My best experience?  The whole time period.  I basically spent the years from age

15 to 18 in the Midtown area.  We had a house over on Vedado Way we rented for

a while… I wish I could remember all the people who hung out there.  I remember

Buddy and Roger…  but, well, I must say, there were quite a few drug induced hazes

from that time period.

One of my good friends at the time was a gay guy called “Snowball”.

He was my 1st encounter with a cross-dresser and I loved him totally!

I’d say the worse thing was the cops.  We were hasselled all the time!

I remember one confrontation behind the Catacombs and one cop attacking one of my friends.

I remember jumping on his back but running away– and getting away amazingly

before back up came!  Getting things thrown at us from passing cars wasn’t so great either

but hey, we were who we were and we were proud of it!  We were the Age of Aquarius!

 

Oh and panhandling was so much fun. (yeah right) I got more money one day saying

my dog was in the pound and I needed to get him out than I ever got when I said I

was hungry…  of course, now that I’m an adult I understand that mentality.

 

All the concerts at Piedmont Park were great. I saw the Allman Bros there.

I  had a couple of girlfriends were very close to them. The horror of the day

Duane died is still so very clear in my mind. “Little Linda” introduced me to

quite a few bands in those years.

 

I attended both Atlanta Pop Festivals. Not that I remember a whole lot about them.

I do remember popping some bad Mescaline and being sick as a dog while I listened

to my favorite man, Terry Reid doing his set…

 

Saw many wonderful — and not so wonderful –bands at the Ballroom and Sports Arena.

Matter of fact, I got my 1st and only tattoo after having a few too many Sloe Gin Fizzes at the Ballroom!

Oh and remember the Krystal on Peachtree?  Use to hang out there alot…

and the Clermont Hotel… stayed there a while.  Hard to believe they are just now

closing it down… it was a real dump back then!!

 

Every time I smell Patchouli oil, I think of the head shop on 8th Street!

 

The memories from that time are some of my best.  How I lived through it I’ll never know.

How I had two beautiful and perfectly healthy children is a miracle!!

Known then as GYPSY because of the large hoop earrings I always wore.

I can truthfully say that if I could redo my life, I would repeat that part time and time again!

Thank you for listening,

Pat Rhodes Pursley