"She spoke her mind and was quite tolerant except for anything that approached ignorance. For KLCC, Tiffany reports on health care, social justice and local/regional news. Chips and Twinkies. "As the new attraction, I was getting a lot of interest from the unattached males," Adams recalls. It's a clear, cold afternoon in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, and Mountain Girl, dressed in a black parka and jeans, is sharing a joint with her three grown daughters. "Just about nothing. KLCC Staff visits Springfield 2-17-17KLCC Celebrates 50 years with a series of visits to our outlying communities. "I had a personal myth about independence that was getting shattered," she says. Our writers provide thought-provoking perspectives, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise. The band came back from Woodstock in August 1969 "looking like they'd been in a war zone," she says. [Laughs.] Eight months pregnant, Mountain Girl stepped off the Dead's helicopter at Altamont just in time to see Mick Jagger get punched in the head by a concertgoer. A few of her friends acknowledge the incident as rumor but refuse to verify it as fact). I couldn't believe it. ", And so Mountain Girl became a handmaiden to genius, a term she calls "horrible, but true." Like any other rock and roller, Jerry Garcia was under tremendous pressure to fool around. For an arduous month in December 1996 and part of January 1997, Carolyn Garcia was living on the Bolinas Lagoon at Stinson Beach with her old friend Caroline "Goldie" Rush and commuting to the Marin County Court House in San Rafael. He was one of these people where the first time you see him, he's kind of personable, and then the next time, he's starting to disintegrate.". Today, vestiges of the slender, heart-stoppingly beautiful girl-woman who caught Kesey's eye in 1964 remain - the fierce intelligence, the take-control bossy stick, the intellectual acuity, the ability to cut through a morass of pretense to the heart of the matter, the boisterousness, the guilelessness, the curiosity, the laughter. I say that after talking to so many Deadheads, who have testified to me that the Grateful Dead changed their lives.. "I could hear his voice and somebody else's voice," she tells me. "He'd fill it with music, drugs, girlfriends, whatever. Through our Discourse journalism, Insider seeks to explore and illuminate the days most fascinating issues and ideas. Read more Discourse stories here. I am also happy that we found companies that are privately owned and family run. As the '80s approached, the whole Dead zeitgeist was getting way out of control. "He wasn't super happy about it," she recalls. She also says that she started putting on weight "out of self-defense. He never did respond well to pressure of any kind. ", Her affair with Kesey happened fast. Inside her plant-filled home lined with scientific books on psilocybin and posters of the Grateful Dead, Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, legendary godmother of the hippie counterculture, Jerry's ex-wife, and mother of their two daughters, sits on a red leather couch dressed in a red shirt and purple pants. The Altamont festival, meant to be a sort of "Woodstock West," was organized in their apartment. So youve gotta stay grounded, stay humble, be realistic. Im really proud of what weve done with the space at Garcias at The Capitol [Theatre] and the whole concept behind it. There was a Free Clinic for those who were sick, and a Free Store for those in need of basic necessities, and there was music everywhere. But at the same time, there was a slightly Victorian tinge to the whole thing. I decided not to do much. But unbeknownst to the guys, she was taking notes. The others quickly took note of this dynamic new girl in their midst. After splitting with Walker, she took up with Jerry Garcia, but they did not marry for many years after. We were there for 18 months. She had short hair she'd dyed blonde. Carolyn Mountain Girl Garcia, Sunshine Kesey, Trixie Garcia and Annabelle Garcia, I sincerely believe that the more people that we can expose to Jerrys playing and the kind of person that he was, the better we can make the world. Snacks, beer, giveaways! "I didn't witness it," he says carefully, "but I heard from (one of her best friends) that Garcia pursued her with a focus that could not be broken. The concert had been meant to revive the spirit of a generation. "I felt bad when it was taken down into the woods and abandoned. "I slept with some of the other Pranksters from time to time." "We were delighted. Because for him it was a living fluid. She took them East. I had a new baby. Eventually, Kesey and his rag-tag band returned to the States, Mountain Girl and the baby in tow, to produce the final of the Acid Tests, the combination concert-performance-mass LSD trip (often courtesy of Owsley Stanley, who provided the psychedelics and was the money behind the house band, the Grateful Dead). "I was on the hunt for compatible people," says Garcia now. "It's the thing that runs through all of this history. But God, if somebody didn't cook, do you know what they would eat? so did Carolyn Garcia, with Sunshine, her baby daughter with . I was very much in love with Jerry's music and supported it, but our personal relationship was sort of outside that. What the hell just happened? After marrying "partly for tax purposes and partly out of a fond flickering of a once-bright romance"[8][1] in late 1981, this arrangement persisted until Garcia entered a diabetic coma in 1986. Dawn was breaking as they arrived at a ranch in La Honda. "I was sitting on the ground, and all of a sudden the redwood needles started to rearrange themselves. The decision on Holistic Industries as its official cultivation and distribution collaborator was up to the Garcia Family his daughters, Trixie Garcia, Annabelle Garcia, Sunshine Kesey and Heather Katz and Tiff Garcia's estate (Jerry's brother who passed away in 2017). "And then all of a sudden it was too much. "[1], In early 1964, she met Neal Cassady, who introduced her to Ken Kesey and his friends, one of whom gave her the name "Mountain Girl" because she was a "little bit wild. What is your perspective on how it has evolved? But Mountain Girl had been around long enough to know that, in the words painted on the Pranksters' bus, Nothing Lasts. She studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has worked in a variety of media including television and daily print news. That was his happiest space. We partnered with Keen to do a line of shoes, and they have been supporting HeadCount through the Vote Love campaign, which is a get-out-the-vote campaign that were also working on. "The weight thing wasn't that simple. The tiny kitchen downstairs was the crossroads, we jammed in there for morning cornflakes and conversation. "It was written all over his face. You mentioned your mom [Carolyn Mountain Girl Garcia, one of the original Merry Pranksters]. With the New York trip done, he was planning what he called a "Prankster Farewell Party," a send-off for those who now had to return to their jobs and lives. Mountain Girl walked around it, peering in the windows. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. The Bus had been abandoned in a muddy, mossy swale behind the Kesey compound for three years. She reads on: The car is lurching and leaping up the mountain road with its hairpins and overhanging trees, shrieking around the blind curves and cliffs. But now that she'd fallen in love with Garcia, Kesey seemed to realize what he'd lost. Destination #1: SpringfieldWhen: Friday, 2/17/17Where: Washburne Caf, Springfield, ORWhat: KLCC Staff rolled into Springfield in their mobile studio to meet the public and learn more about the community. The gray-haired woman, who bears a striking resemblance to Jerry, is his 45-year-old daughter, Trixie. Looming out of the deep shadows across the yard was an enormous painted bus, dim and bulbous and mysterious as Moby Dick. A 6-CD box set featuring two complete, previously unreleased performances from the Jerry Garcia Band and Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman recorded September 5th, 1989 in Hartford, CT and September 6th, 1989 in Uniondale, NY. In exchange for the cash, she gave up claim to the fruits of his talent, his real estate holdings and any future earnings. Mountain Girl kept her gig as the projectionist, painting the walls with colors as the trippers danced to the Dead. [Laughs.]. "Later MG told me that when she met Jerry," remembers McIntire, "she recognized in him that his music was the stuff of greatness. I don't know if she was threatened by me. As it was, he always knew he could come home and there would always be a place for him, no matter how weird it got out there. "After he had left and moved in with Deborah. He was 53. They were a team. She was about to become the unlikely teenage matriarch for the counterculture's most celebrated influencers, the Merry Pranksters, who gave her a new name: Mountain Girl. They were moving around, and I go, 'Oh, isn't that cute?'" The cleanliness of life which people around him discouraged pretty quickly. ", Any hopes she had of a joyful reunion were dashed the moment they found Kesey. I'm not a great anti-abortionist, but it never came up.". Many of the compounds she was analyzing came from the psych department, where novelist Kesey was a volunteer guinea pig, tripping his brains out on the still-legal precursors to lysergic acid diethylamide, aka LSD. It was a short hop back to addiction. "The moment we came back, Jerry was at my door to visit and within a month he was asking to move back in," says Mountain Girl. Tiffany joined the KLCC News team in 2007. Either you were with Kesey or not with Kesey. I was locked in. Kesey dubbed them the Acid Tests. And there were dogs and Pranksters, the bus and a whole huge scene all around them. "I was very upset," she recalls. [Laughs.]. "We felt guilty at having called for this." She was amazingly beautiful. Meanwhile, Koons Garcia's attorney, Paul Camera, has indicated that he will advise his client to appeal. She saw Joan Baez at Kepler's, a local bookstore, and started taking guitar lessons at Dana Morgan's Music Store. Thats a whole thing that wasnt even acceptable in the fine art world like 20 years ago. "Marijuana is an ancient plant, cultivated for centuries all over the world for rope & papermaking, for its oil, resin, & seeds," she writes in her memoir. The tiny kitchen downstairs was the crossroads, we jammed in there for morning cornflakes and conversation. And this is no ordinary late-night, East Bay, marijuana mind game. What the hell is going on? But Ive gotten more confident as far as using my creative impulses or intuition to help guide the look and feel of some of the brand licenses and products. Learn how and when to remove this template message, Mountain Girl: Her tale begins in Hyde Park, "Mountain Girl's heartbreaking memoir: An icon of the Sixties opens up about Jerry Garcia, Ken Kesey, and what the age of free love was really like", Women's Visionary Congress speaker biographies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carolyn_Garcia&oldid=1135994138, This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 03:21. Jerry and Carolyn Garcia divorced in 1994[1] but remained friends until his death. Ratburgers.". It had been only two years since she'd met Kesey and taken up with the Pranksters, but it felt like a lifetime. ", "The bus is the real talisman," said Kesey a few weeks later. "Well," he replied, "you must be Mountain Girl. Mountain Girl believes he was still suffering from the trauma of seeing his father, Joe, drown on a fishing trip when he was 6. You could feel it. For a long time, Mountain Girl clung to her anonymity. It never happened. The Bus, with "Furthur" written like a title across the top. "I could hear his voice and somebody else's voice," she tells me. "Cassady was on a speed run, looking for bennies," Garcia remembers. Kesey wasn't dead. There was no uncertainty about that.". The Mountain Girl-Jerry Garcia relationship was fraught with enough drama and see-sawing emotion to resemble a hippie soap opera. I was not seeking the spotlight. And then one day, he just kind of up and left. He had dumped all of his belongings in the Garcia driveway, including a box with a cat in it. Kesey (left) with Neal Cassady, who introduced him to Mountain Girl when she was 19. Two years later, she got the dreaded call: Garcia had died of a heart attack at a drug-treatment facility. ", One night in San Francisco, four months after the Beatles show, Kesey and Mountain Girl were up on the roof of a home in Telegraph Hill, smoking a joint. It began in 1966 and extended nearly 28 years until the couple divorced in 1993. So when a guy named Bradley and his fast-talking friend Neal approached her at the caf and offered her a lift, she decided to see where the adventure would lead. "Old-time farmers used manure, compost, bird shit, etc. "His whole thing was to drive to San Francisco, play a gig, go home, go to sleep, get up, have breakfast, drive to San Francisco, play a gig. as well as other partner offers and accept our, Joe Rosenthal/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images. In October 1966, with her visa up, she rode back to San Francisco with her baby and the Pranksters. When her youngest brother, Don, offered her a ride to California, she took it. The resurgence of life. "It was too much travel." People were just sleeping on the street in their shorts in the San Francisco fog, and getting terribly chilled. Sunshine Kesey and Annabel Garcia live nearby, not far from their mom. The fight over his intellectual and real property continues. Everybody was attached to it.". Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Garcia, former wife of late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, and her daughter with late author Ken Kesey, Sunshine Kesey, recent. "He came out of a near death (experience) with this true resurrection feeling. Both of her parents encouraged her interest in the natural world. Its very small scale; its just a nod to her range of influence, and how many people idolize her. With Jerry at her side, Mountain Girl was at the center of it all, counting Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin among her growing family of friends. Mountain Girl sued to get the money owned her. I am quite certain that it was a comfort to him as well as to me. The bus is rusted and broken down. Complete independence. I just didn't want to compete anymore. Weve met lots of people and toured lots of different places, and thought about many different ways to structure this. The familys latest endeavor, in association with Holistic Industries, is the Garcia Hand Picked cannabis brand, which follows partnerships with Keen footwear and Tessemaes organic sauces. And frankly, I'm glad we didn't, because I think if we'd fought it out too much, we would have lost each other. Adams, who had been a bus monitor in elementary school, had a soft spot for the rides, especially a vintage 1939 International Harvester like this one. "I began to realize the dangers of celebrity that had to do with the Grateful Dead attracting a lot of people to themselves who were unconventional. The band is comprised of former members Bob Weir (guitar), Mickey Hart (drums) and Bill Kreutzmann (drums) and new additions John Mayer (guitar), Oteil Burbrdige (bass/drums) and Jeff Chimenti. Its nice to lose yourself in a piece of art. The police advised Mountain Girl that there was not much she could do about him because he had established some sort of homestead on her property. Initially. A A. It was completely nuts. Their house was a living lab, a repository of bugs and plants. I wanted to get it right. If you were behaving badly, she'd tell you that, too. The paint is faded. The quote from Trixie in Long Strange Trip about her "knowing not to . Konser Grateful Dead di Oregon pada tahun 1972 menyelamatkan produk susu keluarga Kesey dan menjadi legenda kontra. "I was like, whoa, that was a really electric moment!" He certainly had me buffaloed on the dishwashing thing. [1] Despite her maiden name, Garcia, she is not related to Jerry Garcia, an incorrect assumption made by some because of her involvement with Furthur, a post-Garcia incarnation of the Grateful Dead. Jerry was very jealous. But basically, she was assigned to the traditional women's stuff of keeping a home, albeit a very large and unruly one. ", But at La Honda and in other communities around the country, a new movement was taking place. It was definitely a mild psychedelic experience with a lot of long, complex dreams, mostly about ancient ruined cities - Mayan - and jaguars. Now, after keeping her writings in a box for years, she had decided to share her memoir with me. Joy and excitement; uncertainty and pain. Mountain Girl cherished the quiet moments with Garcia in their room, nursing Sunshine in bed as he noodled her favorite tune, "Viola Lee Blues," on his guitar. Kesey didn't show up, even after the birth. She and Garcia lived off his $50 a week in gig money. It was something we did amongst ourselves. Late one night, alone in the Stanford lab, she decided to try some other interesting stuff. Despite the free-love ethos of the Sixties, she could feel the tension her affair with Kesey generated in the group. We cleaned our grass in an old aluminum colander, and stored the kilo of Acapulco gold in a kitchen cupboard. . ", All along Garcia understood that she had elected to keep the home fires burning and give her genius husband plenty of "space. PLEASANT HILL, Oregon - "Come on and see The Bus," ordered Mountain Girl over her shoulder as she rushed hell-for-leather down the back steps of Ken Kesey's red barn home. We weren't exactly a coven, we weren't a cult but we did seem to be involved with each other before we even met each other." ", David Kushneris a long-time contributor to Rolling Stone. ", But she "wasn't happy about the (female stuff). "Garcia's Ex-Wife to Get $1.25 Million: 'Mountain Girl' had sued star's estate". "Neal basically dropped me off there like fresh meat or something," she says.
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