UTOPIA
- Joy Krauthammer
In the Sixties
it was a Happening
when I was arrested –
along with my peace-loving friends
Suzanne Slut, Marvelous Mike, Sweet Sue,
Terrific Tobin, Larry and Ron
– for trespassing
from our row boats
onto little Peter's Island
in the middle
of the Schuylkill River,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
I told the cops that I had NO ID on
me
and that my name was
Gentle Joy from Utopia.
A bit beligerant
being booked at police station
charged with trespassing
because "ducks were mating in breeding
season"
and visitors
(from New York and California
on a very rainy late winter's day)
were not allowed on the little island
in the middle of the River
by Strawberry Mansion Bridge.
We friends ignored the bullhorn
warnings
the river police on their boats used
chasing
us
as they blasted us
and dragged us away from our boats
and the little island
in the middle of the River
in the Sixties.
I was from Utopia.
~
PS
The scary stormy car trip with flat
tire from Queens College (QC), NY to Philadelphia was one filled with compassion as my
mother, z"l, had just died, and dear NY friends and one from California,
spent the cold rainy winter's day with me. Tobin drove us in his '56 Chevy to our friends Sue and Ron, both in Phily graduate schools.
My gentle Sixties friends of ill
repute all went onto graduate schools and fine helping professions and were
probably never again arrested for trespassing on islands with mating ducks.
If this River scene had been a Love-in at NY's
Central Park Lake, I would have showered the batoned cops with some flowers in
my hair, as I danced with the Hari Krishnas. It was the Sixties and I was from Utopia.
It was the Sixties and I braved the Sit-ins, blocking the QC President's office. I was from Utopia.
I counseled Draft Dodgers. It was the Sixties and I was from Utopia.
I performed Guerilla Street Theatre, and I studied with La Mama Troupe. I was from Utopia.
I marched! It was the Sixties and I was from Utopia.
I hung out with SDS, Students for a Democratic Society. It was the Sixties and I was from Utopia.
Peacefully at night I hung out alone in the Queens College ceramics basement studio on campus in deep Oneness meditation with my clay, that led to my full scholarship to graduate school and my teaching adults at a Manhattan art school, Cooper Square. It was the Sixties and I was from Utopia.
Beyond the Sixties and still from Utopia, I opened an art school for the City of Los Angeles and also taught children how to express themselves and create in clay.
Utopia Parkway was a short hitchhike ride away from QC; Utopia for them.
Herstory remembered for "Utopia" theme.
JOY note sent back, shared from Tobin to illustrate Utopia poem
"Phily 3/69
It was fun mating together on Peter's Island, playing under Strawberry Mansion Bridge.
You, me, Mike, Larry, Ron, Sue and Suzanne.
Flat tires y all,
Gentle Joy from Utopia
Tobin Unger, Larry Skolnick, Sue Maturlo
Peter's Island, Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, PA
near Strawberry Mansion Bridge
© Gentle Joy from Utopia
3.1969
MIA (missing in action) in another boat
Joy, Ronnie Strauss, Mike Saks, Suzanne Roth
Photo awesomely sent to me by awesome college friend Tobin 11.1.2018 who has kept river photo that I gave to him in 1969, over 49 1/2 years.
(Yes, even in the sixties I was sharing my photos.)
+Joy.jpg)
