Beeger J Jones

Judith Keenan / Jude / Beeger J. Jones

Chapter One Carrie_Larry_Casalino4-250.JPG

In 1968 I was living at my parents house in Palo Alto. Carrie was 1 1/2. My mother and I were watching the news, and they showed the Mi Lai (sp?) Massacre. I burst into tears, and my mother turned to me and said, " What are you crying about?" That was my moment of awakening. I was taking photography at Foothill College at that time.
 
  I read the Free University newspaper and there was a blurb about a staff meeting. I was such a far cry from being a hippie free spirit radical anything ( I was more like a tennis at the country club kicked out of college for drinking on campus worked at Saks Fifth Avenue because I had NO skills kind of person), but somehow I got up the courage to go to that meeting and offered my services as a photographer. So they said great go and cover this anti-war demonstration downtown this week-end and by the way go over to the Full Circle restaurant and photograph these two guys who are going to give a talk about non-violence. They were part of the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence. So I did. The two men were Bill Giordano and Lee Beckum.
 
  They told people at their talk that this man Ira Sandperl was giving a talk at Stanford after theirs and he was well worth listening to. So I went there and heard Ira. Then I started going to the Institute and I helped lay their cobblestone driveway..

Next e-mail: Chapter 2 includes Ira, Lee and Carol Swenson, the Mountain House, Larry Falk, Janice Labo, Kimmy and David, Willy, some people whose names I'm forgetting at this moment, and eventually moving to the Land...

Chapter 3 will be the Land, Craig, my first avocado, the Institute, Struggle Mt, Sally/later Rain, Tramp, Jeffrey Shurtleff (sp?), Robert and Christy, Iris( later David), Chris Jones, Stewart, David Harris, San Diego, being detained by Navy Intelligence on Coronado Island for photographing without a permit, Neil, Bob Fitch, Bob Fitch driving the speedboat into the wake of the Coral Sea and swamping all of our camera equipment with saltwater, Lesta Morningstar, Karen Mae (I'm spacing her partners name and his kids, except I remember Sam) Carol, Lambie, Jody, Sally B. Burns on the deck in Hollywood, Big Sur Folk Festival, coming home to the Land, Michael Ward, Terry, Wags (thanks to his example I only got addicted to cocaine. Heroin didn't look very appealing), Susan... Chapter 4 The "this land is our land" gang- Bill Garraway, Karen/later Winter, Oak, Arturo, Robyn, Kim, Sierra, Kathy, Tommy, and George, Juanita, Perusha, Billy Bonzini, Evie and Zem, Paul Fox, the bus folks Sunny and Suzy, Kenny Z, the backlands gang starting with Mark, the ridge folks, the folks who got the pay telephone installed on the oak tree up the road, Malcolm Dundas (how did I remember his name??), Obie and Lesley, Patsy, Billy Wheatley, Maria in the back of our truck when we were hit by the lady who was late for her class and we rolled the truck down the hill (and we forgot Maria was in the back!). I don't know where half of you later folks lived. Well, I could go on and on, and maybe I will another time. If I've left anyone out it's because I turned 60 and I'm a grandmother, and I hit my head really hard on the ocean floor( I actually don't remember some things because I did copious amounts of illicit substances and no amount of brain food will ever connect all the sinapses again). So, in fact, I'm impressed. Also the timelines could be ALLLL mixed up. 2008. is that a lifetime away?