Ginger Johnson, the Rainbow Lady

Sitting up in the small hours as usual, waiting for laundry to cycle about, I started thinking about all the characters on the Pacific Garden Mall (don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know). Possibly it's because I had an unusual Umbrella Man sighting today; usually Robert just goes up and down Pacific Garden Mall, but today I saw him nearly head down Church Street--at least he turned himself that way, briefly.

I started tonight thinking about the old Cooper House, the beautiful building on the mall before the earthquake, and the lady who used to dance in front of it, Ginger Johnson, the "Rainbow Lady." There was a band called Warmth that played at the Cooper House's outdoor cafe, and Ginger would dance on the sidewalk there (as well as a bunch of hippies and cosmic folks). Ginger was quite a character, and my former sister-in-law actually knew her. It's too bad I don't have a photo of the Rainbow Lady; she had long, flame-red hair and absolutely outrageous costumes. I found her memorial in the Santa Cruz Sentinel archives.

I have lived, unbelievably, in Santa Cruz almost 25 years now, almost half my life.
It's strange to walk around the downtown (where I am every day, just about, because my son's school is there) and still see signs of the 1989 earthquake. I do a lot of my writing downtown (on a good day, I'm in one of the window seats at Peets if I can get it--I call it "the perch"), and occasionally have a sense of the old buildings, the old life of the downtown area, imposed somewhere beneath all the new businesses.
There was a bakery where Jamba Juice used to be; Gateways recently moved from the place where some dreadful clothing store is now; Bookshop Santa Cruz used to be next to Oswald's--and Kelly's French Pastry began there. That little complex is, I believe, scheduled to be demolished. I also used to eat at a place called the Bubble Cafe. Another interesting downtown person was Bert Glick, the homeless poet who used to stand outside the Bubble Cafe with his book in his hand (entitled "Cookie Aura").
I believe he had copies for sale.

So, I suppose that the more things change, the more they do stay the same. And I live in Felton, which never seriously changes anyway.