Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 16, 2013 - 07:57am PT
Found this and figured some of ya'll would enjoy. This is from the same guy who does the "Whole Foods Parking Lot" song and the "Yoga girl" one as well.
hey, I lived at the corner of Haste and Telegraph, above "Mario's Mexican Restaurant," which burned down in the last year or so...
was the 1971* academic year... my senior year at Cal...
...and I don't worry about being "Berkeley enough"
[edit]* they say if you can remember those times you weren't really there... Gary emailed me that I couldn't have been a senior at Cal in 1971, and he's right, it was 1975, but if I had been smart enough, maybe I could have been a senior then after one year... the reality: it took me four and one summer class, to complete.
I spent four of my happiest climbing years at Berkeley; freshman year (1969-70) in Smythe Hall at the top of Dwight, next two in "The Zoo" (still standing on Piedmont, just north of Dwight), and last across from Live Oak Park on Shattuck within easy walking distance of Indian Rock. Thanks for posting this. It's a classic.
That's hitting a little too close to the mark, Werner. In 1969, Dave Altman and I were in Chem 4A together. In the lab, we were given a glass cleaner with instructions that said, essentially, "Only let this touch your clothing where you want a hole to appear." I suspect Dave took the hint and kept his clothing intact. I, on the other hand, got holes in my sweater and vest. I should have had a lab coat!
Living in B town now. It is hard to be Berkeley 'enough'...been living here all my life and anywhere else I go, it seems a little weird.
This rapper also does that more well known "Whole Foods Parking Lot" rap..very funny..."these dudes with clip boards lookin' at me like they know me.."
We were totally fueled by that place. The dinners were huge, about right after a long day at Indian Rock when we were young. Dave A. and I went there many times in the 70s.
As part of the Berkeley Rock scene I felt I needed to ride my bike to the Valley in a day. The fuel for that ride came from Mario's. (I also carried a plastic bag full of cooked potatoes, my super secret formula for success!)
I bumped into Dave at the Berkeley gym last week and he mentioned you John. Some climb you guys did way back in the dawn of time.
Everything we did was at the dawn of time ;>). When we were freshmen, I had already been climbing for a few years, and Dave hadn't started yet, but he kept asking questions that showed his interest. Around 1973 he got serious about climbing, and I had to get serious about the working world, so he passed me up in climbing and, if I remember rightly, you passed me up in bouldering about the same time.
Let us know!