Sections Above and Below This Page:
| |
manitarian or beneficent interests. Hinckle III began by
informingEmmett that the article in question had already been
written and was presently at the printers where the plates were
being offset for the presses. He also noted that there was only a
passing mention of Emmett and the Diggers in the story, and that
there was nothing to worry about. The conversation continued with
Emmett having downed his first glass of booze and working on an
equally large second, while chatting about his career in the army
and telling a few humorous stories about the work he was doing as
a Digger in the Haight-Ashbury.
He only stayed for about twenty, twenty-five minutes, and two
weeks later, Ramparts magazine was on almost every
newsstand in America with a picture of poster-artis~ Stanley
Mouse on the cover and "A Social History of the
Hippies" written by Warren Hinckle III inside. The article
amounted to nothing short of stone fabrication--a farfetched
piece of snide bunko about a fictive "summit meeting of the
leaders of the new hippie subculture," which the Diggers had
supposedly "convened in the lowlands of California's High
Sierras during an early spring weekend" to discuss "the
sta~e of the nation of the hippies." As a preface to the
plated concoction, there was a full-page photo montage of the
alleged "Dramatis Personae" of whom "Emmett
Grogan" was one, representing the Diggers. The picture they
used was a snapshot taken by a girl one day, when he delivered
some Free Food from the produce market to her commune. It was a
black-and-white shadowy print, while all the others were bright,
clear technicolor shots, and its murkiness was a consolation,
because few people who didn't already know him could recognize
him from it. But it did capture his image all right, showing him
in his fatigue jacket wearing his IRA cap at an angle.
As soon as Emmett saw that March issue of Ramparts, he
knew it meant trouble. And he became more certain of the ticklish
situation it was to cause, after he read the two pages of copy
which described him in unreal, outlandishly romantic terms, as
the Frodo Baggins of the Haight-Ashbury and "roguish hero
and kingpin of the Diggers." The profile of him also
outlined several of the anecdotes which he told to Hinckle III
during their brief drinking session, and concluded with a lambent
flame of intellect by advising the hippies that if they didn't
start actively protesting with marches and rallies, instead of
just living their protest, more and more youngsters would begin
"to drop out of the arduous task of attempting to steer a
difficult, unrewardin~ society" and the driving would be
left to the [end page 314]
|