I was born in Ireland in 1946. I emigrated to the UK, then Canada. I showed up in the Oakland house, in March 1969. I was a 1A Psychology student and became interested in how to help people on drugs when it became apparent the doctor I was staying with was addicted to speed. I was a twenty-three-year-old kid that saw Synanon as doing something about many of the things that my generation was talking about. It offered an antidote to racism, loneliness, and disintegration that the politics of the time epitomized. I had nothing to offer Synanon until I became a journeyman house painter in San Francisco. At that point, I was offered a job in Synanon which was expanding fast. I married (twice) and gained a great stepson. I worked in many mid-management jobs in Synanon until it collapsed in 1990. Taking pictures was my lazy way of keeping a diary. Subsequent to Synanon I learned to sell promotional services and with my wife Dian, who did glorious art, and had a promotion business.
Leave a Reply