Dirty Disciples Deluded Dirt Cheap

I think "DDDDC" was actually released on April 30th 1976 but I'm not positive. Anyhow, this is part two of the piece I typed yesterday with a couple minor additions.

On Friday April 30^th I moved my furniture over to the Palm St. house with the help of my Dad. That evening brother Al gave me a ride back to parents on his motor cycle. Though I had driven motor cycles and been a rider, I had never before used a helmet. We had some kind of fish for dinner and Mom almost apologized for that. But it did have some kind of unusual new white wine sauce on it. The next morning the hot water wasn’t getting hot. Someone had fiddled with the controls. I had insisted people come over and fix the gas leak and this had been done. I went with Pete this day to a recording session. He said maybe I could try this mixing board out to see what it was like. But I didn’t get to use this board either. We spend almost the whole time rehearsing one song with a Mexican girl singing the lead, who would be replaced on the final recording. It was about two and we ate at Mc Donalds. Pete had been invited to some barbecue later on, but I indicated I just didn’t feel like going to anything like that now.

I was still doing these CMK “Romulan” albums. The one just out was called “Other Times and Places” featuring a man sitting alone at an empty bar with just the bartender there. The previous CMK album out in mid April was called “Stoned Free” but actually the picture was more shades of “Band on the Run” with a gang of masked outlaws backed against a brick wall with a spot light on them and police aiming machine guns at them. There was a Stones song on this album called “Empty Heart”. I was in charge of inside the house this first week. That first Monday I vacuumed the place and dusted and polished everything up and even lit the scented candles to set the proper mood for the night’s Bible Study. But Pete announced that we wouldn’t be having it because “people had cancled”. Only two girls were scheduled to come and Pete said “I didn’t want the thing to look like a date”. So instead- - we went out with those two “girls” that ex housemate nerdy brunette, and a fat blonde woman named Cindy, who was very pregnant and overdue - -and she had a husband. We went to Big Calvary and took in a Greg Laurie music concert. That Friday we were going to go to a “Jesus coffee house” in Fullerton. I had heard a lot about these and was quite interested in going. But Dick and Robin called up at the last minute and cancled because the baby had an ear ache or something like that. The next day was Saturday and me and Pete went to a work party at our family church trimming shrubs and stuff. Pete said he was surprised at how hard I worked and how much I got done when I put my mind to it. Perhaps.

The next day was Sunday and I guess it would be Mother’s Day. Pete and I went there for lunch with parents. The cat, Bo, was still at parent’s house. This day we would transport the cat to our place. One thing parents brought up this day was their plans to visit New York City later in the spring. I immediately indicated interest in going with them, as I had done the previous year to Hawaii. Let me say again that money was no object. Of course I would pay my own way. But they both said that my school was more important when it clearly wasn’t. I had quit one class and was limping through another. But for some reason they weren’t at all interested in having me along. The farthest east I had ever been in my life was Niagara Falls and Buffalo.This was from a vacation we had taken when I was a kid when we were still living in Chicago.

Finally on the second Monday of May of 1976, some month and a half after I had become a Christian, I finally went to a Bible Study. It was at that ex housemate’s apartment. But the thing was more like a soap opera from what I remember. Dick Llyle was allotted a lot of time talking about some “existential crisis” he was having that had something to do with it no longer being the ‘sixties. Also Pete talked about his divorce and attacked the leader of the band he was in for “Forcing them to play secular rock and roll in a bar lounge”. Dick and Robin’s baby wasn’t there but there was a baby girl, Jessica, who was the daughter of Dan and Debby. Dan was the unofficial teacher now. Jessica lit up with the place with her smile and all. But once again I ended the night feeling a little bewildered.That Saturday we attended Jim Klein’s graduation from Southern Christian college. Then we went out on that rock jetty thing at the mouth of Newport Bay. Then we ate dinner at a “Snack Shop” that hadn’t ever been turned into a “CoCo’s”. That night we attended a Calvary Chapel music concert. It was in one of the Bible Studies in May that I brought up the fact that there seems to “be no rhyme or reason to where God seems to be leading my life”. Dan decided I needed the laying on of hands for a baptism in the Holy Spirit. I’m not really sure it “took”. But I guess in some way I could kid myself that I had more of God’s presence. The next Saturday, which would by now be May 22^nd we went for a scheduled beach party. But Dan said that it was too cold and windy. And when we played volley ball Dan said the ball was so hard it hurt his hands. I was on the side of the net looking into the wind and I didn’t have a problem. It was just a case of putting in a little more muscle into the shots. But we went back to Dan and Debby’s house- - which was an older one- - in northern Huntington Beach.

At my parent’s church there were Wednesday evening prayer meetings. One prominent church member, a married Mexican woman was pregnant and kept having us pray for her baby, because “I really want this baby to be healthy”. I found out later from my parents that she had conceived this child by having an affair. This Bible prayer session soon disbanded- - and wouldn’t again meet for quite a long time. On Monday May 24^th I got back from Golden West and Dick Llyle was over at the house. It seems some fortune tellers had wanted us to vacate our house and “move somewhere further back in the tract streets”. They couched the whole thing in spiritual terms.What I find surprising was that Pete Richards would listen to what they had to say for a second. I don’t even remember finishing that semester at Golden West. I don’t think I took the final of the electronics class. I had become strangely apathetic about going there.

Larry Lawsen moved in the Palm St house Memorial Day weekend as the third housemate. Our total rent was only $240.00 a month for all of us. This is because Mormons from Las Vegas owned the house and had no idea what market values were in this area. So we each paid eighty a piece. During this period we made a habit of going to brother Al’s trailer park down the street to go swimming and use the Jacuzzi. It was kind of a way to catch up on socializing with Al. It was the first Saturday in June that we went to another Calvarymusic concert. This would make our third. This time we sat in that auxiliary room and watched the thing on the big screen. Jim Klein was with us and I was praying with Pete and Jim. I was worried about the future. Jim Klein said “You know that God would never do anything contrary to his own interest or own glory”. I felt reassured by his words because in my mind God was “acting stupidly” at times.It was a few days after this when the word came that Charlie,Margie’s older blonde haired “surfer” brother, had overdosed on Reds and died in bed. Dick Llyle made the statement of “Well you know that Charlie, he never had any sense in his head”. I didn’t take kindly to his speaking ill of the dead. Larry lightened the mood by saying “Well- - just look – the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the corn is high”.

One night in mid June Pete Richards took me to a Bible Study at a house sponsored by Faith Lutheran church. I really liked the vibes of this place, which in Pete's reverse reasoning meant a reason for never going back. But you had the feeling they really cared in their prayer sessions and weren't just going through the motions. There was a girl named Tracy there who had light brown hair, and she didn't have a boyfriend. I liked her and she seemed to like me, but I never saw her again. However this night I also met Bill T, who was to become a future roommate in 1978. I liked Bill's earnestness and back then he seemed like a really humble person.

We decided to go to Yousemite in mid June of 1976. That would be me, Pete Richards and Jim Klein. When Bob Hertzberg heard that that was where we intended to camp out he said “Why do you want to go there? Yousemite is just a guy and girl pick up spot”. Bob makes the words of Jesus ring true about “You sail the seas to win one convert and when you have won him, you make him twice the child of hell that you yourselves are”. Jesus said these words speaking to the pharicees. While on the trip Jim Klein threw a fit because the morning was getting late and I didn’t want to have our usual morning Bible Study. Jim said “I can go out in my front yard and look at a fucking tree. We aren’t here for the nature- - we are here to praise the Lord”. Pete Richards ruined at least two rolls of film in his camera- - exposing them or something. Unfortunately there was a major heat wave back home and Larry had not kept the crops properly watered and they suffered. Many of the crops never properly developed. Of course this place had screwy water pressure problems, and you had to beware that in the evening the pressure was better and the front generally had better pressure than the back yard.

We were gone seven days and six nights and got back late Friday night. That would have left the feeding of Bo the cat in the hands of Larry. Saturday there was a potluck beach party with the Bible Study group. The weather was nice. From then on, Jim Klein would be a regular at our Bible Study. By now we were meeting at Dan and Debby’s house. It would be a week later and Pete and I took a Biology class together at Cypress College. But there was no animal dissecting in this class. However one time I did grow faint in class when the teacher was talking about blood PH and what a delicate balance on the body it was. At nutrition break I felt dizzy and there was this rushing sound in my head and everything was turning a vivid blue- - like a black light. Fortunately I ate something and it passed. I did not have any official girlfriend this summer but usually I would have a snack with this co ed in the food mall or whatever. It was July 3^rd that we had another Bible beach party potluck. Pete and me and Mike and Sue (a married couple) and Robin decided to take a run along the beach right about sunset. By the time we got back, Dick was upset with Robin saying that they were late and the baby sitter will be wondering what happened. This party ended early.

July 4^th was no problem at our house because Disneyland shot off their fireworks virtually in our front yard. We had a front row seat every night. Disneyland would play the main street electrical parade theme about nine o clock or so. It was late June when I wrote my first letter to the media using that Burt Lombard alias. It was actually one of my shorter letters. In July the Bible Study had now moved again to Mike and Sue’s apartment. Robin showed me some fresh photos of Zachery, who would have to be about ten months old by now. I guess its OK to use that name. In early July I think - I went to the Melodyland record store and bought “Can It Be?” The Way’s 2^ndalbum, and also the Larry Norman album “In Another Land”. Just later in July I went with somebody (?) to Long Beach to the Pine St. HQ of KNAC radio studios to pick up a free copy of the newly minted “Rock and Roll” album by the Beatles, and also a yellow “Fifteen Big Ones” frizbee from the Beach Boys. Of course being good throwing a Frizbee was almost a requirement for being a Christian and those days and I got very good at it. Obviously that's one thing Toby liked to do was catch a Frizbee. I remarked to Al as we played the album in his trailer that it sounds like they have re-mixed and “thinned out” some of the songs, such as “Slow Down” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”. It was one Friday night in July that Larry Lawsen perswaded us to see “The Omen” and he said “It’s really a Christian movie. The priest even says “Eat his bread and drink his wine”. So we went to see The Omen and Pete found the thing so “spiritually oppressing” he went and waited in the car. The next day there was the men’s Bible breakfast that met at my parent’s church We discussed the movie there. Pastor Ed Peacock remarked on how sick “The Exorcist” was. There was a lot of talk this Saturday morning about "the future". Someone brought up some "revelation" that Ralph Wilkerson had had in 1974 where he envisioned that people would be able to watch hard core pornography right on their own TV. There was a guy who attended these Saturday morning meetings named Mike Bowman. He was a good guy with good things to say but he just disappeared. This whole group dissolved soon after this meeting. I was starting to observe a little trend going on.

Now the Monday Night bible study was meeting in yet a fourth location. This was the apartment right above where Pete Richards used to live when he was married to Margie. There was a big, high window to the east where the full moon shown in. Pete and Robin would have all these little caucuses. This was the last “specific recollection” of going to a meeting with this bible group. But they may have had a couple more meetings that don’t stand out in my mind. The only time I remember visiting Dick and Robin in their apartment it was on a summer’s evening and I just remember it being hot inside. There was one evening where Pete, Jim Klein and myself went back down to Southern Christian college - -music dept. because there was a guy there who was demonstrating a moog synthizer and all the sounds it could make. One of the dishes Larry Lawsen made was this Spanish sausage and scrambled eggs things. I had never tasted that before- - and it had an interesting new flavor.

It was late in July when I did some page with astrology symbols drawn on it. From time to time I would tell Pete that I thought I had backslid or that I had lost my salvation, and he would insist that I hadn’t. It was about this period that I wrote Chuck Smith a rather long, rambling letter. It concentrated on the years 1971 and 1976 with little mention of the years in-between. For this letter I used my real name. There was some big service at Melodyland and some evangelist was speaking. This was around August first, I’m not sure. I remember he was “calling out” various people in the congregation. And he said “There is one person in here- - one person, who had just given his life to Satan. You don’t know it yet but the Devil is getting ready to destroy you”. I was convinced he was talking about me, because of the astrology thing I had done.

The first week of August was the last week of Biology class. I got a real high B and I think Pete Richards got an A. I remember we stayed after class so that the teacher could grate our final tests right on the spot and tally up our points. I just missed getting an A by a few points but this teacher was into exactness. It was this week that Pete Richard’s divorce papers finally came through. The divorce from Margie was final. All through summer school Pete had worn his wedding ring, to keep the girls away or whatever. Now he took it off.Pete and I got into some argument about going to a “Believers meeting” and I wanted to go but kept sensing he was trying to talk me out of it and finally I got mad and didn’t go. In terms of my record collection, I had brought my record player over in early June along with about one third of my record collection. But as of this period I had not yet gone to a store to buy a new secular record.

These early months of a Christian were not very demanding on me. Holy Roller activity was kept at a minimum. Perhaps “lower” than I would have liked. But one night in August me and Larry were watching the Walton’s on TV and Larry suggested I go get us a beer.So I went to Al’s Party pantry and bought a quart of Burgermeister, which lived up to its name of “light, cool, and refreshing”. It was nice to enjoy a beer after these many long months. Larry also lent me a few cigarettes to smoke during this period but I never took up the cigarette thing at this time. On occasion sometimes Pete would do a bonus meal when it wasn’t his turn to cook yet. There was this one Saturday evening in mid August I remember Pete fixed a really nice dinner and salad and everything when it was technically still my turn.In general these were tranquil, happy days. I know there are details I left out, but if I left out any “major thing” it’s probably because it didn’t happen. I know this whole posting won’t exactly be everyone’s cup of tea.