Well, I was rather rebellious as a teenager to start with. Out of control sexually, hated to live at home, and I guess you could blame it all on the Beatles.HA HA My mom took me and  my sister and a friend to see them August 18, 1965.. I was 12! They were at the Atlanta Stadium. From that time on I was hooked. I started smoking pot when I was 13/14 and started tripping on acid at 15.I was a wild child. Older friends took me to the strip and one experience led to another. My sister was a groupie to several bands at the time. I remember a club named Richard’s…. Lynyrd Skynyrd first played there.

How could I ever forget?  Piedmont Park whose various bridges I slept under as a 14 year old runaway.  On whose grass I lost my virginity one humid southern night to a big hippie girl who went by the name Wild Honey Sunburst.  The park’s fountains became bathtubs for the homeless young freaks of the day.

This big blond was constantly in the company of small slim brunette named Canary- a self-professed “coal-burner” from Memphis.  They had a room in a boarding house.

Hey do you remember that Fish and Chips on the Strip?  It was open 24 hours I think and was shelter for many during bad weather and that movie theatre that showed that movie theatre that never took down those Funny Girl posters.

Then there was the live Drag Theatre on the corner (or maybe a bar)….    I stayed with a dope dealer for awhile who had an apartment in a cool brick building.  There were French doors inside and he hid the dope in the …..   I remember it was a big place and the rent  was something like $75.00 per month.  He didn’t beat me up when he discovered that some of the MDA was missing.  He was a much older man… about 27!

Who didn’t at one time or other sell “The Bird”.  I used to sell somewhere on Roswell Rd. at the city limits I think.  Some guys were turning tricks in the parks for $5.00 (bj only) and others were “rolling the queers” as they sought sex partners at night.

What was it all about?   Freedom? For me think so.  There was in those times a collective spirit of change and love and revolution which hasn’t been matched since.  It was as if everyone was tuned in to the same psychedelic channel.  The free concerts in the park… the headshops with hand-written signs “no-rip-offs”.  There was that old victorian house that the Black Panthers used as their headquarters.  Just so many memories.

Thank God for guys like Carter Tomassi whose black and white photographs let us step back in time for a moment to remember where we’ve been.

Jimmy M