My brother Arlo passed away on October 5, 2002. I wrote most of these stories prior to Arlo's illness. Now that I read them again, there is a special poignancy to them. After Arlo got sick, I decided to post some old photos of him, here.
More can be learned about Arlo and his more recent accomplishments, in his web sites, which are listed here.
My stories only cover his beginnings. My brother came a long way, and made his own very special path in this life. As I told him the last time I saw him, he is leaving this world a much better place for having been here; he will never be forgotten; and he is going to a better place, back to our Home, where we all originate (my knowledge, from experiences that I had as a child). I don't think that Arlo was with us long enough in this world, of course, but that was not for me to decide. I love my brother very much (and feel very fortunate that I got to tell him so, before he left this world). He was and is a very special spirit.
Now for some family stories:
Arlo had a boat docked in Sausalito years ago, it was the eyesore and scourge of the harbor. The Sausalito Harbor Association members signed a petition to get rid of the mostrosity (this was saying a lot, seeing as to how a few of the ships were made from old planks and chicken-wire), but before the fateful day arrived for Arlo to vacate the watery premises, he left to go out shopping and for dinner. Arlo decided to leave his companion on the boat whilst he was out. His companion was a big, black dog named Maynard. Maynard didn't like being left alone, and at some point, he tripped the switch to the bilge-pump, which flooded the boat, ruining Arlo's extensive record and comic book collection. The boat was last seen almost completely submerged, Maynard standing forlornly on the roof, hanging ten at the edge. Arlo's screams could be heard all throughout Northern California, and it was the talk of the family for manyyears to come.But Arlo was (is) a good and decent man; he let Maynard live.
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In 1963, we were in a car accident that made all the local newspapers. I was11 at the time, and my mom was driving us to church. We were at the top of steep Manor Drive, a 3-mile-winding road. The brakes went out at the top of the hill, and my mom didn't know anything about the overdrive feature on the car, which rendered the gears useless. So she told us all to say the Act of Contrition (the prayer that Catholics say to get into Heaven, if they think they are going to die soon)...mom told us that we were going to die. Well! You try to remember the words to a prayer when you think that your life is about to be over! Arlo was in the front seat of the car, facing Laurie and I in the back, screaming his head off, Laurie on the floor, me holding on to the back seat. Miraculously, mom drove that car like a champion, dodged everyone and everything in her path as that car took on speed. We hit the beach, the dunes...and flipped over three times(that was the occasion of one of my out-of-body experiences). We all survived that accident; Mom had a cut finger, I had glass in my legs, along with bruises, Laurie had to stay in the hospital for a few minor injuries, while Arlo didn't even have a scratch. Click HERE to see one of the full-sized front page newspaper reports, with photo of the route down Manor Drive.
Perry writes:
Just remembering some funny Arlo stories.
The time your father threw us out of the house, and we decide to spend the night in the shed. We asked Arlo to throw down a couple of blankets and pillows, and he proceeded to throw just about everything you owned out of the window. Went on for about an hour. Then there was the New Year's Eve when Arlo set every single alarm clock in the house to go off at midnight And the time he kept asking, about the Neil Young song: "Did he REALLY shoot his baby? Did he REALLY shoot his baby?"; There was also the time we were first watching Dark Star , and Arlo was there. In the movie, Talby is describing the Phoenix Asteroids. He says :"They only come around once every 3.8 trillion years!" And Arlo says, without missing a heartbeat, totally serious "How do they know??" Gave us all a big laugh, as I recall.
Just thought I would share those with you.
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Laurie and I went to the Teenage Fair at the Cow Palace in San
Francisco. The year: 1965; I was 13, Laurie 12.At the fair, Hasbro had a booth set up, demonstrating the very first Twister game, and was inviting brave souls to try it out. Laurie wanted to play. "Are you sure?' Yeah, o.k., me too. Problem was, I was wearing a tight dress...it was a royal blue dotted-swiss, knee-length affair (see photo at the left). I threw off my high heels, and joined the group (there were 6 of us). At first it was easy...Left hand red; no sweat. It got complicated when I had to put m right foot yellow diagonally under another person's crotch. It made matters worse that this other person was a CUTE GUY, and I have always the habit of going all red in the face ...he appeared a bit nervous...he was laughing. He had a Beatles haircut, which was all the rage back then. So, to make the move, I had to hike my dress up to my crotch,and slllliiiiideee my leg carefully under and between the young man's legs. I was embarrassed as hell, because a large crowd had gathered around us, and we all felt "on the spot" as it were. Quite embarrassing. When I noticed the young man's eyes wandering over to my rear end, I decided to fall out. The game wasn't worth it. Laurie did well, though (she excelled more often than not). I also had some back pain for awhile.
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In late May of 1965, Arlo sent a postcard to the Mayor Art Show, a popular local kiddie show of the time. What happened was that Mayor Art had a big drum that the postcards went into, and whomever's postcards got picked from the drum got to be guests on the show. We were in shock when two days later (which was also Arlo's 10th birthday, May 29), we got a call that his postcard was picked for Arlo to be a guest on the show THAT NIGHT! My mom took our brother Tom and myself, along with Arlo, to the studio. As we sat in the audience, one of the show's crewmen came out, and asked all of the kids in the audience to join the Mayor on the stage, as part of the City Council . Arlo and Tom went up there, but I stayed behind - after all, I was all of 13 years old, certainly not a kid anymore! But the crewman didn't see me tha way, and cajoled me into joining the kids on the stage. Word had gotten out that it was Arlo's birthday, so Mayor Art let Arlo ride his big tricycle. Arlo had a bit of trouble handling the trike, and crashed it into one of the cameras.Other than that, it was a successful I was proud that when the microphone was put in my face, I actually remembered my name! At the end of the show, as always, the Mayor looked into the television camera, and said: "We'll be seeing you....".and we all joined in: "SUBSEQUENTLY! After the show, we all lined up to leave, and Mayor Art (Art Finley) gave us each a box of Capn' Crunch cereal (which was new at the time) and a grey felt top hat, something like his. When we got home, we had to share the cereal with our other siblings, which was o.k., because we were minor celebrities when we went to school (all of our classmates had seen us on t.v.)
My father was friends with another local kiddie-show celeb, Marshal J. My sister Laurie and I went to visit Marshal J at his studio barn, and were a bit disillusioned. Marshall J was drunk, and not too coherent. When he got close, you could light a match on his breath What a big disappointment! We also briefly met Captain Satellite, another local kiddie host, who was giving out Milk Duds at the Tanforan shopping center. The Captain was a lot shorter than I had expected, but quite likeable. Many years later, my husband and I took our daughter to meet Captain Cosmic (Bob Wilkins), which was just as exciting for me as meeting Mayor Art. Wilkins was pretty funny; every; time he would announce prize winners, everyone would clap, and he would exclaim: "And the crowd was alive!" Captain Cosmic had a robot named 2T2, which Kelly loved so much. that she dressed up as a robot that Halloween.
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