Thanks for getting in touch. Stan Daniels contacted me last month (just to reminiscence), and now you. How wonderful!

I came to Sausalito in early 1964 to work on the Charles Van Damme, which had just become a folky coffee house. We had 2 espresso coffee machines, a beer and wine license, entertainment upstairs and downstairs (featuring Dino Valente, David Crosby, Ale Ecstrom,
Buddha and others), and 28 people living in the hold.

I didn't get to know Varda until after the Van Damme closed down (one of several closings) in September of '64. I was never part of his crowd, but we met a number of times. The first time I met him I was hitch-hiking into town and he had just sold a painting. He said it was his tradition to buy food for people when he sold a painting. So he took me to and the lady I was with to Molly Stone's (then the Big G) and bought us each two bags full of groceries. From then on, we became friends.

Allan Watts is another story. I first met him in 1960 when he was speaking at my mother's church in Redondo Beach. I actually still have a photo of him and me together there. And then he was at the Big Sur Hot Springs when I first arrived and of course he presided over Varda's wake which I attended (incidently, Saul Ruda who shot The Last Free Ride has footage of Varda's wake, which took place on the Vallejo).

Also, when I lived at Gate 6 /1/2 (circa 1967), my girlfriend was best friends with Vogadu (sp?), Varda and Virginia's daughter, and we spent a lot of time playing together.

So, that's some of my story. I live in Mill Valley and produce the San
Francisco Crystal Fair in San Francisco, but that's another story.

I'd love to come to to whatever event you have, and if I can be of any help searching out people or things, let me know.

See you, Jerry Tomlinson