A MYSTICAL MEMORY

Being isolated and trying to maintain some sense of sanity these days, my memory drifts back in time to places and people that I have known.   One such individual was an old hippie man living south of Orleans on a small farm along Red Cap Road.   I can not remember his name and never personally knew him.   He was probably in his 50's or 60's, had long gray hair, a long beard, wore an old dress coat and a hat that made him look like a wizard.   He would always wave at us when driving by his place on our way to work on the south end of the District.   What really caught our eye was the young hippie girls that would be helping him tend his crops.   There would be 3 or 4 of them hoeing between the rows and wearing only enough clothing to cover the bare essentials.  Sometimes the driver of the work truck we were in almost drove off the road with his eyes more focused on the young lovelies than the road.   After getting beyond the farm we would have tormented discussions on what was that old man's relationship with those young girls, was it fatherly or something else?   There were little cabins painted with all kinds of bright colors back along the forest on the edge of the fields.   This place was totally off the grid and nobody ever talked about being in compliance with building codes in and around Orleans.  From experience, I saw other dwellings in the community where you could see chickens grazing under a house with no foundations and water draining on the ground from some pipe coming from inside the house.   One unusual structure on the farm was an outhouse perched on stilts about 10 feet off  Red Cap Road.  It was 4 or 6 feet above the ground on the slope below the road.  There was a ramp leading to the door from the road with a sign over it that said, "Avoid Stress".  I'm not sure if it was really used as an outhouse or just put there to annoy all those that drove by.   In many ways this place was mystical and added to the culture of the community.  It sure enhanced many of our conversations on our way to work.