Two Letters From Al Fry
(Page 2 of 5)
March/April 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
The desert is full of beautiful places and surprises. An old favorite of mine when coming or going is Whitewater River Canyon about 10 miles north of Palm Springs just off Indio Freeway. The river runs the year around there and the only hang up is occasional wind.
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Did you ever get hung up staying around a hot spring? Let me say that it is my idea of good times; freedom and warm relaxation. There's a spring in the hills about six miles back of Santa Barbara where the local bohemian element takes midnight skinny dips. Another is fitted as a public camp two miles off the road about 20 miles this side of Lone Pine. In northern California, Idaho and other areas of the Pacific Northwest there are oodles of hot springs. Many are not dammed or tanked but I have camped many enjoyable days around an improvised tub resting in a primeval little meadow ...
After finding my domicile it took me years to learn that you can't stay healthy on human food from stores: Every additive is a poison as far as I'm concerned now. If one gets some green foliage of some kind into his system every day and stops eating sugar, he will beat viruses and most other bugs. Most edible weeds taste great mixed with a little pineapple juice and blended in the blender. You can get good brown rice, lima beans and other healthful staples for around $10 a hundred from the right milling outfit in any large city. You can exist exclusively on alkaline grains and beans and thrive whereas you'll get sick fast eating only wheat flour and its products. My waffle iron makes me delicious waffles out of any kind of thing I want to grind up in my little health-foodstore grinder. Bone meal from a feed store mixed with custard and dried in the sun (to make it palatable) will end forever any trips to your dentist, providing you don't allow tooth calcium leaching due to a very high acid food (wheat, sugar, meat) diet.
Many women have enjoyed sharing my rambling life and girls all over the country are now going the "gypsy way" but, generally speaking, the propaganda of the Big American Dream has taken a heavier toll among women than among men. The times are achangin', however. I have met retired couples (even under retirement age) who travel from town to town, working a while at the lower paying jobs and moving on again . . . convinced they should have done it years ago. Kids love this way of life and my son is probably as well-rounded as a son of one of the Jet Set.
Our thrift shop clothes—thanks to a little sewing machine work—are the latest thing. With no rent, little food costs and a trifling gas bill I haven't been gainfully employed for a stereotype boss in years. By choice, the dollars seem to come in through helping people who ask . . . or through odd coincidental bumbling. It's really only a case of application and accepting a lot less than the next guy gets (and must spend pronto).
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