Peace-Love-Dove all you groovy freaks!
Gossettc68
When I was 22 I lived in a small town that was pretty much supported by 2 local mills. If you lived in Noti, Oregon. You either worked at a mill, local store or the dinky bar.
Every year in Oregon we have a giant hippy commune known as the “Country Fair” however “Hippy Fair " is more like it. At any rate thousands of these hippies would show up for one weekend out of the year. These people will blow all their money and drive there rickety hippy-mobiles that barely ran just to get to the “Fair ". All up and down the highway you can see busted ass vehicles parked for miles...It was ridiculous.
Well, the hippies would come, do their thing and leave. But they always left behind “Trash " people who decided that Oregon was their new home. About a week after the fair was done and gone I was walking to work ( Graveyard shift ) and I was about half way there when I noticed off to my left there was a small hippy encampment in the woods about 50 yards out. As I started walking past I could overhear some people talking “Hey, go ask that guy for some money " that sort of thing.
Living here, I am used to beggars. But to make a long story short and to the point I was approached by 3 men begging for money. When I said no they circled me and asked for my wallet. Well, they got the short end of my .40 caliber instead and quickly dispersed. I got to work safely, called the cops, gave descriptions and the camp was broken up and 3 people went to jail.
I don't carry as often as I should, and the only reason why I was carrying that night was circumstantial, based on the fair and all the trash that NEVER leaves. But you never know what lurks around the corners these days.
I probably could have taken the 3 hippies on myself...But come on guys, who wants to get pertruili oil all over themselves?
Uh, that would be "patchouli" oil.
'Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with some of the leftover hangers-on from the Oregon Country Fair.
But consider that the Fair, which takes place the weekend after Independence Day on a 200 acre dedicated site along Long Tom Creek in Veneta, west of the
People's Republic of Eugene, is big business and pumps a lot of commerce into the economies of Veneta and the surrounding area, including the little town of Noti. You might as well complain to the folks around Sturgis, South Dakota about all those nasty
Hardly-Dangerous freaks who congregate there every year!
Just like the smell of the local mills, the smell of all those unwashed hippies (actually, the site features an enormous rustic sauna, complete with showers!) is
the smell of money!
I attended the OCF for more than 10 years and had some of the best times of my life there, and wish I could tell you some of the stories (but many would be X-rated; like the Rose Festival in Portland, 9 mos. after the Country Fair there's a baby boom).
I should point out that
during the day thousands of paying customers come through the gates to patronize the hundreds of craft and food booths, and aside from the occasional folks dancing naked in the heat and dust in front of the main stage, it's all quite family-friendly (the bacchanalia didn't usually start until after the public had left the grounds).
But in all my years there I hardly even saw a fistfight.
I'm sure being surrounded by
any 3 aggressive beggars is no picnic, and if you felt you had to draw on them, that was your decision. But I sincerely hope that the human debris left over from the Oregon Country Fair are the
baddest muthas you ever have to deal with!