As I drove on to the property and saw the bus sitting at the bottom of the hill, my mind flashed back 50 years.

I moved to the California Bay Area in the summer of 1967 -- it was the summer of love in San Francisco. While I moved into my place in Marin County, thousand of hippies were taking over San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. That summer I spent time photographing music festivals in Golden Gate Park and roaming the hippy filled beaches in Marin County.

During 1968 thru 1970 I attended graduate school at the University of California Berkeley. Those were interesting times on campus. The Vietnam War protests were at their peak and there were also marches when college officials decided to built a parking lot on the site of People's Park - a community project. Governor Ronald Reagan called out the National Guard. The campus was full of rife carrying poorly trained troops and helicopters flew over head dropping pepper spray to break up the crowds. The hippy flower children tried to bring order and love back to a troubled campus. They were more effective than the defective National Guard.

Once I graduated from Berkeley I had time to play. I attended a class at a community college in Marin called "Wilderness Survival." Actually it taught people how to live on the land and leave the smallest footprint possible.

Actually it was a great excuse for spending weekends in Mendocino in the woods, on the beaches or at hippy handouts.

In 1971 on a sunny Sunday morning I was sitting on a hill at Jug Handle Farm which is located just North of the town of Mendocino. I made a decision that impacted the next 20 years of my life. I decided to serve off the paved highway and take a alternate route. On that day a short-haired Texan decided to become a California hippy.

When I returned home I grew a beard and let my hair grow. I decided I wanted to be the first GM14 engineer at Mare Island Shipyard with a pony tails. Some years later when I was promote to a GM14 I did have a full beard and hair down to shoulders but I never grew that pony tail.

That period was one of the most enjoyable parts of my life.

So as I drove on the the property and saw the bus all of those memories filled my mind. I felt like I was back home.