Originally Posted by
Kingspoint
At the beginning of August of 1983, I gave my car to a friend, had a 36-hour road-trip around the State with two others, then packed what I could in a suitcase, along with a pair of cowboy boots (gave them to the first ride I got as it was too much to carry, but they were a really nice pair), my basketball (dropped it off in a front yard as it was too much to carry, but it shows how important playing basketball was to me), a white leisure-suit (like in "Sharped Dress Man") in a suit-bag, and $60 in my pocket and hitch-hiked to the Silicon Valley from Salem, Oregon with my computer programming education to try to get into Berkeley. A year earlier I had visited their new 10-story Computer Science Department taking a week-long road-trip down there (all paid for with hash sales). I converted half of it to weed along the way as $30 in weed was always worth more than $30 in cash if you were homeless trying to establish a footing somewhere. Was going to hit Monterey, where I could sleep on the beach, but after passing along Ygnacio Valley Drive at night and seeing the 100K+ people of East Contra Costa County, I decided my chances were better there for finding immediate employment and asked my lift if he'd turn around and go back there about 15 minutes after we had passed it.
First thing I did the next morning was go to SFX and get a locker where I could put my suit. My bag, I was able to place behind a counter at a greyhound terminal in Concord with the promise that I'd pick it up the next day. Waiting at a bus stop at the airport to head into the City I met a gal who was just starting her job as Hotel Manager of a high-rise in San Fran. Spent my first evening with her, around town and had a great 8th Story view of all of the South Bay, while smoking a joint. 36 hours earlier I was in Salem. Life is what you make of it. That song, "Sharp Dressed Man" was all about attitude, and attitude is everything in this world.
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