The Destruction of Pacifica

After the Oakland Firestorm of 1991, Michael Harkins and I went to look at the burned out ruins of the Stackpole home. I met Michael when he was fifteen. Nancy Hamren, Keith Purvis, and myself, were invited by James Harkins to his father’s home on Skyline Blvd in 1965. Jeffery Harkins was about twelve. I became friends of these brothers who were my second family. Wanda Harkins always had a place at her table on the Holidays. James would soon drop acid with his father, Jim, a succesful pediatrician who formed a Jazz band with his peers, and smoked dope. The Stackpoles were Michael’s second family.

On Taurus street, Michael showed me the ruins of Peter Stackpole’s home wherein valuable works of art and photography was destroyed. This was a monumental loss to the art world, and to the creative culture that made the Bay Area a Mecca to Bohemian…