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It took a few weeks, but Marjorie bought her little cabin in Lagunitas, and sold the large, empty, sheet rock castle on the steep hill in Terra Linda.  All three of her kids were excited about moving “to the boonies,”…

The changes happened quickly, because Marge was behind on her payments.  The mansion in Terra Linda went up for sale within a few days, and she made an offer for the cabin.  The family waited nervously for the real estate…

By February of 1975, the kids hardly saw Marge around the house anymore.  She was either working, partying with her friends, or looking for a place they could afford, and the children literally had to fend for themselves.  Julie’s boyfriend,…

The winter of 1974-1975 was wet and dreary.  Marty couldn’t ride his bike anywhere, and the house was cold and empty.  His mom disconnected the heater to save money, saying they could wear extra clothes to keep warm, and so…

The holiday season had always been strange in Marty’s family, and this year would be no exception.  In the past, on the day after Thanksgiving, G.O.D. would make them all go “as a family” to Union Square in the city,…

Marty rode his bike all over those hills – far beyond the boundaries of what could be called his ‘neighborhood.’  It seemed as though he covered hundreds of miles on his high-handled, banana-seated Schwinn Sting Ray.  Many of the hills…

Aquarium Beautiful wasn’t just a pet store – it was a broken-down traveling circus that was going nowhere fast.  Located in downtown San Rafael, in one half of a grungy old building between D and E streets, it served as…

The next day, after the last ragged gypsy had stumbled out the door, the kids got a formal press release that ‘things are going to be different around here.’  Their mom now preferred to be called Marge, and had gotten…

Marty White knew his life was going to be different the day he came home from school to find naked hippies jumping off the roof into his family’s swimming pool.  Being only twelve years old, he simply didn’t understand just…

For my family – you know who you are. It was the wild and crazy Seventies, when American culture was divided by the social upheaval of the Sixties, the conservative imperialism of war, and the natural forces of sex, drugs,…