A friend of mine went to San Francisco to the Fillmore West and came back to our high school and said... LET'S BUILD OUR OWN! We used the Old Mill in the center of town. We formed an organization called "Youth Unlimited" and got the Town to Sponsor Us with $1 per year rent.
That was the beginning of The Forbes Mill Teen Club in Los Gatos California... We had a light show and electric rock music every weekend... On Wednesday nights we performed folk music. I was the head of security and did advertising posters. I used the mimeograph machine at the High School to print the posters for upcoming shows...
"Youth Unlimited" first held a concert in the Rec Room of the Presbyterian Church next to Old Town on University Ave. There was a live rock band that featured a saxophone player with an electric sax. We also formed a drum circle outside with me playing harmonica and a couple of guitar players. Since we had Town sponsorship of our "Teen Club" thru the organization Youth Unlimited, we had to make sure no laws were being broken at Forbes Mill or the police would shut us down. Certainly no drinking or illegal drug use or housing of runaways. My take on law enforcement was to direct potential lawbreakers to the nearby hole in the fence that lead to the wooded area next to the freeway. I admit that a lot of laws were broken on State of California property, but that was NOT MY CONCERN. I was responsible for making sure that OUR property was crime free.
The light show was created by using four slide projectors and two spinning wheels with variable speed motors that blocked the light from reaching the white wall behind the bandstand. Each cardboard wheel had holes cut into it so that the slides would be projected in a stroboscopic manner. Some slides were abstract art created by "crystal craze" paint and others were photographs.
We also owned a strobe light and I learned to not point it at the electric organ player because the blinking light made it impossible to see which keys were black and which were white...
"Youth Unlimited" also built a crisis center called Fre-Ba-ZAK House.
It was in an old wooden home on North Santa Cruz Ave. The idea was to have a place for runaways to have a safe location to negotiate with their parents. Kids that had nowhere else to go could go there ... My friend Richard Bergholdt worked there as a counselor. I used to go there because it was a fun place to go talk with other classmates... I remember drinking coffee and discussing weighty subjects late at night. One time I went there because I couldn't go home. I had gone to the Ike and Tina Turner concert at the San Jose Convention Center and took a Large Dose of LSD. I had to wait until my parents went to sleep before going home. It was a great concert and I remember that MANY of the students at LGHS went. I also remember listening to the FM radio there. Talks by Alan Watts about Buddhism... and the story "The Cave" by Plato. There were some totally free radio stations then. They had the freedom of selecting what to play and when to play it. I heard "Space Hymn" by Lothar and the Hand People at Fre-Ba-ZAK House.
In the 1960s I made tie dyed shirts using rubber bands and boiling the dye... one color... RIT brand named dye... and Mom sewed a shirt with bell sleeves and a Nehru collar... I wore it with a bell around my neck. Like, totally "mod"- like the fashion that was popular with the teenagers in England...
READ MORE:
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html
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Swim & Raquet Club - Los Gatos, CA -
Pete Denevi owner |
The Pool at the Swim and Raquet Club on Oka Road was 100 feet long. Most Pools are 25 yards. (Like the Los Gatos High School Pool) - Training in a longer pool was an excellent way to build endurance... For Example: if I got used to swimming a lap of butterfly... and then went to a competition in a shorter pool... I had an advantage... of Course, this didn't work when swimming at Foothill Junior College with their 50 meter pool...
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