Caserta, Peggy; Falcon, Maggie (Joplin, Janis)

I Ran Into Some Trouble

Deadwood, OR: Wyatt-MacKenzi Publishing, 2018. First Trade Softcover Edition. Softcover. “’Hi, I’m Ron,’ he said. ‘They call me Pigpen.’ He tipped the brim of his hat and nodded as he entered the store. My first impression was, ‘Pigpen’” Really? Who would introduce themselves as that? The next one bounced in, looking a lot younger than he was. ‘I’m Bobby, they call me Bobby.’ Next was a shorter, stocky guy with dark frizzy long hair whose gait was slower, head down, ruddy and tatted. As he made his way through the entrance, he glanced up and grinned. I noticed an intense gleam in his eyes that contrasted with the ultra-casual, furry, and in-no-hurry demeanor. ‘Hello,’ he whispered, then softly said, ‘I’m Jerry.’ They told me they were in a band called ‘The Grateful Dead’ — which meant absolutely nothing then. To me, their gentle manners and quest for the ultimate ‘experience’ embodied the core of something that we didn’t even know we were a part of, yet” (Caserta & Falcon, pg. 22). “I Ran Into Some Trouble” is one of those books that you couldn’t have known you needed to read before you actually went and did it; it’s only after having done so that the phenomena here described becomes, to the individual reader involved, pronouncedly evident. Its author, Peggy Caserta, founded a fondly-remembered hippie boutique called “Mnasidika,” which became quite the cultural meeting place. It is, as the reader of the present curation has likely already inferred, the venue in which Caserta’s deceptively unassuming meeting-encounter with the Grateful Dead occurred. Caserta’s life, — to use an example friendly to budding-&-built Beat scholars, both — echoes, or parallels that of Luanne Henderson, or Carolyn Cassady. There is youth and beauty, a psychedelic slow-dance with history that seemed, for a bright, wave-cresting moment—like it just might never end. Those years passed like daydreams, however, and Caserta would endure correspondingly harrowing lows—the lows of junk-sickness, of crushing indebtedness to the “monkey” addicts warn of. Remarkably, Caserta crawled out the hellhole; a feat which likely saved her life…sparing Caserta from an untimely end, from the fate her dear friend, — one Janis Joplin — would herself sadly succumb to. In its capacity as an uncensored, insider’s history to the world of the Haight-Ashbury at its creative and cultural peak, it is nothing short of invaluable. Readers, like Your Devoted Managing Curator, will be pleasantly surprised. [ISBN: 978-1-948018-08-1]. In very fine condition with only minute shelf-wear, a few whisper-like instantiations of bumping to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers, else pristine. Very Fine. [Item #5312]

Price: $20.00