Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

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I see that Donny Trump wants to have his image on a dollar coin. I’ve seen this BS before…

Here’s the then sitting president of Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa in 2015, on his new money bearing his image and evidently raising the flag at Iwo Jima. My reaction… the mark of the dictator. He bankrupted his country and was driven out in disgrace. As America sleepwalks.

What?

Hitch-hiking days: Got invited out to Berkeley, Cal. by Annie, my ex. Sure enough, I hitch-hiked out. Unfortunately, I had a plan to only hitch on 2 lane roads and camp one night in each state I passed through. This didn’t work so well in the chimney of Idaho, only about 50 miles across when I had a ride to Spokane, but asked to get out after about an hours ride.

My street in the old Panaji.

By the time I hit Berkley, Annie had a new boyfriend, but she and her housemates said I could stay for a few weeks. I do recall seeing Commander Cody ant the Lost Planet Airmen at a free concert in People’s Park… but then headed home, still stuck on the 2 lanes.

Old Portugese interior in one of my favorite restaurants.

It was a hot August and the rides on the small roads were few and short. One farmer heading over to the hardware store in the next town, hours later another off to the feed store 10 miles down the road. I was standing for hours in the shade of a big oak when I walked back into the town and got a quart of Pabst Blue Ribbon and drank most of it while waiting around. After a bit, an attractive young blond went by in a white Caddy convertible. I cursed my luck, thinking, ‘Why do I never get a ride like that?’

Japanese place.

But then she came back, slowly drove by, checking me out, made a U-turn and picked me up. Marie had been drinking, as had I, and we stopped in several small town farmer’s bars where she explained to the bartender how to make a Grasshopper and I drank Leinenkugel’s, the local beer. At one point, feeling tipsy, she dropped a large wad of cash out of her bag onto the barroom floor, which I gallantly gathered up and put back in the bag… we were pretty well toasted and night was falling.

She suggested a motel, but just then we came up on a large graveyard down a dirt road with a wide open gate. I said, ‘Hey, I have a tent and it’s a warm night, let’s pull in here and park out of sight of the road. We haven’t seen another car for a half hour.’ So we did. It was a full moon night and the place was full of statuary, angels, religious figures… we threw off our clothes and ran and danced around in the moonlight, like something out of a Fellini movie.

In the morning, she explained her situation as the girlfriend of a construction boss off on a project in a remote area. She was the only woman on the site and lived in a trailer. Her boyfriend took off in the early morning and arrived home late for supper and sex. She finally got so bored that she grabbed his car and money and took off, but after buying me breakfast, she realized that she had to go back or he would certainly notify the police. End of story.