Eidectic Fugue - Part six

This chapter/part/section was going to be on the infamous snow day of 1967 when a large contingent of Salem's youth took over the Fugue but instead I choose to focus on meeting Karen, my wife.

Had I not been part of opening the shop and had i not setup a section of a display case for local artists, who knows what would have happened. Things happen in life, pivotal things, and sometimes you don't even know they happened, much less planned for them, until years later. Things like meeting your spouse for the first time.

The week the shop opened was big. The biggest week of my life. I so remember it, perhaps not accurately, but still the memory is strong. You know how you remember things the way you want and then someone else who was there says it happened this other way? That is what it was like. I remember clearly what Karen wore that first time - cowboy boots, jeans, Peacoat, long braids, aviator glasses and how she so patiently asked if she could sell her items in my shop. She had some rocks she had gathered from a nearby creek, dried and polished them and painted peace symbols on the. They were beautiful and unique - just what we wanted in the display case. I (in a fit of rushed conversation) asked if she had made them or acquired them from somewhere (like peace symbols painted on rocks were available) and she said it was her work. In the display case they went, along with a few other items that had appeared. A piece of paper was placed by the rocks, marking the price and if they sold, the shop got 10% of the sale price(usually). And an entry was made in a notebook tablet about what sold for whom for how much, if and when they sold. I still have one of those rocks in a drawer near my bed - it is still beautiful and full of wonder.

So it began. She came back to the store many times and often took care of the store when I drove ten miles to my parent's house for dinner. Eventually she came to dinner too and we had dates and everything. It was love. Yup!


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Eidectic Fugue - Part five

Yes there are four previous parts to this story of the 60’s in a small store in Salem Oregon. You can read them on a blog, along with this one and the coming array of parts. These stories focus on a store called the Eidectic Fugue which existed for about a year and filled a vast gap in a cultural wasteland. Although it is 2016 as I write this, the story began long ago.


I left off telling this story (six years ago) just as we were ‘discovered’ by the local newspaper. The Salem area had two newspapers in the 1960’s - a morning paper call the Oregon Statesman and an afternoon/evening paper called ‘The Capitol Journal’. The Journal was a little more left leaning of the two, but they merged into one daily in 1973, called ‘The Statesman-Journal’. The person who interviewed me appeared on the Tuesday morning following Thanksgiving wearing a sports jacket and a tie. I don't think he was thrilled with the assignment. It was hard to get the story his editor wanted about how this younger generation was different and worthy of you buying the paper to find out more. The article made the front page the following day with a picture of Bill’s door with the “Psychedelics come to Salem” banner. My memories of the interview and the article are fuzzy but I clearly remember remarking on his tie (I wasn't wearing one, as opposed to every other business owner in town) being a symbol of one of our differences. In those times, a tie was a strong symbol of the established masculine culture. The article brought a lot of attention to the store, both good and bad. Mainly good.


I'd really like to read that article again and probably could find it at the Statesman’s archives. I can't find it online now and in fact very few references appear online about the Eidectic Fugue. It really happened though and regardless of its existence in hyperspace, it was a strong reality for many people. There became more and more places to gather as a young person in Salem and the store was not made as a social center, although it became one sometimes. More on those occasions in another part of this story. Little did we know that our next public appearance would be on local TV and I would meet the most special person in my life and a no school snow day would happen AND so much more.



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Location:Salem, oregon