Since 1977, I have been going to the Oregon Country Fair. At the beginning, my fair experiences were enhanced by the core of beautiful people that attended this remarkable yearly event. I had a magic bubble that I blew around my van every time I entered the fair. I would float softly and unnoticed past everyone and answer all questions with the right words to get me to the next point and beyond, till I came to a spot under the shade of this beautiful tree in crafts parking. There, I would set up camp for me and my dog Ryan. The shade was necessary for my K-9 buddy and gave me peace of mind while exploring my new home. Fantastic times and vivacious memories of the music, the costumes and the beautiful women that I met, will always be imprinted in my brain. One of these women would sweep me off my feet and we would leave the fair together. Our predestined meeting at the barter circle would spark an Oregon Country Fair love affair from which I would never recover.
This year I brought my 36ft. school bus, all decked out with seven beautiful air-brushed paintings of Mt. Hood, ocean scenes, a covered bridge and Timothy Lake, all of which were displayed on two sides and the back of my bus. I had just designed one of my Just Say Mo' T-shirts and was having a great time trading them at the barter circle, when Pam, who I had met earlier in the fair, wanted the T-shirt off my back. She had that look in her eyes that she might want more than my shirt, so I happily obliged her and took it off and gave it to her. We hung around each other for the next couple of hours and then, after lots of conversation, we realized that it would be great for her and I to just leave the fair and go on a spontaneous adventure together. I was an old pro at this spontaneity stuff, after all, my specialty in life was being a free spirit, always following the path ahead of me and seeking my destiny and dreams beyond the horizon that lye up ahead. Let's just go for it, being my motto. So we did.
We spent our honeymoon in a Salem motel where we sanctified our spontaneous passionate love affair with a night of romance and release. The O.C.F. was the spring that sprung the fling that sent us hurling into the lofty clouds, where we would continue floating for days. We went through the Columbia River George and across the Bridge Of The Gods and then back to the Oregon Coast just digging on each other's company and making plans for our future. I knew it was love when upon waking up one morning, I was nibbling at her ears affectionately and noticed there was something in them. "Pam, what's that in your ears" I spoke. She started laughing and then told me she had put gum in her ears to muffle the sound of my snoring. I thought to myself, this must be love. I've been a snoring bear all my life, furry and hard to sleep in the same room with, but she said she would be able to cope with this problem, so all was fine with our continuing romance. She then told me that she worked at the food co-op in Arcata, California and needed to get back down there being she had never called work to let them know why she wasn't there. While on our way to California we passed through Lincoln City to drop off my bus and take my van, being it was easier to drive and it also got better gas mileage. Upon introducing her to my friends, I kidded around that we had been married and were on our honeymoon. A few of them went for it, after all, we were in love and on our way to Arcata to put her stuff in storage, so we may drive into the sunset hand in hand and follow our dreams of love and travel. Everything was wonderful. Little did we know, but we were soon to find out that she had been reported as a missing person and her friends and family were not knowing of her whereabouts. After a few calls, we cleared everything up with her loved ones and were now, not being sought after by the law. We had no idea of this threat of being arrested and just chalked it up to being irresponsible lovers, still floating in those lofty clouds of love. We continued our journey south to move her stuff out of her house and into storage. She had quit her job and got her check and we were now just putting the finishing touches on our future plans.
We spent a couple of days cleaning the house and discussing a few discrepancies that we had. I was in favor of taking the van, where she preferred the bus. I had previously been on a bus trip to Santa Cruz, which was a trip from hell and had experienced lots of anguish and remorse on that initial launching of my bus. We came across our first disagreement and dilemma, but I convinced her that the van was the best choice. At least that's what I thought I had done.
The next day we were invited to a party that her friends were throwing for her, being she was leaving. Kind of a going away party, you might say. I was not feeling very social that day and chose to hang out in the back yard near the garden. I must not have made a very good impression with her friends and I think her friends must have wondered why she was with me at all. I was not your stereotypical good looking guy and was about six years older than her. At least it seemed that way to me, because on our way back to the house she said she wanted to just sleep alone that evening. It was like taking a giant step down from the cloud I had been on for the 11 previous days. It was like I had been stabbed with a dagger. Devastation set in. My fantasy was ripped to shreds, I was in shock and not knowing what went wrong. For most of the evening I could not sleep wondering what was happening to my Oregon Country Fair, love affair. Was it just another love affair? Was it over? Now what's gonna happen? In the morning when I awoke, the feeling that encapsulated our Country Fair romance was not the same. Questions of our future romantic continuance seemed to have already been answered. We both knew it was over. Holy shit! She quit her job, moved into storage and was now homeless and without a job or a plan and there I was in Arcata not knowing what to do. What a whirlwind! At least it was still summertime. She learned that her sister was going to visit their folks and would meet her and give her a ride south to L.A. in a couple of days. I, feeling the sudden emptiness in my heart, would return to Oregon and maybe try to understand just what happened that day of the party. We had strangely, in the space of only a few hours, come down from the lofty clouds we had so lovingly inhabited, only to crash land in the harsh reality of life's uncertainty. What a ride we had been on. I didn't know what to think, only that it was over and it was time to move on down that path that lye ahead. So it was me and my trusty dog Ryan, hitting the lonely road once again, traveling on. We exchanged some numbers and I tried to get in touch with her through one of them at a later date, but was unsuccessful. I never seen her again, but was happy to have been part of an amazing love affair and romantic adventure that started at one of the most magical, mystical places on earth, The Oregon Country Fair.
The Oregon Country Fair is still making dreams come to life.
Live the love my friends Wizzzmo
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