Author Topic: seed'70  (Read 18847 times)

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Offline tom s.

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seed'70
« on: September 16, 2005, 11:08:00 PM »
Anyone here remember the seed 1970?Innocently posing as a hippie house on S.E.3'rd st.Ft.Laud. I think with a big metal peacesign sculpture on the lawn about 41/2- 5 feet in diameter-yellow and also green.I thought it was a used jean store.I went running in there february '70 and found myself in a very Billy Jack community school-like group of people around my age-15 and younger and some older,and Art in a room w/a desk,Pam,a really sweet girl about 20 who cooked for the group,and a sort of innocent seeming ambling about of all,eventually evolving into a session.Anyone remember back that far?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline marshall

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seed'70
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2005, 11:58:00 PM »
I didn't come in until 76 but I think many of us here would love to hear anything you could share about the early Seed, it's origins, etc. Giant peace sign, huh? Amazing. By my time there nearly any trace of any such counter-culture trappings had disappeared.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. You must climb towards the Truth. It cannot be \'stepped down\'

Offline GregFL

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« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2005, 02:48:00 AM »
I came in July 73..those stories are all legend.

Welcome Tom!

Please tell us a bit about the seed back then. How formal were the "rap sessions". Punishments/rewards? Any mention of the synanon?  

Anything you can remember, please tell us!
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Offline rjfro22

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seed'70
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2005, 03:48:00 AM »
Tom S.
           I remember the house on 3rd ave.  in 1970
Did Pam  have long blond hair ?  , she was very beautiful from what I remember. I was about 16  at that time as well time and they served free meals,  which attracted a lot of the young street hippies at that time
Do you rmember Maureen, she was like a staff member,  and Hap and Mavis, I remember a wedding there as well, it was very Billy Jack like, that was a great discription. People came and went as they pleased. No one tried to make me cut my hair , lots of  hugging and genuine caring, it was a very special time. There was a record player up front with several of rock  albums .  I  remember   Maureen  getiing down to "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain.  I remember telling my friends about this cool place called the seed.  Every time some one knew came in we really wanted to help them, I remember really caring about everybody back then.  My friend Tom W. turned me on to the seed back then and he was only 14 at the time, we both Just walked in, and we were greeted with open arms, and of course a free meal , we used t hitch hike to the meetings from hollywood and some of the time someone would ride us home.  [ This Message was edited by: rjfro22 on 2005-09-17 00:54 ]
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Offline Ft. Lauderdale

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seed'70
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2005, 08:19:00 AM »
Marshall,
That Peace sign was also on St Rd 84.
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Offline Anonymous

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seed'70
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2005, 10:18:00 AM »
Where on the SR84 property was the peace sign hidden?  I don't recall.
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Offline tom s.

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seed'70
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2005, 03:22:00 PM »
Yes, it was very smooth and hip and gentle at first.Free meals and some music-hugs were real.Pam had dark hair and a bayou face gentle looking w/knowledge integrating a kindly attitude.he had a light speech impediment like a lisp-but not.She was actually nowhere near resembling a beautiful blond but she may have been an angel.In her wisdom and as her life unfolded she chose to leave just before all the gentleness dissolved and the caustic agents of the seeds'dictates began to crystalize.She must have seen it coming.She gave of herself freely and uncomplaining and treated everyone as a well loved family member.She was not often spoken of but I hear her clearly in my heart 35 years later and I thank her where ever she is. I remember Happy and Mavis well.Happy had a handlebar mustache,a fatherly firm but caring disposition and a sense of humor to match the occasion and his wife Mavis was a tad portly if only to hold in an amazing inner strength and an english wit that bordered on Dickens' cockney along w/the accent.Two totally unforgetable characters.I don't remember them making the move down to around S.Andrews at the little mansion which was to eventuslly house the Seeds' really growing rap sessions.I remember them recalling their arguements w/each other when they were drinking.Mavis would throw cast iron pots and pans at Happy and then they would make up of course.I remember Maureens' name well and almost the sound of her voice,but I can't visualize her.I get her confused with Renee from n.y.who had at one time a several hundred $$ per day heroin habit-which was a huge liability even by todays standards.The record player was moved w/the seed into a back room for a while along w/the albums and eventually chosen music was cited as a remembered association with past highs and I think sort of edged out of sight.Naturally they couldn't stop radio play.Never heard of synanon at the time.
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Offline Antigen

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seed'70
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2005, 06:47:00 PM »
Hey Tom,
  Welcome. How long did you hang around? First bldg I remember was S. Andrews.

I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.
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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline tom s.

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seed'70
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2005, 08:50:00 PM »
I was somehow absorbed into being a participant.I remember being with them 6 months and then some more in '71.A bunch of us kids carried really heavy flagstones from down the street behind the seed at s. Andrews.These we placed down outside the house.As the rustic style floor became larger in area as we accumulated more of these flat stones,someone also built an overhead and presto-we had a meeting area much larger than the little cozy house we sadly left behind.At that point it appeared that the friendliness was washed away,but it existed more as an underground movement.I had appeared at the seed because I was running from my brother in law.I had to live w/my sister and him off and on because homelife was not  possible peacefully.Well neither was the solution.Eventually I  was placed into several other members' homes mostly to keep me apart from the flash point that would ensue from home life.Really,all I had to do was stand at the front door and an arguement would greet me-so-that was actually the basis for my mistaken entry into the orginization.The sessions at S.Andrews became heated.More staff members appeared.Charley Oats,Darlene,Rick and Linda-there's more but their names and faces don't always surface in clarity.Memory is sometimes like those magic eight-balls.You get what appears on the little window with a good shake!I remember when they got a pink toilet seat for what they would refer to as the hot seat.I think it was on a toilet.People got come down on hard.A lot of it was unnecessary.Many of us were accused of having attitudes of heavy druggies and we were entirely too young or inexperienced to know what in the world they were talking about.(Check my other post about the seed song)I was put on the hot seat because I liked someone.The girl was put on the seat because she was accused of playing games.Relationships were not allowed.But as youth flowers,so does the heart.I expect that's why so many cars that went by were accompanied by screams of "the seed sucks!!!"and so on.Those were humerous interludes spaced entirely too far apart.
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Offline marshall

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seed'70
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2005, 10:52:00 PM »
I have been trying to remember the peace sign you speak of and can't recall it for the life me. It was still there in 76, huh? Maybe I just blocked it out because it didn't fit the rest of the program. In any case, it was still a holdover from the old days of rockin' out to Mississippi Queen. Let me put it this way, if I'd walked into the Seed as an oldcomer wearing a peace sign necklace or T-shirt in 76 or 77, how do you suppose staff would have reacted? Remember, honesty is the first & most important rule. :wink:

As to the music; I think Straight did outlaw listening to specific radio stations. At the Seed, many oldcomers and graduates would criticize or condemn you if they knew you listened to rock. That's one thing I liked about moving to the guy's apartments. For some reason this condemnation was totally absent there. Nearly everyone rocked out on the weekends. I even remember listening to Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit blaring. I don't know, but my bet is that staff eventually put a damper on that sort of thing too. It was an early version of the 'culture wars' that the right has declared of late.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. You must climb towards the Truth. It cannot be \'stepped down\'

Offline GregFL

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« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2005, 11:44:00 PM »
Before the seed each of my siblings and I had joined the colombia music club. We each had a huge stack of music. I had a small turntable in my room and would often just sit in there and listen to some really good music...yes and Emerson lake and palmer were two of my favorites.

When I came home, my parents told me that I needed to get rid of all "old druggie ties". I went in my room and discovered they had already done it for me for the most part..removing all my posters throwing away my clothes and replacing it with white tee shirts (pocket) and straight leg jeans and such.

But the music was saved for me. I physically had to throw all that music in the garbage. I didn't want to but knew the consequences of non compliance and was sure I would end up back on the front row if I even showed a hint of remorse. The truth is the fear of returning to someone else's locked home and increasing my "sentence" was a much bigger motivator than keeping my beloved music which represented two years of monthly choices and allowance and many hours of blissfull peacefull time alone.

so I did it, and as expected when my face and actions were explored for regret I stuffed it big time..

The seed I attended was much different than the early or the later seed. Straight, Inc. was modeled after my seed.  Thanks Art!

Now, I woulnd't give you a nickel for the early or the later seed, but the Seed St Pete truly was screwed up and had a mean edge to it.  Even John U acknowledged this when we spoke.
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Offline Antigen

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seed'70
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2005, 12:20:00 AM »
I remember "No listening to WSHE or other druggie stations." That one carried over to the Bay area stations in the sequel.

Remember one stormy night a couple of guys snuck up behind somebody else and dumped the tarp on them? I remember the event but not the ppl involved.

When you say staff members appeared, what do you mean? Weren't they all drawn from group?

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« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline tom s.

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seed'70
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2005, 09:05:00 PM »
Memory can be like looking through a container of ten thousand buttons.The peace sign might have made it to the 2'nd seed sight on s. Andrews to be placed in the back somewhere.It was not mentioned after an initial drown-out of all prior "hippy ways".In the very beginning of the 2'nd seed house we were allowed to sit behind or to the right of the house in the shade of an old tree which could actually shade all of the present members perhaps at that "shift".Other members did appear out of somewhere,staffers were appearing from who knows where.
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Offline GregFL

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« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2005, 05:13:00 AM »
Now that is very interesting Tom.

Just where were these staffers appearing from, and who were they?  Do you remember any visits from Robert  Dupont during this Time?
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Offline JaLong

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seed'70
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2005, 11:35:00 AM »
Boy Greg does this bring back memories. When I finally went home, my parents got rid of every "druggie" thing in my bedroom. They threw away all my albums and 8 track tapes. I had all the Beatle albums. They found all of my diaries, my poster of Kenny Rogers, that he gave me and signed, and they found my book I had cut out, clued the pages together, and used to hide my dope. I remember feeling so violated and angry. An old friend of mine had some of my albums, and gave them to me after I got out of the seed. Oh yeah right! "druggie" music is going to lead me back to dope. What the heck was Art thinking. Unfortuatly, my parents were so naive they believed every thing that they were told. What a bunch of B.S. Thanks for the memories- Not.
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