Princeton-by-the-Sea – Page 3 – Half Moon Bay Memories

April 13, 2007

Me & Sally, Manuel, Mickey & Doc..And How We Survived Economically During the 1960s In Princeton By Fayden

(Photo: Fayden)

…How We Survived Economically During the 1960s in Princeton….Story By Fayden

There is a little bit of road that runs from the corner of Broadway
in Princeton towards the water. One little cottage surrounded by trees stands on the corner; there is a house on the water with a garage next to it and a large vacant lot.

The house on the water stands across the way from the Harbor House. Before the Harbor House, there was a large hull of a wrecked boat on the spot, maybe one piece forty feet in length that faced the water.

The cabin was water tight, and this is where we used to go to inhale those forbidden herbs and drink our brews that made our words slur while we watched storms blow right on over us and away.

The creek that runs behind all these little houses cuts it off from the store fronts of Princeton, so in some ways it was an island unto itself within the otherwise barbaric mentality of late sixties/early seventies âPrinceton- by- the- Seaâ? (we never called it that though).

This little street was an “intellectual” hub of high living within the otherwise physically and mentally crazed overt nature of fishermen,boat builders, and abalone divers. Now, I have built boats, assisted fishermen fishing, and ran the compressors to the long lines of abalone divers, however I still claim to be one of the terminally unique intellectuals that dwelled on this tiny strip of land off Broadway.

Doc (we called him âDocâ? because he used three syllable words a lot) lived in the corner house surrounded by old cypress trees, and worked for United Airlines as a mechanic of some sort. We considered him to be the most stable of all of us because he earned a straight wage every week from a large industry. He was also the only person to have a car without dents and half rusted. Doc was always inviting people in and we appreciated this because except for Doc, Manuel and Sally, we all lived in campers. Small little boxes with even smaller little windows that created large flaring tempers when one got cabin fever.

There was an old black man named Isaac who claimed to be a hundred years old, and he would come over and drink, and tell stories at Docs. Isaac was a local born and lived his life in Half Moon Bay. On hindsight I don’t know if Isaac was a hundred years old but he told really great stories, and it allowed us to sit still and honor him in this way.

He probably just enjoyed watching us get pie eyed and slowly list fifteen degrees as we listened.

Manuel and Sally lived at the other end of the street (across from the old boat, remember) Manuel made beautiful abalone jewelry. He was an older man than us, maybe in his fifties and he rarely wore much more than a pair of shorts. He kinda reminded me of Jacques Cousteau with a pony tail. Manuel would cut the abalone on a water wheel, wearing a scuba tank to breathe with, while doing it. I guess the dust almost killed him doing it without the tank once.

Sally just kind of ran around in the background keeping the house together or chasing her two- year- old daughter who was eternally naked. They were the first San Francisco street vendors I ever met; they’d make the jewelry, then go up to the city around Ghiradelli Square to sell it.

Mickey lived in the two-car garage next to the house that Manuel and
Sally lived in. About a year earlier he had left his wife and kids in Moss Beach. Perhaps Mickey was the most creative man I ever knew;
it seemed he would take on just about any challenge mechanically and
could make it work.

Or he’d already know how to build just about anything wood,or metal, and well, too! He taught me taught me the zen of building, that every project was simply a puzzle, and my job was to make the favorable parts that put it together. It was also mandatory in this âMickey- zenâ? to be happy while I/we did anything, or else it wasnât worth doing.

Mick also was an advocate for beginning the âRoyal American Marijuana
Air Force.â? The RAMAF plan was to collect all the seeds we could and then
drop them everywhere from a small airplane we would use from the HMB
airport. It never became a reality but we sure loved to muse over
the concept!!

During storms, before the inner break water was built, some of the
boats would lose their moorings and blow up on the shore. The
unlucky ones hit the rocks, shattered and broke up to the point where they couldnât be repaired, right in front of their unhappy ownerâs eyes!

One of these unfortunate crafts came up on a little beach between
Hazelâs restaurant (now Barbaras Fishtrap) and the rocks to the north
of Hazelâs. The wrecked boat had been abandoned for a few months when Mickey discovered it had a solid stainless steel gas tank about
three- feet- tall, nine- feet- wide, and about a foot thick, running the
full amid ship of it. We decided to cut the tank free using some
handsaws and then we’d float it out at high tide. Of course to add
to the intrigue, this all had to be done in the dark as we were never
sure of the legality of anything we did.

And so we commenced, the saws sawed, the water rose, we pushed it out of the now really wrecked boat and it fell on its side into the water. We grabbed two paddles and rowed it over to the end of Johnson pier, hauled it up onto the back of my truck and were now the “new” proud owners of a big, shiny stainless steel gas tank!

We decided to chain it up to a telephone pole in front of Mickeyâs
garage facing Broadway and painted on it “STAINLESS STEEL TANK
$150.00.â?

A couple of months passed and we didn’t have any takers so we crossed out the $150.00 and painted in a new higher price: $250.00.

Another month went by and still nobody bought it so we crossed out the $250.00 written just below the $150.00 and put an even higher new price of $350.00. About two days later a man came by, looked it over, checked the tank carefully for problems and was successful in talking us down to $300.00. He never asked about the other two prices and we never explained them!

The same day we cut loose the stainless steel tank, we liberated another gas tank in another wrecked boat but this one was only 60 gallons and it wasnât stainless steel. We couldn’t lift it up the cliff so we emptied the gas into the sand. Mickey didn’t want to pollute the water so once we got to the top of the cliff he dropped a lit match on the newly poured gas. Powwoummmm! The biggest little atomic bomb replica I ever have seen before or since came to life right before my eyes. This flame was followed by a mushroom cloud the height of the twelve- foot cliff and the Eucalyptus trees on top of it.

Needless to say we ran like hell and commenced to watch every Sheriffâs car on the Coastside rolling up and down the streets in Princeton looking for whatever the heck had just occurred.

Needless to say “just another day in paradise”!

March 20, 2007

There have been more developments vis-a-vis my “Search for the Beatniks Who Lived In The Abalone Factory At Princeton.”

I’ve heard from the fascinating artist Michael Bowen, the world traveling painter (there is a room in a European museum named after him–Bowen always felt that his art was more appreciated & understood in Europe than in America ) with his young wife and daughter–Michael was my link to Michael McCracken, “the beat leader out at Princeton” (the Modigliani-type painter, as longevity, and perhaps so-called hard-living goes, both, Modigliani & McCracken died before they were 30).

For a little more color, please read this story: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/06/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-v/

You might recall that years ago, in the 1970s, I started following up on the so-called “beatniks” at Princeton (they sound more like early hippies to me). That took me to City Lights Books in North Beach and poet Ferlinghettic referred me to M. Bowen. I met M. Bowen at one of the cafes in North Beach and he then invited me out to his fabulous home in Bolinas. By fabulous, I don’t mean there were lots of expensive “things” there–but it reminded me of a movie set. I wish I could think of which movie. How about naive writer, out for adventure, risks her life meeting people she doesn’t know, goes to remote house with big pool guarded by two mastiffs.

Michael Bowen had drawn me a map with directions to the Bolinas pad and told me to honk twice at the gate which would alert the two mastiffs and him. It all turned out to be perfectly safe–my instincts were very good.

More on the details of my adventure at the Bolinas house later.

As it turned out, Michael had hung out at the Abalone Factory a lot–but he lived at Tunitas Creek around the time that the big eccentric landowner John Wickett was there, and free spirit types live on his Skyline property where they built treehouses and domes. Michael was an artist–one who had wealthy collectors buying his work. At least one piece was acquisitioned by the Oakland museum and his work is held in some European museums.

Jerry Kamstra, author of “The Frisco Kid” was another artist-in-residence at the infamous Abalone Factory. Before she was famous, Janice Joplin visited Princeton as did the writer Richard Brautigan (“Trout Fishing in America”)….Now I have learned that Allen Ginsberg also paid a visit or two.

I’ll get into more of all this later…some people have questioned whether the Abalone Factory existed because they lived in Princeton in the 1970s and there was no such place.

Okay–Michael McCracken was out at Princeton from about 1960 to 1964. The Abalone Factory, according to prominent attorney Marvin Lewis (now gone), was located way out at the end of Princeton, the last house before you got to the radar station. (But I have now found out where it was located).

These artists were the bigger-than-life types. After meeting Michael Bowen, I can attest to that. (For example, not only did McCracken paint huge huge paintings, he was a huge huge piece of work himself). Bowen, who lived at Tunitas Creek for a time, went on to live with John and Yoko Lennon in England in the late 1960s, hung out with Timothy Leary (and did not take drugs or drink much–Bowen’s thing is and has always been yoga…)

…See my Other Work II & Other Work III for more…

March 12, 2007

Drama on the Internet: My Search For The Beatniks of Princeton Part II

(Photo: The artist and beatnik Michael McCracken is as handsome as he was described by the famous San Francisco attorney Marvin Lewis. This is the first photo I’ve seen of McCracken).

Then a few days ago I get this mysterious sounding email from one Michael Rothenberg:

“Imagine my surprise when I did a casual Google search for Michael McCracken San Francisco and you had posted, not 45 days ago, a wonderful reminiscence of Marvin Lewis about my parents!

I was the baby, Michael McCracken Jr, that lived in that delapidated abalone factory, born February 11, 1963.”
——————————————————————————————
June to Michael: I am equally stunned. Tell me more about yourself.
—————————————————————————————————
Michael Rothenberg to June: “Michael Bowen and Arthur Monroe are both my godfathers. I’ve spoken to Michael Bowen and actually came out to San Fran to spend time with Arthur Monroe. Not sure if you know him….he’s a curator at the Oakland Museum and was also an artist “back in the day”.

As for me, I live in Chicago, where my grandmother brought me after my mother died. We were traveling in Mexico in 1966 when my mother overdosed. They placed me with a family in Mexico until my grandmother was able to find me through the Consulate. She was a great person…troubled, but great. She was a wonderful singer that would frequently perform and hang out with the likes of Janis Joplin in the coffee galleries in North Beach.

As for my father, Michael, he died in June 1968 in a London hospital, officially determined a suicide based on the information found on his death certificate I was able to obtain. It’s been an interesting journey for me over the past 9 years, finding out all the information I have compiled.

The website of my search is at www.woodstocknation.org/mccracken.htm along with an article that was written about us that was published in the Miami Herald.

Michael”

There’s a lot more to tell but it’ll have to wait until later. Meanwhile this is a great story and please read the links, including the one Michael Rothenberg, the baby born in the Abalone Factory in Princeton, sent me.

March 12, 2007

Drama On The Internet: My Search For the Beatniks of Princeton, Part II

(The artist Michael McCracken, courtesy Michael Rothenberg).

One of the most adventurous stories I pursued in the late 1970s was my search for the beatniks that lived in the old Abalone Factory in Princeton. I was especially searching for the artist Michael McCracken. Where was he? Who was he? What had happened to him?

It all began when Pete Douglas of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society told me about Michael McCracken “the beat leader out at Princeton” who suspected Pete because he was a probation officer who also owned the free wheeling Ebb Tide Cafe in Miramar.

Here are the links, 1-5: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/05/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-i/
http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/05/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-ii/
http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/05/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-iii/
http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/06/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-iv/
http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/12/06/1959-when-the-beat-scene-hit-miramar-beach-part-v/

Michael McCracken’s name stuck with me. I had to find out more and turned to the San Francisco poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the owner of the famous City Lights Bookstore in North Beach. I wrote him a letter asking if he could direct me to someone who knew of McCracken’s whereabouts. One day I received a message back including the name of the exceptional artist Michael Bowen and a post office box address. That led to correspondence and a meeting with Bowen at his Bolinas residence. Quite an eccentric day.

February 26, 2007

A Little Harbor, A Little Princeton

Click on image to enlarge.

January 31, 2007

My Search for the Beatniks Who Lived at the “Abalone Factory,” Princeton-by-the-Sea: Part IX: Conclusion

Attorney Marvin Lewis (ML): A couple of weeks after that I heard from McCracken.

Michael McCracken (MM): Next Sunday, your painting will be ready. Come and get it.

ML: How do I find you?

MM: Just go to a grocery store in Princeton and they’ll tell you how to get here.

Marvin Lewis (to June): That was a Sunday and I had my Chrysler. I remember, I had just bought it. It was pouring, just a real storm.

Mrs. Lewis to her husband: You’re nuts to go.

ML to his wife: “I can’t reach these people by phone. They’re expecting me. He painted this painting, whatever it is. So I better pick it up.

ML (to June): I drove from Hillsborough over the Half Moon Bay Road, came down to Princeton, went to the grocery store and asked for Carol and McCracken.

Storeowner: Oh, you mean where the beatniks live? He walked outside the store and pointed. You see that promintory that comes out into the water? Pillar Point. That way? Right out on the end is a building, you’ll see its wrecked and they’re living in that wrecked building.

ML (to June) I drove and followed the coastline and went out there. Just as I arrived these great big dogs came running at me. One had red hair and was barking and two guys ran out, including Michael, calling off the dogs.

Marvin Lewis (to June): As I approached the house, I heard loud music playing and chickens were flying all over the place, roosters and goats walking around. There was even a goat inside the “house”. Then when I came inside this large room there were couples copulating all over the floor. I had to step over them.

In the middle of the floor there was a fire going in a brick kiln which they had built for Carol’s baby. Carol married McCracken. He made it legal. There was some guy laying on his back–I think with some gal in his arms and with his bare feet he was rocking the cradle while the baby was crying over the noise of the music and all of the scenes of animals and birds that were flying about in the building.

Michael McCracken (MM): Would you like to see the painting?

ML (to June) I went to see this painting and it was a sexual painting. The two wings were sexual, genital organs. It was a white angel and the rest of the picture was just black, inky black. It wasn’t a picture. It was a mural. It took up the whole wall.

ML to MM: I’m most grateful. I know the work you put into this but I don’t know how to say this–but I just don’t have any office space.

MM: What about your home?

ML: No way. Mostly my house is glass. I don’t have any wall space for paintings. I couldn’t get it in.

MM: I’m terribly disappointed–if you knew the hours I put in on this painting. Would you accept a smaller dark angel?

ML: Yes.

ML (to June) He went and got me a duplicate that was smaller and framed. I got into the car and dogs were barking at me until I drove away. I said goodbye to them and left. That was the last time I ever saw them. I don’t know what happened to the Dark Angle. My wife saw it and she let out a howl.

Mrs. Lewis to Mr. Lewis: My God, what are yoiu going to do with that?

ML (to June) We put it in the basement. Maybe it’s still there. I can’t remember if I gave it to my son or not–but it was something I was sure could have no value. I thought it had absolutely no appeal but I didn’t understand modern painting and I still don’t.

January 31, 2007

My Search for the Beatniks Who Lived at the “Abalone Factory,” Princeton-by-the-Sea: Part VIII

Marvin Lewis (ML) (to June): This puts one way back with a half-hour for the other case. So I got my investigators, four of them.

ML (to investigators): Scour North Beach. Find her wherever she is.

ML (to June) In the meantime Carol’s mother told me that McCracken came home from Princeton and said she wasn’t going to live in any goddamn capitalist hotel any longer. He had taken her to some place in North Beach.

I decided to lock myself in the john…

ML (to his investigators): If you find her you come and get me and I’ll come out.

ML (to June): So at about 9:30 a.m. the judge wanted to know where I was and they couldn’t find me and I heard through the paging system my name being called and I didnt’ come out of the john–so I figured they were going to hold me in contempt.

About ten minutes to ten the investigators came and said they found Carol. She was outside. Carol and Michael had misunderstood. They thought it was ten. McCracken had come and he was with Carol and said not for me to get excited. Everything was all right.

To make a long story short, Carol was acquitted. Then after she was acquitted, the judge did not put her in jail for contempt.

…To Be Continued…

January 30, 2007

My Search for the Beatniks Who Lived at the “Abalone Factory,” Princeton-by-the-Sea: Part VII

Marvin Lewis (ML): I argued the case to the jury and I felt that I had it won. I was very pleased and I explained that to the family.

ML (to the family): You keep her here at the St.Francis, whatever happens.

ML (to me): And the judge said, Tomorrow morning, Ladies and gentleman of the jury, we’re going to instruct the jury at 9 o’clock. I don’t mean two minutes past 9. I mean 9. The reason for that, is while the jury is deliberating, I have another case coming in to start.

Everybody understood.

June: The next day Marvin Lewis received a call about 8:30 a.m.

ML (to June): There was no Carol. I figured there was still some period of time but I was still worried. At 5 minutes to 9, the judge called me into chambers.

Judge: ‘Is your client here? Are you ready to proceed?’

ML: No, she isn’t here, your Honor.

Judge: I’m going to tell you, Marvin, what I’m going to do then. If she’s not here in five mintues, I’m going to dismiss this jury and when she shows up, I’m going to put her in jail for contempt.

ML (to June): The case had taken about 3 weeks. I had it won. It was a marvelous jury and I thought I had done a marvelous job on argument.

Ml (to the judge): Judge, will you let me stipulate that she can be excused during the reading of the instructions?

Judge: Marvin, you know better than that. It’s a criminal case and you cannot stipulate that for her absence.

ML (to judge): You’re right.

Judge: I’ll give you one half-hour–but that’s it.

…To Be Continued…

January 29, 2007

My Search for the Beatniks Who Lived at the “Abalone Factory,” Princeton-by-the-Sea: Part VI

Marvin Lewis (ML) And this girl stood up, as if she was a slave to her master, and she was actually going to come around and give herself to me.

ML: In front of you?

Michael McCracken (MM): Of course. What’s wrong with that?

ML: First of all I don’t perform like that, and secondly, it’s very embarassing for this girl.

MM: Oh, no. Not at all. It’d be a great experience for her, too.

ML (to June) She (“the girl”) said, Oh yes, I understand.

Marvin Lewis (to me): I told Carol, I paid for you to stay with your mother at the St. Francis so I know where I can find you. Don’t go down to Princeton because you’ve got to go to court everyday. I don’t want Michael around and I don’t want the rest of the group around. I’ve got a tough enough case because I’m going to try the police here [which was my way of winning this particular case]

Still some of the people came down into courtroom. Michael never came down.

…To Be Continued…

January 28, 2007

My Search for the Beatniks Who Lived at the “Abalone Factory,” Princeton-by-the-Sea: Part V

Marvin Lewis (ML): “I said, Don’t worry about my personal life. Don’t concern yourself with it.

Michael McCracken (MM): “Oh, I can make you life a paradise. You’ll have a different woman every day. I have beautiful women. Do you want a blonde? Do you want a redhead?

ML: What is this? Are they for a price? Are they prostitutes?

MM: Heavens no. These are all gals with good backgrounds and come from fine families.

ML: Well, what goes?

MM: Oh, that’s the trouble. I thought you were really with it, but you’re really not. In a way you are, but you’re not completely. The Marvin Lewis that I think I see should have the same mentality as I have and you should have what I’m offering you in every way. You’d have a much fuller life and a much happier and enjoyable life.

Marvin Lewis to June: To me, the idea of him just expecting to sit there and watch me copulate was unbelievable.

So the next week my receptionist said that McCracken was in the outer office and had a gift for me. So I said, ‘Have him come in.’ So he came in with another girl. She sat over there [pointing at a chair] and he said, ‘I want you to meet this girl and I want you [the girl] to meet Marvin Lewis’.

He said, ‘I’ve told everybody over at the beach [Princeton-by-the-Sea] what a fabulous person I find you to be’. And he said, ‘I thought you should have this type of woman in your life.’ So he said, whatever her name was, ‘Go around the desk and ball him’.

You gotta be kidding, I said.

…To Be Continued…