I've written in the past about my good friend "Ocean" a unique individual that left a lasting impression on my life. He past away a few years ago. Since that time I have thought about him often. For a time I sometimes would think I saw him walking down the street as I would pass by in the car or on the bus. I know that this was wishful thinking on my part because I miss him. Over the last few weeks I have had the strangest dreams In which I am in some sort of subway or train station waiting for a train. As I am standing on the platform out of the corner of my eye I notice a distinctive cowboy type hat that "Ocean" used to wear. (I Put Quotes around his name because that's the way He singed his name) Or sometimes if he would leave a note on my door it would simply bear An"X".
As I notice the hat I say to my self,"Hey that looks like "Ocean" so I start to follow him. Just as I am about to catch up to him he ascends a staircase to another level. As I would reach the top of that staircase I am just in time to see him ascending another staircase. As I reach the top of that one the same thing happens. This goes on for about 4 or 5 staircase, all the while I am just one staircase behind him and I never really see his face though I know that it is him because of the distinctive hat. And by the way at the Top of each staircase I find his Mark, The distinctive "X" That he would leave all over town, On street signs, lamp posts, fences, Bathroom walls, Motel rooms everywhere. The only difference in the "X" I show here is that his mark had 4 quotes two at the top of the X and Two at the bottom.
The story of how I met "Ocean Is two fold and goes back almost 30 years to a time when I was freshly separated from Celeste and My daughter. I was feeling lost and destitute and my home town of Napa California held nothing but heart ache and memories for me. So I decided to head for the hills or in my case the Russian river. My Friend Steve Maxwell and I packed up my Oldsmobile Vista cruiser station wagon and headed out on an adventure that would take us to the town of Guerneville Calif. On the Russian river in Sonoma county. By the time we had gotten to Guerneville we were almost broke and out of gas. Steve and I went to the local chamber of commerce because we had heard that they had a bulletin board there with ads from people looking for temporary help with odd jobs and such. I covered some of this in an earlier post so I'll just get to the part wherein we obtain work helping to build a stage on Johnson's beach in Downtown Guerneville for the upcoming"Russian River Country Music Festival"
After about week of hard work building the stage and fencing off the perimeter of the beach to prevent people from sneaking in The first half of the Job was nearing an end. As luck would have it, Dick Lyman, the guy who hired us introduced us to a fella that turned out to be the road manager for the headlining act, None other Than The "Ragin Cajun" Doug Kershaw. As it turned out they were there two days early and wanted to go ahead and set up some equipment on the stage and wanted to hire some security to stay at the on the beach and keep an eye on things. Steve and I got the Job so for the next few days you might say that we were in charge of Johnson's beach at night anyway.
On the first night I stationed myself at the N.W Entrance to make sure no one climbed over the small gate there. It was a dark moonless night and we were underneath the cover of large trees so there wasn't even any star light, so as you might imagine it was quite dark. As I stood there making small talk with some of the locals that had sorta camped out in line to get the best places on the beach for the concert I reached into my pocket for something and out dropped a hit of purple micro dot acid that I had gotten from one of the locals the day before. As you can imagine it was going to be impossible to find in the dark. I was just about to give up looking for it when a voice came out of the darkness and exclaimed "FOUND IT". I looked up to see this short Hippie looking guy with shoulder length hair wearing a flat brimmed cowboy type hat with a feather in the band. He started to hand me the hit of acid and I just told him, Man you found it so you keep it, my treat. I would not Know his name or see him again till years later when we would meet in Fairfield and discover in conversation that we had met before on that dark moonless night more than 4 years earlier and more than 100 miles away. When ever he would show up to visit who ever answered the door would just exclaim "Tides In" Thus the Title of this post.
God Save a Wave
________________By RK Savage
"God save a Wave as he crashes on your shore,
Take him in your loving care where he'll never long for more,
We live our lives from day to day not knowing whats ahead,
But I hope that we will meet again
when these earthly bonds I shed."
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