Kesey had just been sentenced to six months on a work farm for marijuana possession, and the Pranksters were two days away from staging their biggest Acid Test yet. The future Mrs. Garcia was taking guitar lessons at Dana Morgan's Music Store in Stanford, California, when she heard Jerry's voice coming from the next room. Kesey (left) with Neal Cassady, who introduced him to Mountain Girl when she was 19. ", The joy and harmony in the Garcia family was challenged further in 1975, shortly after the birth of the Garcias' second daughter, Theresa, nicknamed "Trixie" by Kit Candaleria, one of the Dead's roadies. She'd also just lost her job, and was going broke. A long, strange trip led Mountain Girl to Kesey's final home. Movies. I mean, there were no "scenes.' But she wasn't looking for another man to step in. At home in Oregon, where she's down to shrooming twice a year. ", She addressed it head-on. At first, in the disorienting wake of the Sixties, she and Jerry had retreated to a secluded home in Stinson Beach, California, where the girls grew up. "Garcia's Ex-Wife to Get $1.25 Million: 'Mountain Girl' had sued star's estate". "Now what will that do?" She took command of the situation, telling them that they were now the only family she had. ", Cassady's car actually belonged to Kesey, who was living with his Prankster band up at La Honda in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The tiny sink was a hazard zone. The Sunshine Kesey Interview - YouTube 0:00 / 3:57 The Sunshine Kesey Interview Jake Feinberg Show 2.14K subscribers Subscribe 15 646 views 1 year ago Natural Expression by Sunshine Kesey. I think that two people hiding out in the same family would have been even more difficult. His eyes smiled. "I had a little "spill,' " she laughs, "and got really high. "Leaper?" Meanwhile, Mountain Girl took her three girls to Oregon. I know shes been working on her memoir. ", But she "wasn't happy about the (female stuff). I'll go through with my heels at your hungry ribs.". Three others died at Altamont that day, including a fan who took too much LSD and drowned in an irrigation ditch. I think that its very important for her voice to be in the mix and very important that she is able to share how these different events unfoldedthe way she remembers them. "They were talking about chord progressions and all this interesting stuff.". She was about to become the unlikely teenage matriarch for the counterculture's most celebrated influencers, the Merry Pranksters, who gave her a new name: Mountain Girl. There was a Free Clinic for those who were sick, and a Free Store for those in need of basic necessities, and there was music everywhere. It's sad to see it crumble away. Carolyn "went to war with her" and eventually, the gym teacher saw to it that she was expelled only six weeks before graduation. "I always get emotional about the old bus. "[5], Cassady took her to La Honda, California, Kesey's base of operations, where she quickly joined the inner circle of Pranksters and became romantically involved with Kesey, having a daughter by him named Sunshine. Show your support for only $2/month, Carlos Santana Plots 1001 Rainbows North American Tour, Reaching New Heights: SunSquabis Kevin Donohue Talks Arise, New Music and Debuting it Live, Earl Scruggs Music Festival Drops Artist Lineup: Emmylou Harris, Greensky Bluegrass, Infamous Stringdusters and More, Listen: Relix Releases The Relix Sessions with Soule Monde on Digital Platforms, Beale Street Music Festival Delivers Lineup: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Gary Clark Jr., The Roots and More, Watch Now: Portugal. by Petrus A. Daydreaming took me out the windows and into fresh, limitless landscapes and away from that tension of never quite fitting in, of the feeling of being odd and too smart.". She was caught napping each time. It was a complicated situation but there's one thing that anyone close to the couple agrees upon: It was a very big love. Carolyn Garcia's monthly payments, at this point, are still suspended. They had not lived together for years, although once in a while they got together with the children during a holiday or when the Dead were in town playing a concert. I actually call her and harass her about it pretty often. There were people everywhere looking for anything, looking for a place to lie down. Can you share a status update on that? Eventually, rejection by her peers got easier to handle. Two years later, she got the dreaded call: Garcia had died of a heart attack at a drug-treatment facility. Our writers provide thought-provoking perspectives, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise. In her unpublished memoir, she writes: Jerry and I were head over heels in love, and radiant with happiness. Jerry Garcia exclaimed. As Mountain Girl, she fit right in with her new tribe eating acid, painting the bus, and, with her mechanical know-how, running the light-show projectors at the Pranksters' bacchanalian revivals. "It was fall. She reads on: The car is lurching and leaping up the mountain road with its hairpins and overhanging trees, shrieking around the blind curves and cliffs. "Not just a little upset. We were there for 18 months. Annabelle was in pre-school and Sunshine was in school. Six months later, Garcia had some dental work and got involved with pain relievers. After a trial noted for the animosity between the two warring sides and full disclosure of the Garcias' private life and Jerry Garcia's assets - the very things he wished to avoid - the judge decided in Carolyn Garcia's favor. But in the six months they'd been gone, something had changed. The others quickly took note of this dynamic new girl in their midst. It was not a mistake. Im really proud of what weve done with the space at Garcias at The Capitol [Theatre] and the whole concept behind it. ", She's still a psychedelic priestess, though she's down to shrooming twice a year. Once again, Carolyn took her children away to Oregon, to a newly purchased patch of verdant acreage in the Willamette Valley. From the Merry Pranksters to the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia's widow opens up about what the age of free love was really like. Mountain Girl sued to get the money owned her. "We were trying to do an end run on the legal system and get the ball around to the other side of the court without having to engage a whole lot of people in the process. The first time any of Kesey's literary mob ever saw Carolyn Adams, late of Hyde Park, N.Y., she was seated in a Palo Alto cafe, reading a book when Prankster and Beat icon Neal Cassady and a handsome young blond guy with a Beatle haircut named Bradley picked her up and invited her for a ride. And then this sort of unusual set of circumstances occurred whereby Jerry " Her conversation tails off into an uncomfortable silence. "We mustered the instruments up on the roof thinking to lead a parade to the Cow Palace. Her function? he asked me. When it comes to celebrity branding or whatever you want to call it, Paul Newman created a great model to work from in terms of contributing to charity. At the time, Kesey, the Pranksters and The Bus had just come back from their cross-country hegira; Wolfe had written the pieces for New York magazine that eventually became his bestselling book; Kesey was orchestrating the Acid Test concert/psychedelic experiences and the house band was the budding Grateful Dead (formerly the Warlocks) featuring a half Irish, half Spanish banjo/guitar whiz named Jerry Garcia. "He was aware of all this extra stuff going on in the music," she says, "which is one of the reasons it had so much power to move people. None of the various women and children in his life could dispute that. Adams Garcia, a large woman with long, graying hair and no makeup, a former Merry Prankster who had two daughters with Jerry Garcia and another named Sunshine with Ken Kesey, undoubtedly. so did Carolyn Garcia, with Sunshine, her baby daughter with . But as the Dead began putting out records, Garcia spent most of the time on tour. Adams, who was 19 when she heard Garcia that day in 1964, was on the precipice of a stunning personal transformation. This is absolute magic, she thought. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. While she was fast approaching her due date, Kesey was off dealing with his lawyers. ", Flush with cash, she bought a white Honda 50 scooter and took to riding up and down the coast. Somehow she and Garcia remained intertwined through it all. Koons Garcia and Weir took a portion of Garcia's ashes to India two weeks ago and spread them . Obviously, were not huge, but it would be nice to do something like that one day. In 1975, when Theresa Garcia was not even a year old, Jerry disappeared. She opted out of the Grateful Dead scene for the sake of her three little girls, Sunshine Kesey, her daughter with Ken Kesey, and Annabelle and Theresa Garcia, her children with Jerry Garcia. While life at home was an intellectual paradise, school was quite another matter. "I'm the illegitimate love . Everybody was attached to it.". They were moving around, and I go, 'Oh, isn't that cute?'" It felt as though the scene she had helped create was starting to lose its luster, the summer of love devolving into something chaotic and ugly. Bob Campbell/San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images. One thing that I wanted to do was fight against the stereotypes of the longhaired stoner and the dirty hippie. My very best friend is a high-functioning lawyer whos also a pot smoker. After his death, Koons Garcia stopped the checks. Nothing Lasts didn't last. "It took the edge off me, to be carrying a kid," she says. I feel like we still have a relationship with the fans and are able to deliver things that delight and encourage more good vibes. "I love that bus! I don't know.' "That was my golden destination.". I know they had a big love with one another. Her eyes well with tears. Thats something I learned from my parents. It would have been like a ballplayer missing a game. Kesey was just down the road, but to Mountain Girl he still felt miles away. To ensure that the baby, named Solano in Spanish (which, laughs Garcia, means "sun porch" ) would have legal U.S. citizenship, Mountain Girl married a pretty blond Prankster named George Walker. "Bill serves her. They would go and do these long, drawn-out scenes at the studio that would go on for weeks, where nobody slept and they'd stay up. ", Her affair with Kesey happened fast. A A. ", Any hopes she had of a joyful reunion were dashed the moment they found Kesey. 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