telegraph had its own laundrymat and old diner-style coffeeshop counter. I remember getting cupcakes with sprinkles from the bakery.

preschool thru 3rd grade on cherry st. in the mid 60s. walking home from school and stopping at a waterbed shop on telegraph, lying on the beds and watching a pschedelic slide show on the ceiling. bott's ice cream, banana and chocolate. the produce bus, a converted schoolbus that was lined with fruits & veggies, all the kids would run out of the house and chase the bus til it stopped. then our moms would come out to shop. some kid who wrote "monty strikes" and a sequential number - everywhere. in the parks. tilden park for sure. a 2-story house that we would drive by just to see a monkey that lived on the second floor. the campinile. emerson elementary, making real clay hand-built pottery with glazes. CORE (congress on racial equality) meetings at our house. one day when i was ten years old, my parents said we were moving to deep east texas. serious culture shock.

After hours at Receiving Studios, Wine Dinners with LSD laced punch and Marijuana brownies at Barrington Hall, Funk night at Ruthie's Inn, Berkeley Square. Doies anyone remember the group "Oquisha Paradox"? I loved them. Oh and "The Tomato Sauce Factory" after hours in Oakland.

My first job was passing out fliers on Durant and Telegraph in 1980/1981.

Remember the guy who walked around yelling "Rarrrrr (Rare)"?

Hanging out on the pottery guy Russell's truck hood on Durant and Telegraph with my friend Chris, Hester, Sara D.

Who remembers hanging out on "Bogart Hill" behind the Greek theater at concerts? I remember Jefferson Starship concert, Santana.

LSD in People's Park.

Appearing in a photo in The Daily Cal with Hester and Sara D. under the caption: "Derelicts and Delinquents Plague Durant Avenue".

Seems like a lifetime ago.

Who started this thread? Does anyone know. That person has unsubscribed. But one of you must remember who it was. Any clue?

Vine Variety: a candy bar or a turtle was a nickel, and you could buy all sorts of candies and stuff for a penny. Fountain on Shattuck outside the main library. Grampa getting teargassed walking through UC campus. Codornices park, the old playhouse, the slide, and rope swing up the creek. McPhee's Junior Bootery on Center at Fulton giving you a balloon as you left. Buffet at the Claremont Hotel with punch instead of water dispensers and all you could eat desserts. Laurel and Hardy movies at Shakey's Pizza Palace. Nearly falling from the Indian Caves. The "tree in the middle of the road" on LeRoy. Swimming to the floating dock in Lake Anza. Monkeying with the soda machine at the seminary at the top of Marin so you could snake a bottle for everyone. Washers from abandoned tractor on Shasta as slugs - and gathering balls, washing em to sell to golfers - to buy candy from the machine at the Tilden Golf Course. Picking blackberries near dead Man's Path -Stevenson to Miller and white wood barrier at bottom scrawled with "Gril, You a Bish." The Green in Park Hills. Moon rocks at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Tilden Park Day Camp, when the counselors found/raided an herb patch. Riding on the outside of AC Transit buses, hanging on tor the billboards. Top Dog on Shattuck during lunch at BHS, someone grabbing your dog and running out with it. Nights clambering over the fence with cases of beer to swim in Strawberry Canyon pool, sneaking into the Greek Theater after shows, and into Memorial Stadium to party on the 50 yard line.

UA Theater full of pot smoke, watching "Rockers" and "The Harder They Come" and every other movie they showed there.

Roller skating all over town even at night..

Coffee coffee coffee at The Med and The Ren.

Riding on the back of motorcycles up in the hills through Tilden and Grizzly Peak.

Hot tub parties.

All the house parties/ dancing all night.

All the shows at Keystone, The Berkeley Square, Ruthies, La peña.

Falafaels.

Throwing boomarangs with Michael Girvin.

anybody remember the "ufo launching pad" - that circular courtyard on UC campus we all used to go do drugs at?

some time back I made a List of old school berkeley and local bands. I can't find that thread. can anyone help?

thanks

In the car after the Berkeley riot… dad was driving us out of town, down Grove street I think. I remember what I thought was a tank blocking our way (Dad says it as really an armored truck) Men with guns, angry, pointing the guns into to the car at us.

My nursery school, Montessori got tear gassed. By accident of course.

At the Walker’s house when a riot broke out. I remember a man with a bloody head, running into the house, said “They have both ends of the street blocked of and they are going to kill us” He ran through the house and into the back yard to get away. Mrs. Walker said what really happened was the police blocked both ends of the street and started beating people’s heads in. She said she did not think it was one man in the house but several hundred running on either side of the house and through the yard to get away from the police.

Mom was on the board for Women for peace, we would have envelope stuffing parties at our house. I got to lick the stamps if I was well behaved.

Our phone was bugged (Because of Mom’s anti war activities)
Gas shortages... getting gas on odd or even days. The waving man on Grove.

Mom was president of Coop food stores for awhile… I remember making art in the daycare/baby sitting place there. Ohhh and those egg salad sandwiches at the sandwich bar there… Ohhh Man.

Pete Seger, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez (All at once maybe?) at the Berkeley community theater… I was in kindergarten I think.
Grateful dead concerts with Hester. Berkeley square Berkeley Stone, Greek theater (I could hear the music from there in my bedroom in the summer) … and that leads me to the SF Broadway scene… that is for another group though.

Peace Marches, holding signs.
Strawberry Canyon pool, Claremont Hotel pool, BART

The park at the rose garden with the long cement slide and the haunted house at the top of the hill.

The station hamburger place on Claremont an Ashby.

The Jewish holocaust museum on Russell street.

Tilden park train, merry go round, horses. Later working at Grizzly peak stables, so that I could get free rides. Lawrence hall of science.

Sweat dreams candy store on College Ave when it was no larger then a closet.

That ice cream shop on College where you could get a 25cent mini cone or was it a nickel?

My first set of roller skates

1979-ish Bailey and Tamara (from the band called_____)
had the coolest apartment up the street from my studio apartment on Blake street. It had skylights and odd architecture… It was a reallllyyyyy cool apartment.

The bubble lady, Julia. She used to hug me and make (yes insist/make) me buy her poetry books. I still have some.

The Hate man. He yelled “I hate you!”. He liked it when you told him “I hate you too!”. The dot man and Surge…. see my page about Hester, no need to repeat about the here
(www.rebawho.com/hester/memories.html)

Hanging out in the grass covered hills over Berkeley.
(Now there are just houses there… but once there was earth)

Ohhhhhh and the Koala incident. The Berkeley City council (I think)… They imported those Koalas, to eat the eucalyptus, that was causing fire hazards… but no one thought to actually check and see if we had the right type of eucalyptus… we didn’t. All the starving koalas had to be caught.

Names left out to protect the not so innocent… Remember the boy that went around writing/tagging “Zap!” On everything! All over Berkeley… His brother was really handsome too….

That guy everyone new was the rapist called ‘Stinky’ but he never was arrested… whats up with that?!?

Dancing in a circle in the dark on a new sod field up in the Berkeley hills… was a new university ball field? Throwing energy balls to each other.

The muffin family. We had a news letter run by David De Groot… for a while anyway. The cozmonites.

Ohhhhhh one night (1977??) going to a new part of town, cause a group of kids called the ‘ozone rangers’ were going to light off a buncha home made explosives, rockets….

Barrington hall. They gave Jenocide and I food a couple times… when we were hungry… Vegetables if I remember.. we went back to the apartment and cooked them. There were these older guys that hung out down stairs at night… they were into baseball big time… seemed like that is all they talked about. Ohhh and Hugo in his skin tight leather pants looking like a young sexy Jim Morrison.

Concerts in the park.

“Skate board Kenny”, in a low stairwell at the church across from People’s Park (I think??) He was saying “I am always in control always aware of my surroundings…” BAM! Slammed his head into a ladder that was perched in the rafters… Heh! Knocked him on his butt.

Going into US Berkeley campus at night and waiting for the cops to come and them running through the creak and all over… they would chase us, just because we ran!

Rocky Horror picture show!

Hester, Kristen, Lorrie Hart, Melissa, Jim and john Hanscum (?) Jennifer, Jenicide, Chuck, Steve Goldsmith, Julia lefevor, Ant, Israel, Adam, Jeff Brilinger, Kerry Cole, My sister Susan, Nick, Patrick, Brendan, Jeremy Anson, David De groot, Marc De groot, Pretty little Amy. # dollar bill and his girl, Collin, Blue, Peter (Stone? At Rocky Horror) Becky
What ever happened to Nick? He went to Urban High school with me, but was a Berkeley boy….


Arrgg that’s enough for now.

My turn I guess--

Yes, the riots. I lived in Albany at the time but I remember. My family's church was First Presbyterian on Dana and Channing so it was a big drama there too.

Rocky Horror PIcture Show in... 1978? Was that there first anniversary? I wasn't there but a friend freaked out on acid.

Summer of '79 in Ho Chi Minh park. I don't think I spent a single day not high. I met soooo many people that summer... let me think. Becky, Hester, Doren, Bede, Bob, Paul, Israel, Patrick, Alex-- I think this is where I learned about smoking mushrooms and Carlos Castaneda.

Classes in Tarot and Cabala... Kaballah... Qabalah.... hmmm... WAY before Madonna!

Oh yes, the Ren! I wonder if everyone had something like the Ren? So many of us said "I hate this place... why do we still hang out here?" but we always did. The grafitti in the stairwell that would say things like "freedom of speech is the freedom to yell 'theater' in a crowded fire."

Working at Au Coquelet... with the twins Richard and Robert and some others who escape my memory. The whole shift doing acid one night, a line cook getting fired for shooting up in the walk-in...Speaking of acid... all the all night jaunts in the Berkeley Hills, coming down and going to work at Au Coquelet after being up all night. How many of you remember the Dutch Boy painting on the side of the building.

The bands... Remember Psychotic Pineapple? Oquisha Paradox? The Pop-o-Pies at the Berkeley Square? Fang, The Uptones.. Freaky Executives... going into that world beat phase with Big City and Zulu Spear...And of course the dead, though I understand that's a mixed memory around here. Oh yes... who remembers the Talking Heads in lower Sproul in... 1978?

The people: Hate man, the polka dot man, Serge, "Rare" (what the hell was his name?) Rick Star, Julia, some of them are still around like that blonde woman with the bicycle... and Steve Lightfoot, who swore that Nixon, Reagan and Steven King shot John Lennon. I wonder how he did with his cause? And of course there is Stoney Burke.

Politics: All the Anti-Apartheid stuff, including Donald, the red ribbon man. What was the Mayor's name again... I partied in his back yard for two days... The protest when Reagan decided to invade Grenada and all the BART alerts! Of course, Barrington Hall... do you remember the goddess of Barrington Hall, and what the saying was?

Of course, a lot more. Peace....

Berkeley public schools teacher's strike. It went on for a while I think.

A buncha families got together and had a sort of group home school thing going in the attack of a church on College Ave just south of Claremont... I don't remember the name of the church...
I would have been in like 5th grade? I am 42 now.

"Berzerkeley" and "Telepath Ave."
I guess that is the same feeling our neighbors to the west get when people say "Frisco".

Hot and a Bock, $1.50. My world view was largely informed by Dick's libertarian rants pasted to the walls of the Dwight and Northside Top Dogs.

Running through the BART tunnel, Berkeley to Ashby stations, while under construction.

An old guy with a limp, always wore an overcoat, (we called him "Roscoe"), who sold newspapers from a shopping cart @ Shattuck and University. And the lady who screamed at everyone, same location.

Aye Caramba! Tacos and burritos, Rosenbaums(?) Army surplus, Lasher's electronics, and the rock and mineral shop, University Ave.

The bagel shop, Dwight and Telegraph. Name? Best freakin' bagels ever.
The first Thai restaurant in Berkeley, on Grove...er...MLK...the place with the gray vinyl dinner stools.
Blue Goose Icey, Rose and Grove Market.
Okay, now for the WAY back;
Cinnamon Oil...you needed a parental permission slip to buy this blistering agent to make cinnamon toothpicks...from Vine St. Pharmacy.
Little Red Book of Mao, and another $1 paperback pamphlet book...somebody PLEASE remember the name...sort of a sex/drugs/r&r primer with lines like "uptight adults call it a penis. We call it a cock."

In 1st-5th grade I lived on Webster Street. Mid 1970's
There was a lady who lived a few doors down that called me "Goldie Locks" she had a gazillion cats, and we would have tea together.

On Magnolia street there was a little old lady that gave out candy to any child that came to her door and said hello.

At Claremont court and Claremont Ave there was a lady who let candy down in a basket, from her apartment. If I remember right she also used the basket to let her little dog out to go potty?

Okey I gotta say it...
Anyone remember 'The Family Frog'?
I grew up there, and am so homesick I could puke

Some faded recollections:

Where Black Oak is now I think there was a drug store called SupeRx.

Brock's (Brach's?) pet store on on Shattuck near Univ.

John Muir school used to have a fair every May 1st, I believe.

Lin's Chinese restaurant (now Taiwan).

Until the late 70's or so there was this strange little building on Shattuck a bit
north of Rose on the east side; it was low and seemed somehow industrial.
What was that? Anyone else remember it?

Pig by the Tail charcuterie.

Blum's, which was like Edy's, on the SE corner of Center & Shattuck.

Woolworth's in Elmwood.

Gambit game store on Telegraph.

The Federation Trading Post. Got an autograph from Grace Lee Whitney
and promptly lost it.

The restaurant on Channing just above Telegraph where Berkeley Thai
House is (if it still exists) was a favorite of my parents in the early 70's. My
brother and I always called it "the smelly place", so I do not believe we
concurred.

The Station Hamburgers. Those tables which were dipped in 1/2" of
plastic and had old coins in them, the valuable ones dug out. Huge
onion rings.

Frog house: you could always look up their phone number in the book under
"Familia Frog"

I see The Ren was mentioned. Spent a lot of time there in '82 to '84.

1. Go to the Ren.
2. Get wired!
3. Play videos at Silverball.
4. Repeat.

Some of the folks I recall: Brett (always with a grenadine), Kerwin, Brandy, Anne,
Karissa, Leslie, Eric, Jeff, Scott, Casey, John, Paul, Michael.

It was nice to be able to arrive there randomly and almost always have someone to hang with.

I grew up in Berkeley too. Lived there from 1969 until 1999, when I moved to Oakland near Lake Merritt, and then left for New York in 2001.

My memory is also that the ice cream parlor on Shattuck, next to the Blue and Gold market, was called "Edie's," perhaps it was "Edy's" and I'm remembering wrong, but it was definitely pronounced, as another poster indicated, "ee-dee's," like a woman's name and not like a version of the male name "Ed." Anyway, I have many fond memories of ice cream sundaes there. I also remember Ortman's and McCallum's ice cream parlors on Solano and Bott's over on college. For me it was a dark day when Starbuck's replaced Ortman's.

I also remember when there was only one Peet's Coffee on Vine and Walnut and before it was renovated to match the new look of the Peet's chain. Alfred Peet used to attend to Unitarian Church up on the hill in Kensington and make coffee there on occasion, after services. It's sad to hear the news of his death last week. But I was glad to see him get so much national press, from the New York Times, to the Washington Post, and L.A. Times. And they all really made the often forgotten point that Peet is pretty much single handedly responsible for good coffee in the U.S. These days Seattle and the Pacific Northwest seem to get all the credit. In the NY Times they even quoted Alice Waters saying Peet really taught them all about good food and how ingredients and process matters. Clark Wolf a New York restaurant consultant (and former Bay Area resident) even claimed Peet's appreciation for deep, strong flavors, had a lot to do with how people appreciate wine in the U.S. His shop was the first of the "gourmet" shops in North Berkeley. I think people don't realize what a seminal figure he was to Berkeley and food in the U.S. in general.

That aside, I also remember Vine Variety, where we used to get cheap candy, on near the corner of Vine and Shattuck. And Bill's drugs, before it was Long's. It used to be on the corner of Vine and Shattuck, next to Vine Variety. There was also a candy and ice cream store, McFarlen's, I think, on the corner of University and Shattuck, where El Sombrero is now. I'd totally forgotten about Silverball. I'm glad someone mentioned it. I remember the custom arcade game they had, "Oops," where one person controlled a syringe of spermicide to stop sperm from impregnating and egg and someone else controlled the swimming school of sperm. And I remember Town and Country on University, happily playing Space Invaders.

Then there was the Co-op, along with the Co-op hardware store, where the Elephant pharmacy is now on the corner of Cedar and Shattuck. And what was that record store, before there was any Amoeba, that was on Durant a little up from the corner, past the original Tower location? I also remember the Northside movie theater, on Euclid north of campus, and the tiny upstairs movie theater on Telegraph. Ice skating at Iceland (made it back for a visit, before they closed). Fat Albert's, when it was Fat Albert's. And many many more places, which people here have mentioned.

I just posted this to my blog (northwestladybug.blogspot.com), prompted by my discover of this site and this thread:

"Late last night (OK, very early this morning), I Googled the intersection where I grew up in Berkeley in the 60's. I can't even remember what prompted my search, but I found this -- a message board of people's memories of growing up in Berkeley, with posts spanning from June 28th, 2004 to just a few weeks ago! When's the last time you've been on a message board that spans more than a few days?! Needless to say, I got to bed very late last night (OK, very early this morning).

If I had been more coherent last night (slash/this morning) I would have been able to bring the flood of memories that were in my head to my fingertips and somehow record them, but I was in absorption mode more than expression mode. And the little sleep I got brought massive dreams that seemed to have stolen my memories from my consciousness. But with the help of two cups of strong morning coffee, I'll attempt to steal them back.

Memories of growing up in Berkeley in the 60's, in random order:

1. We lived directly across the street from the Claremont Hotel, which had fire slides that rivaled the best thrill rides at the best theme parks around. The really gutsy kids, like my brother Michael, would sneak into the hotel, climb to the top floor, and fly down the slides, whoopin' and hollerin' the whole way down. I can only figure that the hotel staff chose to ignore them -- until they didn't, at which point the gutsy hooligans (I'm just jealous) were caught.
2. There was a big hole in the ground at the base of the slide with an old wooden door laid over it. We lifted up the door and found kittens, lots of them, and took three home. We named them Tuna, Stars and Stripes and Forever. I don't remember them growing up, nor do I remember taking them back. I have no idea what became of them.
3. On the hills behind the Claremont and the California School for the Deaf (which is now Clark Kerr dorms where, coincidentally, Elisabeth was an RA when she was at Cal!), were huge concrete letters, "CSD." They could be seen for miles around, even, sometimes from across the bay. The top of the C was constantly covered up with dirt and grasses from the hills (probably by the same hooligans, as well as my Cal students), making the letters spell out "LSD."
4. A weed we called "sour grass" grew all over said hills. We'd pick these by the hundreds and eat the stems.
5. John Muir, our neighborhood school, had a stream that ran through a tunnel under it. One could enter the tunnel on the school grounds and walk and crawl through it, coming out behind Jackson's, a liquor store. The tunnel was dark and disgusting, with rats running through it, moss everywhere, and a smell that I can still sense when I think about it. I was scared to death of the tunnel, but all the cool guys (and a few cool girls) had come out alive, so I tried it when I was in 6th grade. I survived, but was scared to pieces.
6. Miss Saum was the kindergarten teacher at John Muir. The ONLY kindergarten teacher at the school for, like FOREVER. She was even the kindergarten teacher of some of the parents whose kids went to kindergarten with me! I was in Morning kindergarten and Stephan, my 10-months-older-than-me brother was in afternoon kindergarten. We took naps on braided, colorful rugs. The big activity of the year was making wooden animal pull-toys. You could make a duck or a rabbit. I made a duck; Stephan made a rabbit. Ask any adult today who was in Miss Saum's kindergarten class, what pull-toy they made and they will remember. I guarantee you!
7. I was probably so scared because my brother (yeah, Michael) had told me that pipes on the path that lead to the tunnel had tigers in them. Geeze, the pipes were too small to hold anything but the cutest baby tiger; did I have no rational, logical thinking skills?!
8. Our neighbors, the Burgers, had 10 kids (EileenMarleneBobbyDianeBitsaJoeyDannyJohnClairChristopher) and used their own actual socks as Christmas stockings. I wished our family had 10 kids ! Because we weren't allowed to watch TV at my house, I'd sneak to the Burgers and watch TV there, especially on Wednesday nights when The Monkees was on.
9. The Star Grocery on Claremont was the coolest place to hang out and be seen. The big kids (like Michael and his friends) "owned the joint." I hear that it's still there.
10. Next to Jackson's was Bradley's, which was sort of an old-time Rexall drug store. It had dark mahogany wood everywhere and had a very distinct smell that I can still muster. It also had an old fashioned fountain bar with shiny, heavy, round hinged metal doors that covered each ice cream pot. Under one of the doors were frozen Milkey Way bars. After school my friends and I (who weren't gutsy enough for The slides at the Claremont or cool enough for the Star Grocery) would hang out at Bradley's, gnawing on frozen Milkey Way bars. I hear that Rick and Ann's restaurant now occupies the spot where Bradley's used to be.
11. There was a May Fair every May at John Muir School. This was a huge neighborhood event, probably the most important one of the year. The highlight was the May Pole dance, performed by the 6th grade girls. I was cheated because integration in Berkeley began the year I went to 6th grade, which meant I was bussed to Lincoln School in "the flats" and never got to participate in the May Pole dance. The cool (hooligan) guys (yes, including Michael) would go to the Star Grocery during the May Fair and buy shaving cream -- lost of it -- and spray it all over the school, the girls, the cakes that were won at the cake walk, etc. You'd think the people at the Star Grocery would have caught on, but nope...
12. There were three playgrounds at John Muir, the upper playground for the "big kids" (grades 4 - 6), the lower playground for the "little kids" (grades 1 - 3), and the kindergarten playground, just outside Miss Saum's kindergarten classroom. The best bars to swing on were in the kindergarten playground, so sometimes we'd play there. I had blisters on my palms for 5 years straight. I could do a mean "apple turnover," which was when you'd sit on a bar, holding on with both hands, circling the bar until you had enough momentum to let go and fly around the bar holding on only by the knees, and then flipping dramatically off, landing (hopefully without falling) in the sawdust. if my parents had been in touch, they would have enrolled me in gymnastics.
13. There was a huge tennis tournament at the Claremont Hotel every September. We'd sneak under the bleachers (about as gutsy as I got) and hope spectators would drop money. One year, Burt Ward, who played Batman on TV was there. I stood right in front of him and couldn't utter a word.
14. Behind Jacksons and Bradleys was a gas station (a Shell, I think... or maybe a Flying Ace/Texaco?) that was the sole occupant of a weird triangular "traffic island," with traffic on all three sides of it. Sometime around 1967 (?), the gas station was replaced with a restaurant called, appropriately, The Station. They had the most incredible burgers and deep fried zucchini that was fabulous! Not sure what's there now, but I don't think it's The Station anymore.
15. Once a month, I think it was the last Friday of the month, Berkeley observed the War Moratorium. No one worked, no one went to school; we all just protested the was in Vietnam. In my naivety, I believed that this was a national event.
16. Every other Friday afternoon at 4:00, all the 6th grade kids in our neighborhood took ballroom dance lessons at "Dart's." This was not a dance studio, but was the stately home of an old woman in the neighborhood (named, I presume, Mrs. Dart?) who probably believed that any refined young person should know how to dance properly. (I know -- seems a bit incongruous for Berkeley -- especially when you think that the parents who were sending their kids to Darts were also probably participating in rebellious peace marches on the weekend!) We had little booklets (called "bids," I think) with cute little pencils hanging from tassels (I still have them!). In each book were the numbers 1 through 9 with a line following them. Number 10 was labeled "Dinner Dance." At the beginning of class, the guys in too-new suits would cross the wooden floor to ask the girls in crispy new dresses (with slips that made a crunching noise under them) for a dance, and if the girl agreed, they'd exchange bids and sign their names in the agreed-upon slot. The "dinner dance" was the biggie: if a guy REALLY liked you, he'd ask you for the dinner dance. Mine was often blank, but in a few of my bid books, guys I had mad crushes on, like Bobby Burger, Stuart Todd Duncan McCoy or Andy Turner, signed my dinner dance slot. I was surely in heaven on those days! (No, Peter Jaffe didn't live in my neighborhood or go to Dart's.)
17. I wanted to live on The Uplands, Parkside Drive, or Plaza Drive because all the cool kids like Jennifer McNary, Jennifer Steward, and the Pearlstein girls (not to mention Andy and Duncan) lived there. Sometimes I'd ride my bike around that neighborhood just to pretend that I lived on a quiet, cozy street with a quiet cozy family instead of on a noisy, busy street with a noisy, busy family.
18. I first played Spin the Bottle and Truth or Dare in 6th grade at Duncan's house (which was right between Plaza Drive and Parkside Drive... how cool could you get?!) after school one day when his parents weren't home. Duncan and I "won" (or was it "lost"?) some dare that sent us into a closet to kiss for a full minute. Someone even stood outside the closet with a kitchen timer to keep us honest! (Oh, this is hilarious in retrospect!) I think we barely touched lips for a split-second and then stood there silently for 59 more seconds.)
19. The cool thing to do in 6th grade, especially on those long bus rides, was to make gum wrapper chains. Mine was about 10 feet long. Jennifer Steward's was about 20 feet long. She was always cooler than me. (Until high school and college when, I hear, she was way strung out on drugs.)
20. In 1968, integration came to Berkeley. There were high hopes that within a few years Berkeley would be one harmonious, well educated, fully diverse and integrated city. It was One Big Experiment -- one that seems to have been a huge flop because the families in the wealthier hills areas tended to put their kids in private school instead of sending them to the schools in the poorer "flats." Not my parents; they believed in the aspirations of an integrated school system. So in 6th grade, instead of walking across the street and down the path to John Muir School, I got on a 40-minute bus ride to Lincoln School. Among the required reading that year was Yes I Can by Sammy Davis Junior (my only memory of the book was Sammy Davis being forced to drink pee from a soda bottle) and the language taught was Swahili. To get attention, the black and the white boys would fake fights until the principal came onto the playground, and then would laugh and hug. I took Home Ec and made a peasant skirt and shirt out of paisley material. The guys took shop and made stuff out of wood.
21. Sometimes I'd go to Suzie Lisker's house after school. Suzie lived on The Uplands, which meant that she was cool, in spite of her sparkly baby blue plastic glasses with rhinestones on the pointy corners. Suzie's mom had a very important job and was one of the few working moms then. Suzie, who had a bizarre haircut that looked normal as long as she wore her clip, but when she took out her clip, that whole strand was twice the length of the rest of her hair, would offer me Sara Lee butter cake from her freezer and I'd go hog wild because we never had American junk food at home!
22. Claud Mann (who is now the chef on TBS's Dinner and a Movie!) lived next door to us and we'd play at each other's houses. (His house was pink!) One time, we ("we," meaning my brothers, Claud and I... or maybe I was more the tag-along grrrrl) strung string between his house and ours, attempting to make a telephone so we could talk at night. (Use the real telephone? Well you're no fun!) Claud was as feisty and hilarious then as he is now and if I knew what was good for me then, I would have asked him and his straight bowl-cut head of hair to go steady with me. His name does grace quite a few lines of my Dart's bid book, though... because in those days, he was the nerd, nowhere near as cool as Bobby, Duncan or Andy! (Really fun addendum: in 2005, Claud was the "celebrity guest" to the national launch of my videos about youth and nutrition!)
23. The People's Park riots (in which Michael was arrested... are we surprised?!) brought the National Guard to Berkeley and seemed to both shut down and rile up the city. For days (weeks?), tear gas was everywhere. I worried constantly about Mom, who taught at Cal. I didn't like the craziness and was scared, rather than motivated, by it. I think this had something to do with me becoming a very main-stream goody-goody-rah-rah and even (briefly, I promise) conservative and religious in my later teen years. It's how I rebelled!
24. There were some great stores on College Avenue. I wonder if any are still there. The toy store on the corner of College and Ashby, where I got my favorite Barbies (I still have it; it was from 1961 or so and is probably worth some bucks now!). The Elmwood Dime Store, where there were tables with bins on them, each filled with something that really did cost a nickel or a dime; Botts Ice Cream (the best!!). A donut store right next to the toy store, that had a swinging wood door that would slam when you let go of it, and then it would bounce a few times until it's suddenly just shut. (I can still remember the exact sound sequence.) Inside they had the best donut holes in the world). A shoe store that carried tennis shoes (Sperry?) with the authentic white line down the heel. The Jennifers had these, not me. Mom bought my shoes at the cheap Kress store on Shattuck Avenue, where boxes containing plastic shoes were thrown onto a table and you'd rummage through them. I so wanted shoes from a store where nice ladies would ask you to sit down and then measure your foot with a smile and then disappear behind the curtain while you chatted lovingly with your mom about what was for dinner. A Chinese restaurant, the only restaurant my family EVER went to, that had entrees, like won-tin soup, for $1. The Elmwood Theaters, where Michael would go to matinees. Once my parents had to pick him up mid-movie (I can't remember why) and I knew that he was sitting in the 7th row (I can't remember why I knew that) and Dad praised me, saying he was easy to find in the dark because I knew where he was.
25. There was a city dump at the Berkeley Marina, right (I think) where the Radisson Hotel now sits (and where I'd, coincidentally, stay during my many business trips during h the production of FUEL). Dad would bring us there occasionally to dump something and we'd climb the piles of trash, looking for treasures. Eeeeeeeewwwwwww! "

Would love to hear from others with whom any of this resonates! (Reply to my blog post as well as here, since I'll have a better chance of seeing your reply -- certainly sooner, anyway -- on my blog...)

Carol (Heumann) Snider
Lived in Berkeley from birth ('56) to 1970

Many of you may not know me, but I bet I’ve hung out, at least for a minute with quite a few of you. I was only around from about ’83 to ’84 and then moved to L.A. <<<BOOOOO (I know, I caught much shit for that one.) But, I covered alot of ground in a short time!

After reading the stories here, I feel compelled to pay homage to those that I still remember and think of from time to time. Although, I know many have left this world, there are still a few out there that I’d love to know are happy and well. If I speak of anyone who reads this please feel free to hit me up and say hi.

About two years ago I looked up Heather Carter online, contacted her and spoke with her for a couple of hours. She sounded great and said she was happy with life. Last weekend I looked her up again and read her obituary!?! I still don’t know what happened to her but I am extremely sad to hear that she is gone.I basically lived on the streets, Durant mainly, and crashed at her house on 6th on many occasions. I was an absolute mess but she always tried to take care of me. When I talked to her a couple of years ago I told her that I was grateful for all she and her family, Lucy, Peter and John, did for me. And to take in a homeless, lost, little pregnant girl on drugs was amazing to me and probably saved my life! I’m doing great now and so is my son. I’d love to just give Lucy a big hug right now. Can anyone tell me what happened?

I think of people gone now like my God brother Michael Hunter who was blatantly gunned down in Emeryville. Still to this day no one knows what the fuck happened. Or like one of my best friends Jerry Ernst who got hit by some drunken ass driver on E 14th in Oakland. Shoulda beat that asshole at the hospital that day Jerry died. He’s lucky he was handcuffed to a bed.
Paul “that’s so anti Christ” Bayloff, my little buddy, who used to be so sweet and so fuckin’ crazy all at the same time. Kim Chipanee (sp?) screaming up and down Durant until that one day…
Cruisin around the streets all night rockin out with Matt Newman.. And Heather….damn girl, I still can’t ‘wrap my head’ around that shit...

I can’t even imagine all the people who I don’t know are gone now.

So many kool memories in such a short time like the numerous nights I spent flyin’ around on the back of Montana’s bike. Burnin’ the man thru the hills, hangin out at the wall, watchin the boys wrench on their shit all night at the house on Monterey. Can’t forget Dave ‘the boy’ Lucky or Chris Mast, u r the coolest. Home cooked chicken versus fast food chicken! LOL. Doing laundry with Julie Lindley on Telegraph. What a fuckin blast that was.

I remember kickin it at Mark Mercer’s house, much thanx to him too; good looking out for me as well man. My old roommate Eric Korman hookin me up with the newest and hardest tunes. Erin Malone, where are you girl? You were such a sweetheart. You and your mom were the most awesome. Hangin out listening to Priest & the Scorpions with Lacy Burnett. Riding BMX bikes with HIPPIE FUCKIN CHUCK, Where are you man? David Phone, Phone home ET, with the El Camino and the kick ass system. Lobster dinner ala Chris Mosier. Chris Harris, such a nice person, I hope he is doing well. Smokin’ the boombastic with Jimmy Minniwhether!

Sleeping at People’s Park hangin out and partyin’ with people I didn’t know so I could crash there. So many kool trippers to chill with!


Back in the day…Rick & Lonnie; Andy & Denise, Connie & Pam. Being the happy homemaker at 'The Web' in Marin, that one lost weekend. Jeff Weller, Phil what up? I remember naming a cat after Toby Rage; too funny.

Squattin at Mark Whittaker’s pad in El Cerrito, listening to Gary Holt play classical guitar and sleeping in a bean bag chair next to the speakers; and lots of Capt. Crunch. Fuck Yeah!

And wasn’t it Zak, the huge Rhodesian that belonged Rick and Lonnie that used to intimidate people into tossing him some food? I loved that big headed sweetie pie! He was at times, my very best friend.

ANNAPURNA’S, my favorite store, still there last time I was in town. To Bertoli’s with Johnny Costa for minestrone soup and sourdoughbread on a cold, rainy day. The biggest & fattest College ave burritos! Peet’s coffee, now gone commercial, I still buy it in the stores though just for sentimental reasons. Over to Aladdin’s for coffee & pastries during an attack of the serious munchies and so I could stare at the waterfall on the wall. (HMMM sounds pretty good right about now!) Arnell’s Pizza… Flints BBQ… Those nights drunk as fuck at Ruthies Inn, basically every weekend, but do remember seeing Testament, Slayer, Venom, etc.; and the Keystone for my very first Metallica show. I think with Dave Mustane even. We had it good back then.

Lots more that I can’t put in text… ha ha ha. Even more I can’t think of right now.

Even if no one ever reads this, I feel better writing it. I miss alot of you and just Berkeley in general.
I know it's changed alot since then, but will always be kool in my mind.

Berkeley kids are hella kool and thanx for letting me hang out. I will always remember those days.

Peace to all.


Robyn. (Morris)

Never go back - Hari Krishnas, Rajneeshees, People's Temple (family massacred on Woolsey St, hit men running through my backyard and scaring the shit out of me and my sisters); pleasant memories - spelunking through Strawberry Creek, paddling the boat in the Claremont reservoir (the covered one by Ashby), Elmwood theater Saturday matinees with cartoons, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot & Costello, followed with a 'suicide' at Ozzie's. Shout out to West Side de Berkeley and South Side Skaters, and BTU. Get off the trees, people, unless your smoking them.

Just found you guys. My parents owned an art gallery on College Avnue in the late 60's called the Redbug Gallery and I lived in many houses around that ahrea.

Here's some more memories...

The sound of the “ding” inside Hink’s department store on Shattuck and the smell of old wood and perfume and the feel of my grandmothers hand as she led be through. The Egg Shop and Apple Press. Ozzie’s in the Elmwood. The Sherman Williams “Cover the Earth” neon sign coming back from San Francisco as you came off the Bridge. The structures down at the mud flats on the edge of the bay. Inhaling tear gas walking home from the bus stop up near Jackson’s liquors and feeling it burn in my throat. Feeding the ducks at Lake Merritt. That weird dragon sculpture at the park near the Oakland Zoo. Lawrence Hall of Science. Lazy summer afternoons at Strawberry Canyon Swimming Pool. Walking around Lake Anza and seeing “the naked people”. Cal football games on Saturday afternoons. Selling our parking spot to football fans on their way to the game. Selling Lemonade on the sidewalk to them on their return. The Mayor Art Show (I was lucky enough to get to go on the show). Playing “Pong” in the basement of Larry Blakes. The sound of water echoing off the walls and the smell of clorine at the Berkeley Women’s City Club swimming pool and the maze of shower stalls in their locker room. Chicken Wonton Soup at that Chinese place on College Avenue with the old guy cooking in the back. Buying Pixy Stix and wax skeletons filled with some kind of colored sugar water around Halloween at the Star Market on Claremont. Hearing the train whistle echo off the hills at night. High school parties up in the hills. The Coop. The Grand Lake theater seeing the Swiss Family Robinson & Lady and the Tramp. The smell of warm eucalyptus trees in summer. The sound of my best friend’s wooden clogs tumbling down the Claremont Hotel fire escape (a definite rite of passage in the Claremont area of Berkeley until they closed it down). Monkey Island for you kids around that area. The track at the Deaf School watching the sun set over the bay.

I don't know why this all popped into my mind but I am compelled to share...

Does anyone else remember Yinnies? They were a sweet chewy candy made out of rice. I remember that we bought them at a co-op or health food store on the east side of University once. They were the only candy I had ever had at the age of four! Tho we also scraped out the freezer and poured maple syrup on the ice.

When I had my seventh birthday, my mom said I could have any kind of food I wanted. I said I wanted Lucky Charms. She didn't know what they were, so she took me to a liquor store on Solano with a big candy selection. I didn't think that was the right place to go, but went along with her. We ended up asking the cashier where we could get Lucky Charms and he said we could get them at the supermarket across the street!

I remember getting hummus on a piece of bread in a cafe that had a picture of Meyer Baba on the wall. Was that on University?

My Mom was macrobiotic for a few years, while I was going to Harding Elementary in El Cerrito. I remember taking balls of rice wrapped in seaweed to school for lunch. I felt very alone. Sometimes my friend would trade me a Ding Dong for a piece of my fruit though.

My Mom made an incredible recipe for carob mousse which she through out at some point. I wish I had that still!

We had goats in our yard for several years and I got very tired of goat's milk every day. My dad would feed the goat cigarettes in colorful wrappers to relax her while she was getting her hooves trimmed.

So, in my opinion, the Elmwood District on College Ave in Berkeley officially died on January 29th, 2009. After the closing of the Elmwood Hardware and the Elmwood Pharmacy within the past year, there is now a posting and poster of Ozzie on the Elmwood Pharmacy door letting all that still remember him that Ozzie died on January 29th. He was what I consider, the heart of the Elmwood. When I was a child, I remember him as I sat on the stool eating my cottage cheese and fruit, or ordering a hotdog and cheese sandwich with potato chips with lemonade looking at the multi-colored bottles of flavors that he would ad to drinks, it is now over. Just another piece of my childhood gone forever. Rest, Ozzie, knowing that you meant so much to so many and were an undeniable icon to those that called those two blocks of Berkeley their home.

Hoo-Rah! I just found this Berkeley tribal site! And who would have thought that over 46 years since making so many after-high-school-day visits to the wonderful Eclair Bakery on Shattuck or Telegraph Avenues for a muffin or an apple turnover before, perhaps, using the restroom on the 2nd floor of Hink's, or purusing dusty old books in Moe's, or even ascending the musty stairs to the dark, top floor of Wheeler Hall (as if in 1963 and well in advance of 2009's tzars, I already knew that the "free speech" being broadcast loudly from Sproul's steps would twist and warp toward the present day from behind those closed wooden doors of jaded middle-earth history professors and TA's of flowery English); and then walking up the hills past La Vals toward friends' houses on Buena Vista or Keith or my own house on Amador, that I would now be living far from Berkeley yet right next door to a very wise, beautiful woman named Friedel, was was an original owner of that same and wildly popular bakery of my teen years, The Eclair!

And so, in humble tribute to that brown-and-yellow-signed bakery of old, I would like to say "Thank You" to Friedel - for contributing so much to so many of my personal Berkeley memories, and for having given Berkeley such an excellent, upstanding institution that is still remembered by so many.

And on the occasion of a party being held for her tomorrow, on 12 September 2009, I would especially like to say . . . "HAPPY 98TH BIRTHDAY, FRIEDEL - I am totally honored to remain loyal as your past customer, your neighbor, and your friend!!!"