1995 - 1996

1995-The man is on the ground.
And so's that guy behind me.

1996

Fourteen years later, I can't remember that much, so I'm combining these years

There were no digital cameras, no motorized couches, and no roads. Everyone camped Italian style. Also, you could drive around. We let the truck run at low speed, and got out for a while.

click for big pic.

That is obviously not a truck.
Memory's a funny thing, so I've been told, not having personal experience with it.

1996 there was a full moon, much as there was in 2007, except in 2007 there was an eclipse, which only happens on a full moon.

In 96 the man was on bails of hay.

I remember hitching a ride at night on a large jeep which was heading out of burning man and across the desert. I got off at a rave camp several miles from home. When I was ready to leave I noticed Burning man was completely over the horizon. There was no sign of it except a thick green laser beam about ten feet over my head, which I assumed, led back to the man (or led the man back to camp.) So I followed this for what seemed like hours as watches hadn't been invented yet. Eventually, the neon man became visible. This is what led me to wonder; how far away is the horizon in a place like that. You can have great fun figuring it out using approximating triangles.

The only land mark was the man back then. I found my way home by remembering which way he should be facing and how big he should be.

	Burning Man is kind of a sexist term. What about: Burning Mam. My daughter Michelle and her friend and her boy friend came along. But I don't remember if this was 95 or 96. I've tried a little to find info on 95 and 96 to help jog my memory. Hard to find.
	She wanted her picture taken with the naked guys. She did that last year too.
	Pretty big scaffold. This was cutting edge art for the desert (next to the pile of 88 old pianos.) Soon the winds came and knocked it all down. The next year there was nothing over one story tall. I used to have more photos of this.
	My friend, Sparrow, who was born with a playa name, invited us to come along. This picture is of her camp. The winds soon knocked it down too. The heavy duty aluminum poles twisted and bent. It belonged to the father of some one there who was probably trying to figure out how to explain it all. That would be a good name for pants; Occu Pants. Nevermind.
	My kids and I were experienced desert campers, but we didn't use much equipment back then. After the winds and rain died down, our camp was a little pile of muddy clothes. We may not have had thousands of dollars of fancy shelters but all we had to do was sling our muddy clothes into the trunk and drive home. I still use the suitcase visible on top of the car, and it was old then. We didn't stay for the burn - or did we?
created 1/10/09 Modified 1/12/09