I had first enrolled at UC-Berkeley in the Fall of 1959, but left after a half-semester to accompany a friend to Winter Park, Colorado to become a ski bum. After a lot of intervening adventures, I re-enrolled at UC-Berkeley in 1966, and got a neat little apartment on Euclid Ave., in the Berkeley Hills. It even had a fireplace, and I made one wood-collecting trip to the Sierras, to bring back some Sierra juniper to burn.
As for going back to school: having failed to complete my investigation into Indian-style mysticism, I figured I should now pursue Western scientific approaches to understanding human behavior and the interaction of humans and the environment. It was already becoming clear that we were making a mess of things. Books like “Silent Spring” and “The Population Bomb” were getting people thinking about what we were doing to the environment. Eventually, I fashioned my own individual major, which I called Human Ecology. The word “ecology” was just then starting to get some currency. This major included anthropology and a lot of biology.
I also began to study photography with the staff at the Student Union (ASUC) darkroom. This was an immensely rewarding activity, and gave me the best start possible on a life-long passion. The staff were Dave Bohn, Roger Minick and Arnold Henderson. Thanks guys!
Richard McCracken and I took a trip to the Southwest during Spring Break (April 1966).

Backside of above postcard, referring to a hike we were soon to take into Havasu Canyon. Other than the Supai inhabitants, who weren’t many, there was no one else around when we were down there. In a recent NY Times article on Havasu, the author relates that she and family took a helicopter into the canyon! What an adventure – how nice for them! According to the article (Sept. 6, 2015), 20,000 people now visit Havasu each year.
Later in the Spring of 1966, I was married to Karen Holdaway, before a Municipal Judge in Berkeley, CA. Eric Beck was our witness. I had first met Karen in 1960, at the Jackson Lake Lodge, in Grand Teton National Park, where we both worked. She was a fountain waitress and I the fountain runner. Like most of the employees there, she was a Mormon, from a small town near Provo, Utah. Karen was nothing less than regal, and I set my sights on her. It only took 6 years to pull it off.
The story continues in the following post.
https://believesteve.org/2016/02/11/nols-uc-berkeley-summerfall-1966/