Memories of Big Sur and Pfeiffer State Beach

Posted on by Opher

I have such great memories of Pfeiffer State Beach. We were dropped off hitching from SF to LA and walked down the long winding dirt track down from the highway (now tarmacked). It was about two miles and we had heavy rucksacks. We arrived as the sun was setting and found a line of freaks sitting on the sand watching the sun go down out to sea turning the sea crimson and purple and the breaking surf strangely blue with a backdrop of an orange sky. The waves were crashing over the big rock in the middle of the bay and spraying through the hole in the centre. It was magical. We dropped our rucksacks and joined them as jays were passed along.

When it had disappeared we all unrolled our sleeping bags among the trees. We got a campfire going and shared some food. Someone got a guitar out and it was so cool.

Then the police came down and bust us all, shipped us back up to the highway and dumped us at the side of the highway.

We lay in our sleeping bags and looked up at the sky. Our friend Jack knew all the constellations. The stars were out in such numbers, like salt spread over black velvet, and the Milky Way was like a band of smoke, mountain lions roared around us. We laughed and talked all night, talking about Henry Miller and Kerouac and what a special place Big Sur was.

Such a magical night.

Talk of People Gone

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Talk of People Gone

Let us talk of people gone.

Of Lanky, whose gentle ways belied the harsh stab of the needle.

Of Geof who left to meet the train.

Of Tony who shouted loudly that he was still here but isn’t.

Of Danny who took his last taxi ride.

Of Hat for whom it was always straight on.

Of Tony who strode up mountains.

Of Megan who loved Harper too.

Of Paul who talked in cockney rhyme.

Of Graham who held great parties.

Of all companions on a journey to nowhere.

Who tested time

And tasted life.

Who lived and loved

And found eternity.

Who sought rhyme and alliterations in random words

And found the truth.

Let us talk of friends.

Opher 14.12.2025

The older you get the more friends drop out of life into forever and are lost.

They live on in our cherished memories as part of us.

They helped make us who we are.

We are all on this short journey between there and here and over.

Always over.

The in between is so short.

But let us talk of those who are gone and remember with love and fondness.

Eulogy for Jeff Evans

Posted on by Opher

Eulogy for Jeff Evans

Last night sleep evaded me

My mind delved back through a treasure chest of time

To the summer of sixty nine

I had a student job working for the council sweeping roads.

I found myself on Jeff’s street

I remember seeing him come out of his front door

Looking cheerful, whistling

A small curly dark-haired lad resembling Syd Barrett

He saw me and came across for a chat

The usual pleasantries

He was off for a newspaper from the top shop

Would I like to come in for a coffee?

I watched for him to return

I saw him peering out from around tree-trunks

I thought it was a game

He scuttled into his house

The coffee was obviously off

That evening I recounted what had happened to friends

They told me he had been behaving very strangely lately

He thought he was being spied on

That there were cameras in tree-trunks

That his friends were really robots

I thought no more of it

A few weeks later I heard the news

Jeff had climbed on to the parapet of Sir Richard’s bridge

Waiting for the express

In front of a group of school children

Without a thought for the driver

His parents or friends

The people who had to pick up the pieces

He stepped slowly and deliberately into the void

In the dark hours of last night I slipped back through time

Through the years of laughter

Families, reading, writing, travel

Love, sex and children

A career

The failure and success

The tears and losses

All the experiences that make for a rich life

I wonder about that coffee we never had

Goodbye Jeff

Your ghost haunts me through these fifty six years

With confusion of purpose, voids

Life and death

Adios my friend

Opher 21.9.2025

When it all comes down to it, what is it worth? How should we fill the time we have? Sooner or later we all step into that void. What imprint do we leave behind?

If we had only had that coffee maybe…

Poetry – Frozen in time

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Frozen in time

A warm breeze stirs the long grass in the meadow.

There is a heady scent of dried hay and flowers in the air.

The blue sky goes on for ever.

The sun never ceases to give its heat

And I feel it on my skin.

The bees continue to hum.

The long dead swallows still swoop

Over the fields plucking insects from the air.

I still lay on my back in that field

Feeling the vitality of that same day

As an electricity frozen in time.

It is a moment that never dies,

That I revisit time and time again,

As long as I have the mind

To summon it back to life.

Opher – 1.5.2019

It is a powerful childhood memory. I am alone in a meadow of long grass on a beautiful summer day. I am lying on my back staring up at that sky, with a stem of grass in my mouth, feeling the warmth of the sun, surrounded by nature, the butterflies, bees, beetles and bugs, the aroma of dried grass in my nostrils, the swallows swooping all around, and I am peering up into the blue. The thought comes into my head that that sky goes on forever. It is novel and powerful. My mind rebels against it. Everything has an end. But the sky doesn’t. The idea is so unbelievable that it gives me vertigo and I feel as if I am falling up into it.

It is a moment that is etched in my memory. It is real. I can summon it up at will. That moment still lives frozen in time, locked within my mind – a vivid video – still alive.

Poetry – Some Things Worth Fighting For

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Some Things Worth Fighting For

Dreams and visions,

Ideas and feelings,

Memories, loves

And amorous dealings;

The beauty of a trillion creatures,

A spectacular planet with all its features;

Trees and flowers

Breath and stars,

Sunsets, moonlight

And cherished scars;

Friendship, loved ones,

Freedoms and truth,

Fairness, justice,

And the ultimate proof;

Compassion, tolerance

And humanity;

A better future

For you and me!

But one thing is true

And that’s for sure –

There is very little

Worth killing for!

Opher 9.1.2019

I think we should fight for what we believe with all our heart. We should battle and strive with passion.

But our battle is metaphoric – not physical.

There are many things worth fighting for.

Every day is a war, every arena a battlefield.

Gird your loins. Put down your guns.

Moving house – the final phase!

Posted on by Opher

After having moved half a ton of vinyl, 3 tons of books, 5 tons of CDs, and most of the furniture we now come to the last phase – on Monday we have removal men coming to take our beds, TV, computer, kitchen table and settee.

I will walk around the house and relive memories from the last thirty years – memories of our children growing up, of friends, laughter, argument, fury and love. Friends, now dead, have sat within this house and I will taste their presence and think of them. Those memories are already packed inside my head but I think that they permeate the fabric of the building and something of us will remain behind to resonate within those walls.

This house has stood for three hundred years and we have left our mark on it. We have altered the infrastructure, improved the building, put up an extension and changed it for the better. Yet, even though we have spent nearly half our lives here, we were only passing through.

I look upon the bigger picture. It is the same with the planet. We are only passing through. Do we leave the world a better place from the experience of our lives? Or do we leave it the poorer?

I am going on into a new chapter of life next week. I shall leave much behind but ahead there is a new adventure. That is where I go with great enthusiasm. Life is change. It will change me – hopefully for the better!

I am under no delusions. There will be many things I miss and are saddened by.

I may be out of contact for a while. In my experience promises are rarely met. I do not expect the internet to work. I expect a period of time in which I will need to remonstrate with a lot of people to get things working properly.

I look forward to talking to you in the future from a new life!! Fare thee well!