[lumberjim]

We had van trouble on the way, and Gina’s dad knew a mechanic in a town on the north side of bean town. So we went to see him, and he was able to help out with I don’t remember what kind of repair. We spent a night in the van out in front of the garage. It was cold. Before the show, we stopped at a local grocery store, and loaded up on bagels, cream cheese, veggies, and plastic baggies. We made bagel sandwiches with cream cheese, apples red onion, and whatever else looked good. It cost us about $25 for the supplies to make 48 sandwiches, and we sold most of them for $2 a piece. Sometimes we gave them away, and we ate a little bit of the profits, too, but it generally paid for parking and gas to the next destination, with enough left to reload for the next show.

Bitchin Veggie Bagels. I wrote that on the front of the cardboard flat I sold them out of, and the name caught on. I had repeat customers. “ Hey, there’s the Bitchin Veggie Bagel Guy!” We hung out on the sidewalks out in front of the Boston Gardens. There was an over pass that had parking under it, and there were rows and rows of tailgaters, vendors, and locals partying. A festival. The main strip where the big vendors set up their camps was always called “Shakedown Street” You could see yards of tie die clothes, Guatemalan clothes, crystals, beads, drums, various kinds of food like Falafel, and soy bean burgers, and all manner of hippie regalia. I preferred to walk around with my little box. We stayed around Boston for five nights and I didn’t even get in once. Whatever. That wasn’t the whole point. It would have been nice, but we had a good time just hanging about. One of the show dates was on a weekend night, and at one point the cops rode their motorcycles up the sidewalks to clear them off. Someone got slammed into a plate glass window and cracked it. The cops were being unnecessarily physical, and they came very close to running over people with that stunt. As soon as they left, the sidewalks filled right back up anyway. Stupid bastards.