Cosmic Coincidences


A favorite family story tells of my Grandma baking cookies for Elvis.

Laugh if you will, but it's true.

Years ago in the misty past, before kids, before marriage, when one was content
to body surf Zuma Beach and spend the days "partying" in post-Vietnam Los
Angeles, I would often visit Griffith Park observatory in the evening. It was,
in 60's vernacular, a "boss" place. I never looked through the telescopes
though. I just enjoyed the planetarium program, the pendulum, and the wicked
looking electric arc that made my hair stand on end when it snapped. At 18, I
had no interest in astronomy.

Grandma lived in a guest house out back of my aunt and uncle's in Los Angeles.
During my childhood my cousins Ron and Bonnie Zee lived there too. My house was
over the hill, in "the valley". Ron eventually got joined the Marines, served
in Vietnam, survived, and came home to be a cop. Bonnie, well... that's where
the astronomy connection comes in.

Bonnie was different. Whereas Ron joined the "establishment", she went off in
the opposite direction... towards music. She was a friend of Elvis'... kind of
a pre-groupie groupie. Elvis would come over to the house and grandma would
bake him cookies.

Bonnie loved music and wanted to "make it" as a musician. She would later join
Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band with Norman Greenbaum, of "Canned Ham"
and "Spirit In The Sky" fame. Dr. West's "top 100 hit" had the insane title
"The Eggplant That Ate Chicago". Look it up, its real.

We then drifted apart and I lost touch with Bonnie for many years... until I
moved to the San Francisco bay area. I found her living in a geodesic dome at
Pacific High School on Skyline Boulevard, atop the Santa Cruz Mountains. She
had become a hippie.

After a brief visit we lost contact again, although I'd heard she was working at
Lick Observatory. This was 25 years ago, before I'd developed a fascination for
astronomy, so the connection with Lick didn't stick and I quickly forgot about
it.

Then a few years back, I began volunteering as a docent for the Summer Visitor
and Music of the Spheres public programs at the observatory. It was lots of
fun. This was when I came to know Lotus Baker, an interesting woman who runs
the gift shop at Lick and is integral to helping organize the public programs.
Nice person. By this time I was fully invested as a active observer, developing
TAC, some star parties, and all sorts of astro-activities, much more active than
I am now. You could say I was in the heat of it. Lick was the flame, I was the
moth.

The years past. Then two weeks ago, I phoned Lotus about an upcoming volunteer
night for which I was scheduled. While on the phone it suddenly dawned on me
that since Lotus had been at Lick for 28 years, she might know my cousin Bonnie
as their time frames overlapped. So I asked, "Don't suppose you knew my cousin,
Bonnie...", and before I could continue Lotus blurted out "BONNIE
ZEE?!?!?!?!".... "Well yes, that's her", I said. It was clearly evident that
Lotus had some very fond memories of my hippie cousin Bonnie. But it gets
better.

Lotus gave me an old e-mail address she had for Bonnie. So I wrote.

Two days later I got are reply... "YOU FOUND ME!"...

Bonnie had inherited and was now living in her parent's home in Palm Springs.
Not bad, eh? Good for her! So we've been corresponding by e-mail.

She told me her ex-husband Evan was still living on the Hog Farm in Northern
California. I had forgotten about this.... she *lived* on a "hog farm".... I
asked if she knew Wavy Gravy, and the bus trips, Ken Kesey....

Her answer almost knocked me over. "Yes", she replied, "I was one of them."
Instant visions of the Merry Pranksters, big painted buses rolling across the
US and Europe raced through my mind... Bonnie, an iconic American hippie pushing
for peace.

We talked about her days at Lick and the people she remembered... Rem Stone -
the director of Lick Observtory? Yes, they had been good friends. She looked at
the Lick web-site and said he looks nothing like she remembered (well, he
recently cut his long hair short and shaved his beard!). Then Bonnie told me
she knew Rem's dad, a wonderful spiritual teacher who would visit the Hog Farm
in Sunland-Tujuinga in southern California near where I grew up and where this
long strange trip began.

I found myself reflecting on what a small world it really is. I chuckled at
the coincidence... my cousin and her friend Elvis, her connection to Lick, to
the director's family, and how astronomy brought us back together after 25
years.. How fun this was! I'd only change on thing if I could... I wish I'd
been there as a kid, eating cookies with Elvis.

They were star shaped...

---
Lumpy Darkness

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