My First Days in the Okanogan

One of the people I met that first day was named Arborsun. Everyone had a hippie name. He became my friend that day, and he was a best friend for 25 years! 

I had been at the Circle for 3 days. I didn't have much money. The month was August. Arborsun knew about a job going to pick peaches at a local peach orchard and asked if I wanted to go. I said sure.

Where I was is the Okanogan Highlands. We were going down into the Okanogan Valley, which is a huge fruit growing area of America. We got to the orchard and went to work. What I didn't understand, was that there was and still is, a huge hippie community throughout the Okanogan, and everyone knows each other. There are alternative people living everywhere in the hills there. This wasn't any ordinary peach orchard. This was a peach orchard that was being run by one of the Okanogan Hippie Family members, and all the people working there were part of the Okanogan Hippie Family .

This place was definitely more rugged than anywhere I had ever been. I had lived simply without electricity or running water outside alot, and in simple handmade houses. But this was in mild climates, Hawaii and Oregon. This was alot harsher climate. I didn't know that yet. This was a harsher, high desert climate. It was dry and cold in the winter, hot and dry in the summer. It snowed here. Not alot all at once, but in the high altitudes, it never got above freezing all winter, and the snow just gradually piled up. The winter's were cold and long. It could go to 30 below on the thermometer, and then sometimes the wind blew over that. People still lived in houses they made themselves, heating and cooking on wood, and hauling water. Everyone looked really healthy from this lifestyle. In the summer they all had their own gardens, and had root cellars, and put up their own food. They canned and dried food. These were the people I was meeting and I fell in love with them and the place.

One other thing is that this Okanogan place was more like the wild west. I mean this in regard to men and woman. If a new woman came into town the guys all knew it, and chased after her. I am talking about the hippies here. So, when I showed up, that is what happened, but I was unaware. Later Oak told me she should have warned me about it.

So I met alot more people at the orchard that day. Some that I became fast friends with again for 25 years. I think I worked there for a day or two. That is where I met John.

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