Project history

 

Ever since the days when Freaks roamed Atlanta, whenever fellow travelers gather, tales have been told. We talked always of collecting them. Suddenly the death of The Chief, a Red-Black-White man (Apache raised in Alabama as Black till enlisting in the army made him white -crazy race laws), a journalist who had championed the cause of telling the hip tales lest they be forgot, and the gifting of a painting of The Strip, put Pat and Patti into action to collect what they could and share it through a website, The Strip Project, which went online in 2006.

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From Dr. Hooker to Patti

We had been scavenging items of historic interest and searching microfiche to find items in Atlanta papers. Plus making contact with photographers and notable people from The Great Speckled Bird. Our first public show was on The Strip at the Margaret Mitchell House in conjunction with The Atlanta History Center.

Here is a  video from the 2007  Gathering.

We had so much fun we did it again in 2008!

Also in 2008 was The Bird Bash.

The Great Speckled Bird gathered the tribe and readers, too for a big party outside Atlanta.

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The Bird Bash documented

Speckled Bird AnnouncementThe Strip project and The Bird created The Turbulent Sixties in Atlanta, 1968-1976  at the DeKalb Historical Society Exhibit in Decatur, Ga. It opened on May 18, 2011 and closed April 20, 2012. The Bird has kept their part as a mobile exhibit moving around the Southeast.

4 thoughts on “Project history

  1. I used to sell the Great Speckled Bird on the corner of 10th & Peachtree in the Fall of either 1969 or 1970 (possibly both) – Really enjoying your website! I lived there as a runaway of 14 starting Labor Day Weekend, turned 15 about 3 weeks after arriving. Worked at Chili Dog Charlie’s a few weeks Oct/Nov ’69 & left to head with 3 others & a poodle to cross the US to The Haight in a VWBug, driving nonstop! Knew Wade and Judy Bates (bro/sis), Mouse and Bongo, plus hung with Stoney and Cody a whole lot.

  2. We are going to be opening a new bar in the old Jocks and Jill’s location at 10th and Peachtree in the white building. Having such a hard time finding any information online about the building be for 1992. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sperdue1986@gmail.com thank you 💃🏻

  3. This site sparks lots of memories for me. I lived in Atlanta near Piedmont Park for a year-and-a-half in 1972-73, while I was working with the Atlanta Children’s Theatre. I read the Great Speckled Bird frequently, and Atlanta was where I first became immersed in underground comix and began contributing to them myself. My shirts were paisley and my jeans were flared; I was winding down my consumption of LSD at the time, though, because the quality was going way down since the peak of my psychedelic adventures from 1968 through 1972. I got fag-bashed in the Park, too, so my Atlanta days weren’t without their downers.

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