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September 8, 2018 by tomdalzell

Counterculture Stores

 

KEEP USE

Once upon a time, Telegraph Avenue and its tributaries were home to elegant stores – Abel, Andre Godet, Fraser’s, George Good, Nicole’s, and others.  Sprinkled in there were hints of Bohemia, but an intellectual, academic, sophisticated Bohemia – the used book stores and used record stores, the Éclair bakery with croissants, a few stores selling Gauloises.

And then came the Big Changes.  As late as 1966, the Espresso Forum banned long-hairs and beards.

city_under_siege

The floodgates opened soon after, and they opened swiftly.

Telegrpah Avenue Freak Show Huntley for Mayor 1967

Telegraph Avenue Freak Show Back pages

By 1967, a Republican candidate for mayor was calling Telegraph Avenue “The Greatest Freak Show on Earth.”  Good thinking Captain Obvious!

166a8c713850d892d7c1730753d1039c

Click on the jukebox for today’s theme song.

Berkeley was never the pure hippie counterculture lodestar (HA!) that San Francisco was and Telegraph was never Haight-Ashbury.  We are smaller, and our brand of counterculture had a bigger dose of radical politics than did San Francisco’s, but we still had our businesses that arose from and catered to the counterculture.

I present here images – mainly advertisements but also photographs – of some of the many counterculture/hippie businesses that sprung up on Telegraph and elsewhere in Berkeley.  I have treated political bookstores elsewhere.

I haven’t done a methodical search and what I show here is far from complete. I may yet do that systematic search, but here is a start.

5-CJs-Old-Garage-Ad-512-221970-674x1028

I am especially fond of a building referred to by what it used to be.

6-By-Hand-Old-Garage 7-OLD-CJS-BY-HAND

unnamedChaldea 1 copy Chaldea 2jpg copy Chaldea 3 copy Chaldea 4 copy Chaldea 5 copy Chaldea Color Ann Arbor Sun copyChaldea was a nation that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BC, after which it and its people were absorbed and assimilated into Babylonia (modern southern Iraq).  It is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament

CLeo's copy

 

Yes, photocopies aren’t inherently counterculture, but there is a definite hippie vibe in this ad.

Cornucpia Imporium copy

Dirty Rainbow 2 Dirty Rainbow. 2jpg Dirty Rainbow

Generation II copy Good Life Maciobitcs copy Good Lilfe Ad with Map copy Great Linoleum Clothing copy

Photo: Nacio Jan Brown

Photo: Nacio Jan Brown

The point of this photo is the stores, not the car and cops and damage.

Institute of Social and Personal Relations copy Kathmandu Door copy Kathmandu Window copy KEEP USE Krishna Imports copy Love Avalon Art:Stephen copyNova Express copy

 

Rag Theatre from Organ June 1971 copy

Red-Square-ad Sandals Unlimited copy

Sansara 2 copy Sansara copy

Screen Shot 2018-09-05 at 5.29.16 PM Screen Shot 2018-09-05 at 5.40.24 PM

Solidarity Films Channing copy Spectrum West copy

Youth Coalition Comics copyTops and Pants

Bob Jefferson Jewelry copy

Bill Miller's General Store:. Photo: Elio de Pisa

Bill Miller’s General Store:. Photo: Elio de Pisa

Bill-Miller

Photo: Elio de Pisa

On Haste east of Telegraph on the south side of the street, behind the Forum, there was an alley with a number of small stores.  They included these:

2506 Haate The alley Citizen 1966 copy Alley 2 copy Alley copy Alley womens books

Two Steps Up Two Steps Up Bedspreads

One World Famiy Restaurant Joe Samberg copy

There were street vendors, many of them, and many with colorful personalities.  I have photos of only a few of them – maybe the Great Reading Public can add:

Don Le Page.  Photo: Berkeley Barb, September 18-24, 1970

Don Le Page. Photo: Berkeley Barb, September 18-24, 1970

Photo: Organ, May 1971

Photo: Organ, May 1971

Folkmanis puppetsjudy-on-telegraph-ave_sm copyJudy Folkmanis selling her puppets on Telegraph.  She died in 2016, with her puppet business still thriving.

While on the street, let’s revisit a couple of the prominent counterculture vehicles.

Provos Bus July 21

The Provo bus

Movement-Library-Big-Truck-Color

 

As I said – there were many more.  If you know of others, and especially if you have photos of any, please let me know.

And – Note to Haters whose vision for Berkeley has no room for character – I am not stuck in the past.  I am fully present in 2018.  I am, however, interested and try to learn from the past.  I am happy to read the adjectives in these ads – outrageous, flashy, groovy, frantic, and trippy, and to read a call out to “Berkeley Free People.”  I am glad that we are not one big Bay Street in Emeryville.

I showed this post to my friend.

On the Ave

Even in his recently re-designed Danish modern quarters with its clean lines and thoughtful proportions tailored to the human body he has this framed and on his wall.

On a credenza near this he has a binder filled with his collection of Pepsi Generation advertisements like this:

1823

“I miss it all – not the Pepsi Generation, the Free People of Berkeley thing.  And I don’t.  Both.  Sometimes it seems like it’s all a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago.  Phil Lesh wrote and sang that one.”

I had a pretty good idea of what my friend would say when I asked him this question: “What do you think of the post?”

After telling me that maybe I should learn how to take a picture of a bound newspaper without it being all wavy and distorted, and came to the point.

Quirky Berkeley 05-12-16

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8 Responses to Counterculture Stores

  1. Mark Bulwinkle says:
    September 8, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Good page! You should do a whole page on Jimmy Reisdorf, The Yellow House, and their relationship to the food culture of today. Jimmy is still alive, by the way. M

    Reply
  2. Elaine Sokoloff says:
    September 8, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    What a wonderful post to wake up to! Thank you. I was born in Alta Bates in 1963 and spent early years and then college years in that magnificent city. It is so nice to remember…

    Reply
    • Lee Trampleasure says:
      September 9, 2018 at 5:09 pm

      Elaine, my sister was also born in Herrick in ’63

      Reply
      • Lee Trampleasure says:
        September 9, 2018 at 5:10 pm

        Sorry, wrong hospital, right year. Seems I can’t edit/delete comments once I make tgem.

        Reply
  3. doug heine says:
    September 8, 2018 at 4:33 pm

    Great post, where the hell did you get all the old ads, brings back great memories or was it all a dream?

    Reply
  4. steve says:
    September 8, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    Hi- Tying to locate pictures of vendors along the ave. for my friend who has been selling for 40 years, for his birthday present. He sells shirts and way bay when used to sell cheese on the UC side now at Telegraph and Bancroft on the corner, can you help,
    Thanks so much
    Steven

    Reply
  5. Lisa Bullwinkel says:
    September 10, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    Thanks so much for this brain retread. I so miss the old Berkeley, especially the creativity. Not so much anymore…except for you!

    Reply
  6. david mccullough says:
    March 22, 2019 at 6:45 pm

    Anyone remember the head shop run by Peter Neufeld and Patti Oberhaus? Hard to find Patti’s drawings online.

    Reply

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