Dusk at Pomponio Beach, California: By John Wilson — Soary cliffs, magical light and an ocean ... what more can one ask for? (Well, I would add . . . a secret tunnel from WWII—MR)

I had a lot of thoughts last night. Wish I could remember. One was to write this down:

It wasn’t “Going After Cacciato” that changed my life, although it was a wonderful book. It was living through the war itself.

That said, when I read “The Things They Carried,” the short story, all I could think was: Don’t let that soldier go down into that tunnel! What are you thinking? Toss a grenade down there first! So, I wasn’t taken in by Jimmy Cross’ apparent sudden decision to become a better leader, one who relies on SOPs. He has a long way to go . . .

When I was a young teen, which happened to be during the Vietnam War, I crawled into a war tunnel. It was on the beach at Pomponio in California. During WW II, the U.S. Coast Guard had dug tons of tunnels along the coastline to protect us from the Japanese — or so the story goes. This was one of them. A dangerous relic from a fearful time. I might have gone with Nick and Vince, it seems. I can’t recollect everything. Nick was older, Vince was my age. They were classmates from my alternative high school. We did things like take the school bus and go the beach. No supervision at all. I was probably about 14. Pomponio was made famous, if you knew what you were looking for, in the classic cult film, Harold and Maude. Harold stages one of his fake suicide attempts as a motorcycle leap off a cliff at Pomponio.

There was a long, winding trail down to the beach itself. You cross the beach and head up the backside of the far cliff. Somewhere there is an opening. It might have had boards around it. We go in. There is no light. We must crawl as the tunnel is not high, maybe three or four feet at the most. One of the boys is in front of me, the other behind. I have no choice but to keep going. We enter a pool of water, but must slither on. I am not afraid. Perhaps I should have been. Some 20 or 30 yards on, the ceiling rises and the tunnel breaks into the light. We find ourselves about 30 feet up a cliff looking out over the Pacific Ocean. We are protected and safe from harm, unless we fall off. But the opening onto the sea is wide enough and concave enough that there isn’t much to fear. It’s a spectacular moment. I’ve never been back through that tunnel. It may not even exist today, or they might have boarded it up.

Related Images:

I was actually at Pacific from September of 1967 till around April of 1970 when I’d had enough. The deal was that I needed to finish the mural on the office wall before Michael Kaye would let me graduate. I started it in ’67 when Peter Marin was the director continuing through Mark Sheehan’s time until Michael’s time. I also painted the “Pacific School” sign, fashioned, by Lars Speyer, from three heavy pieces of wood nailed together that was placed up in the tree at the turnout up on Skyline. If memory serves, we used to park the school buses up there.

I don’t know if it is common knowledge, but Pacific was started by people who were involved with Peninsula school as an adjunct to Peninsula, sort of a continuation of the Peninsula model. Alan Strain had been the director at Peninsula some time before I got there and Hal Stallings, who now goes by Tobias Jean, was my eighth grade teacher. All these families, the Creelmans, the Strains, The Moses’, the Matthews, the Wallaces and of course the legendary Hobson’s, were in some way connected to Peninsula School. The first time I saw Bruce Hobson, Greg Troll and Miggles Wallace, was as an eighth grader in 1966 and they had shown up at the school and someone said, “those are some kids from Pacific” I was somewhat in awe of them, um, especially in awe of Bruce, because he was someone I had heard about for decades and had never met. His sister Debbie and brother Jimmy were at Pacific when I got there so I got to know them. And I think I saw Becky for the first time at Peninsula during the same time period. She couldn’t have been more than ten. I don’t recall any of the Hobson’s actually attending Peninsula but they knew everybody.

I first came to Peninsula in 1963 to do a summer science program and then the following summer I repeated it because it was so much fun. We were living in San Francisco at the time and my mother pulled up stakes in 1965 and bought a house in Menlo Park so that I, and later my brother, could go to Peninsula School. I was there only between 1965-66. Then I went to Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A) which I hated, for one year 1966-67. I met Lynn Rogers there when she was a senior and she and the other older hippie kids took me under their wings and let me hang out with them even though I was just a 14 year old. M-A is located in Menlo Park or maybe it’s technically Atherton. They had their 40 year reunion on the same Saturday as ours! I knew there would be some Peninsula kids there but the Pacific reunion was much more relevant to me. I just wish that more of the people I had been close to back in the day had been there but it’s ok. I went down the list of folks who showed up and I was happy to see that I had spoken to a lot of them. And I did make a point of introducing myself to as many of the “legends” as I could find. All in all I’m glad I went.

Do you have any memory of this photo? [Photo of Robin on porch of George Hall] This is you in front of the kitchen, standing next to the door that I painted summer/fall of ’69 The lower half of the door has all kinds of morbid scenes. The central character has a green face and there are cemeteries and people with knives sticking in their heads as well as the usual vampires. This was my early pre-goth period, LOL Still love my vampire, though….Thank you for all your hard work, Robin

Another follow up letter:
As for my brother, he was able to attend Peninsula in 1970-71 and then he went on to Ravenswood High School till 1973 when, in his second year, he passed away from leukemia at the age of 16. His name was Michael. Paula Bowman had been the art teacher when Michael and I had been at Peninsula and in 1998 she hosted something of a reunion for the kids in Michael’s class. I think one of the kids came up with the idea for this gathering and they invited my Mom to attend so that they could hear, from her, what had happened to Michael. I’m grateful that my Mom was able to do this because it was a wonderful thing for her AND she passed away six or seven months later. Such is life,huh?

Oh, while I’m thinking of it. Do you remember Bob Allen? He took his French class to Quebec during the winter of ’69-70. I stayed in his trailer while he was away. This was during the time when the domes were being built and a lot of the kids were sleeping in the library. I had taught myself the Moonlight Sonata and I used to creep down to the music room at night and I would play it on the piano in the dark. I would then walk next door to the library and I would peek in and say something like, goodnight, children. Most of them couldn’t have been more than fourteen. Kelly spoke to me about it one day. She told me the kids really liked it when I did that. Made them feel kind of like someone was watching out for them.

As I said, you can go ahead and post my letters to you. I may write more later on, but right now I need to get busy with my Peninsula friend’s sister. Sheesh, and I forgot to tell Larry Strain about our friend’s departure. Do you have any photos of Jim Langworthy from the ’97 reunion? Dean gave me a reunion book and I don’t recognize anyone as being him. Maybe I just forgot what he looked like. Oh well, ever onward.

Every now and again, I try to find Carolyn Ritter, AKA Critter. I think she was originally from Moss Beach. I wouldn’t know where to look but I keep trying. I’m also trying to find someone who was a student at Peninsula whom I met after I had graduated. I have asked around and I’m drawing blanks, but again, I try.

Bye for now, Tanya Harjan

Related Images:

Related Images:

Related Images:

Related Images:

Lars Speyer 82, passed away at home on Saturday, June 23, 2007. He is survived by his wife Lorraine Capparell; daughter, Lara Speyer; son, David Speyer; sister, Lorle Kennedy, several nieces and nephews, and a host of loving friends. Lars was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 10, 1925, to Alice and Siegfried Levy Speyer. After his father died in 1931, his mother, three-year-old sister Lorle and widowed grandmother moved to Berlin, Germany, for a year before settling in Amsterdam, Holland. The family lived there for seven years before being convinced by an uncle to leave because of the German invasion of neighboring countries. In spite of friends’ assurances that Holland was safe, the family left their home and traveled to Portugal. Three weeks later the Germans invaded Holland. Lars and his family spent one year in Lisbon waiting for visas and ship accommodations to enter the United States. They arrived in New York in April 1940, and lived in Kew Gardens, Queens. Lars joined the U.S. Army in 1943, served in Europe and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He was hospitalized for six months in England before being returned to New York. He followed his sister into photography school, and photography became his profession. Lars married Erica Fishman and they had two children: Lara Gita Speyer, born in New York, and David Leif Speyer in Redwood City after the family had moved to Palo Alto in 1955. Lars married Lorraine Capparell in July 1997. Lars will be remembered as a master photographer, graphic designer, and pioneer in the world of multimedia and design. He was a teacher, event producer, philanthropist, and mentor for many artists nationally and internationally, and a social and political activist. Lars’ mischievous sense of humor and his immense generosity will be remembered for years to come. In 1967, deeply concerned about the war in Vietnam, Lars and long-time friend, Richard Elmore, organized the Peace Torch Marathon during which a torch, lit from a flame from Hiroshima, Japan, was carried by foot from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to Washington D.C. Lars acted as point man for the 54 day cross-country march, organizing local churches and media that resulted in countless thousands of people coming out to cheer the marchers, feed and house them, and help carry the torch to its destination, a huge rally on the Mall in Washington. Lars’ great gift of friendship will be remembered by all who loved him. For over 25 years, Lars and Lorraine hosted a weekly salon at their home where Lars was a creative catalyst for their many close friends. There will be a private memorial service at his home in Palo Alto. The family asks that donations in Lars’ memory be made by supporting an artist through the purchase of his or her work.

Related Images:

The Inyo Register
Collision with deer kills Bishop man
Register Staff
6-8-2010

Bishop resident and legendary mountaineer John Fischer, 63, died Saturday morning while riding his motorcycle in Mono County.
According to the California Highway Patrol, Fischer was riding a 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14 north on U.S. 395 just south of Virginia Lakes Road at about 5:50 a.m. when he collided with a deer that had run into the roadway.
“Due to the severity of the collision, Fischer was killed upon impact,” the CHP said.
Fischer was a fixture in the Eastern Sierra climbing community and the news of his loss spread through the Owens Valley over the weekend.
Many friends have left comments at the climbing thread www.supertopo.com.
“John was a fixture here on the East Side, and operated one of the first guide services in this area; Palisades School of Mountaineering,” one resident said on the thread. “John was a wealth of information on the backcountry, and a willing mentor to many. His mark on the Eastern Sierra will not be forgotten.”
“I was starting to think I knew the Palisades pretty well when I met John,” another post states. “We talked shop ever so briefly, and it was clear he knew those peaks like the back of his hand.”

“The Eastern Sierra just prematurely lost another one of its great mountain minstrels,” a Big Pine resident posted.
Fischer was reportedly on his way to meet friends for a climb of Excelsior Mountain when he died.
A memorial celebration of life for Bishop resident John Fischer will be held in the Bishop area on Sept. 12, check with http://rememberjohn.wordpress.com for more info.

My own connection to John came AFTER the last PHS Reunion, when he introduced himself to me by email. We stayed in touch, and years later he came out to Thailand to visit me while I was living there. He was a very sweet fellow most of the time, but John had his demons too. He suffered from memories of childhood traumas that he never could really get over. I saw him at his worst a number of times while visiting him on his own turf in Bishop, after moving back from Thailand. If I could figure out how to do it, I would include some photos of him from our visit in the tropics. We had a very fun time, and he climbed every prominence we came across! I hope he is happier now. Robin Bloomgarden

John Fischer (1946-2010)

John Fischer died June 5, 2010 doing everything he loved. He was riding his Kawasaki Concourse to meet friends, Dan Richter and Asher Waxman, for a climb of Excelsior Peak in his beloved Sierra Nevada, when a deer strayed into his path. In 2007, John sat down with me and told me about his life as a mountaineering guide. This is what we wrote.
One of the 11 founding members of the American Mountain Guides Association; owner, Palisade School of Mountaineering (Bishop), John Fischer was credited with starting the first mountain medicine courses in the U.S.

John Fischer was born Friday the 13th, September 1946 in Pontiac, Illinois. By the time he was in second grade his family had moved to San Antonio, Texas, to a house within walking distance of the Alamo. After school, Fischer was soon climbing the Alamo’s limestone walls, cut from local quarries and covered in moss, born of the Gulf’s humidity. The Alamo’s employees were so used to seeing him, that at closing time, they would call out his name knowing that he was still there, oblivious to time’s passing.

By 1960 the Fischers had moved to California’s Santa Clara Valley. John graduated from Pacific High School in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In the summer of 1964, at the age of 17, he hitchhiked to Alaska, where he and three other teens made the first ascent of Mount Carpathian in the Chugach Range. Too young to drive, they got a ride to the mud flats at the base of the peak. Fischer looked up at Carpathian’s daunting ridges and was awed by how big it was. They roped up almost immediately and walked through the dense coastal foliage making as much noise as possible to scare off moose and grizzlies.

Fischer moved to the Haight, went to San Francisco Art Institute for a semester, then dropped out of college. He registered for the draft as a conscientious objector and, following a series of interviews to determine his authenticity, was assigned to civilian duty. In 1967 he discovered Yosemite’s big walls and started climbing. He moved to the Eastern Sierra, taking up residence first at Cardinal Village then at Fobes 40 on old highway 395 with his first wife and infant son.

While standing in Big Pine Canyon across from the dark granite massif of Temple Crag, John asked Dan Jensen if certain routes had ever been attempted. Jensen told him no, that the rock was too crummy. In 1969, John made the first of several first ascents on Temple Crag, climbing Sun Ribbon, one of the Celestial Aretes. In 1970, Fischer joined Mountain Travel as a guide on both domestic and international trips, working for Allen Steck, Leo LeBon, Barry Bishop and Alan Schmitz. He also guided for Mountain Travel’s Palisade School of Mountaineering in Bishop, California. He was so good with clients that he was asked to be its director. At that point having only guided for two years and feeling awkward that he had been selected over an older guide, John declined and suggested Smoke Blanchard, who took the job.

In 1976, Fischer bought Palisade School of Mountaineering from Mountain Travel, operating it for the next 23 years. He guided nearly 125 international trips, 47 of those to Mexico. He made thousands of client-led ascents in the Sierra, at least 150 ascents of Mt. Sill (90 up the Swiss Arete); and 50 ascents of Mount Whitney via its technical routes.

Fischer was the first to successfully traverse the crest of the Palisade from Southfork Pass in Big Pine Canyon to the summit of Mt. Agassiz. In his 1980 account, published in the American Alpine Journal he wrote, “The Palisade, with many small glaciers and five peaks over 14,000 feet, is the most alpine region of the range. Atypical of the range in general, the mountains are precipitous on all sides and connected by narrow ridges . . . The traverse is eight miles long: a mile and a half of moderate 5th Class (editor’s note: currently rated VI 5.9), some snow and mixed pitches, and acres of scrambling. The complete traverse took seven days and seven bivouacs, with approximately 12,000-feet gained and lost respectively . . . Indeed, the situation is fantastic and the quality of the climbing outstanding: the rock varies from the finest High Sierra granite to teetering stacks of shattered diorite.”

The first attempt to do the traverse was in 1969, followed by several more unsuccessful attempts by other parties. Vern Clevenger and Nigel Gifford attempted the route, but aborted four days into the venture having run out of food. Fischer made three attempts before successfully completing the traverse in July, 1979. Doug Robinson accompanied Fischer on the first attempt which ended within hours of starting. Doug, who insisted on bringing his own stove, apparently never bothered to see if it was working prior to the trip. The second time Fischer attempted the traverse with Gerry Adams, one of his climbing clients, a severe electrical storm put an end to that trip. Gerry had spent a lot of time placing caches along the route, but packed them in stuff sacks instead of the plastic containers Fischer had asked him to use. Animals got into everything, dispersing the contents of each, eliminating the possibility of using the existing caches for another attempt. In between conducting mountaineering classes, Fischer spent several days climbing up to the cache locations, all above 13,000-feet, to retrieve the shredded supplies. The third time, with new caches in plastic boxes, Fischer and Adams attempted the traverse, and they were successful. For the next twenty-five years no one was able to repeat their success, though many tried.

–Wynne Benti, Publisher, Spotted Dog Press Inc. (interview with John Fischer, May 2007)
©2010 Spotted Dog Press, Inc.

Related Images:

Please get on the stick and sign up! (The deadlines in the letter no longer apply, just get this turned in absolutely no later that Aug 20!)

Related Images:

Details to follow. Subscribe to this blog or it’s Twitter feed to get immediate updates as they become available.

Related Images:

I remember when my VW bus, which I used to transport students to and from Palo Alto to PHS, was sabotaged. We found nuts and bolts in the crankcase. PHS helped me to rebuild the engine so we could continue to transport students.

We all had great times at PHS. I later rented a cabin on the creek at Brookdale Lodge with Dale Ockerman before heading to Woodstock Festival in the Green Bus with “Woodstock or Bust” written on the outside in yellow Letters.

I attended the 1997 Reunion. I have lately reconnected with Bruce Brennan (Hippy Gourmet TV Series) with our Super Sonic Samba School from San Diego as we perform in SF Carnival from 2000-2007. I also stay in touch with Kevin Setchko from time to time.

I also have been trying to find old copies of “The Teacher Was The Sea” by Michael S. Kaye, forward by Peter Marin. They are hard to come by. I found three copies over several years, gave one copy to Bruce Brennan’s Haight Ashbury Museum, keeping one copy for myself and have one extra copy for ?.

Is there a central archive?

I also have kept a copy of a PHS Newsletter for which I wrote the poem for the cover but was too shy to accept authorship at the time. It has an astrological flavor to it as I was the Occult teacher at the time.

I am sending a copy to Melanie once I get the fax number to send it to her.

To find out more about me today, visit The Super Sonic Samba School website for pictures of me with my newfound group performing for Street Scene, San Francisco/Ensenada Carnival, Bravo, Del Mar Fairgrounds, performed with Jesse Cook at Humphrey’s by the Bay, and other large and small venues in San Diego and vicinity, including Tijuana and Ensenada all the way to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Love & Peace, Wayne English

Related Images: