RAINBOW PEOPLE – JULY 2, 1988

Another Page From Deceased Dogger Gatsby's Diary

My friend Bill says he’ll come this weekend. Jesus, tomorrow already. But he's supposed to phone tonight and say for certain, so he could still back out. He wants to go to the Rainbow People's gathering in Angelina State Park on July 4th. I don't guess I'll go with him. They're a sort of hippie group who've never died out, a collection of the old kind of creative misfits. An odd bit of business has been going on here, with the local authorities all vying for position as to which is the most hostile to the group.

To make it short, I think their shriveled little fascist-redneck hearts are more stirred up by the advent of the Rainbow people than they've been in years. Invasion of people from another planet, that's how they seem to see it, and it's crazy. It's as if the past 20 years never occurred. No progress whatsoever. Every tight-assed, legalistic barrier is being put in their way, and the cops are manning the roads trying to make drug busts of suspicious looking vehicles that might be headed for the campsites. What a lot of fucking bastards. Is there no end to our just being shitty to one another?

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