Steve Polifka wrote:
> Hey Jerry,
> Tell us more! How can you just tease us with:
>
> >And I was there. My first time seeing Joni. Went early and heard >her
> tuning up playing California on her dulcimer. I almost jumped >out of my
> skin with excitement!
Since I've had a couple of requests to expand, including from Les, I'll
explain. The memory is unclear as it will be from years and the trip
itself. I had a college radio DJ friend named Sonny Williams who was the
only Black guy I knew well up to that point. He was very tall, wore dark
shades at night, and wore custom leather belted suits. He would unroll his
filter tipped Kool cigarettes and crumble hashish into the tobacco. Then we
would smoke them anywhere and get real high. Back then you could smoke
anywhere. He was very exotic to this white boy, and probably gay, but we
didn't talk about those things back then. He asked if I wanted to go to the
Mariposa Folk festival because he knew I was a freak for Joni. He had free
tickets and backstage privileges as a dj. Of course it was last minute. We
jumped in my 1969 Kharman Ghia and headed for Toronto from Buffalo. We
picked up 2 guys on The Queen Elizabeth Highway. We of course were smoking
Sonny's Kool cigarettes, and they offered some acid, which we gleefully
took. I got very high very fast and had to let Sonny drive. I was very
impressed with Sonny's driving, until he complained about the little man
riding along on the fender. We made it safely to Toronto and took the ferry
over to the islands. I was getting higher by the minute and very pissed at
myself. We went to the stage area which was outdoors, and hear a dulcimer.
In the middle of nowhere, all alone was Joni tuning her dulcimer and
singing California. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, a once in a
lifetime mix of acid. The Mariposa Folk Festival is truly folk, not just
Greenwich Village folk with all kinds of ethnic performances. It was all
druggy blur after that, but I remember how spellbound everyone was when
Joni performed that night. She was very much thought of as a home town girl
back then.
Was it really 29 years ago??!!!
Jerry
