I followed a link to a link from another link and found a page dedicated to a now mythic place in the 60's called The Ghetto in Austin, Texas. I once landed briefly in Austin on my way to Harlingen, Texas, near the Mexican border, checking out a stolen grapefruit crop (I know, sounds weird. Sounds weird to me now too.) so I've never been beyond the Austin airport, let alone to "The Ghetto" itself, yet I can tell you stories and once knew half the people who lived there and appear in the photographs. They were good people, better to me than they ever needed to be, and I'm happy to see them still kicking. Lookin' a little older, though. I think Gilbert named me an "honorary Texan" once at a party at his house in San Francisco and I suppose I still am, still hanging out here in San Francisco, when everybody else was long since been smart enough to come in out of the cold.

I went through some of my old negatives after looking over the photographs on "The Ghetto", thinking maybe I'd run some before and after pictures. I don't have many, but I discovered the banner photograph along with others that I'd forgotten. Dave Sheridan, who died a tragic and early death of cancer in the early 1980's, was working on a book with Don Novello and during that period Don would hitch a ride with me now and then in my old Volkswagen to meet with Dave at his place in Fairfield, a small town just north of San Francisco in Marin County. Novello was developing a stand up comedy routine - I knew he'd done some gigs on the Playboy club circuit - but this was before he went east to Saturday Night Live and became Father Guido Sarducci. I remember he started as a copy writer on the "You've Come a Long Way Baby" Virginia Slims account with their agency in Chicago. I suspect he no longer needs to hitch rides. That was some time ago.