John W. Hopkins, 1929

One of the few extant photos of (Dr.) John W. Hopkins

 Ministerial Association

The Ministerial Association has been an active organization since 1905 among the students of the Bible College.  It is made up of men and women students, professors of the Bible College and others on the campus who are interested.  The purpose of the club is two-fold: to provide social life and fellowship for the students and to support and co-operate with the university in all its activities.  Among its activities are socials, banquets, picnics, and tournaments.  This year we are especially proud of our football team who won a brilliant victory over the laws. 

 
(Drake University, 1929, The QUAX yearbook, p. 230)

Charles the Handy Man

A former resident of Williams College (1965-1971) recalls Charles the Handyman fondly.  She described him as a "seeker" who felt he had finally found the real deal with Dr. John W. Hopkins and the Understanding group.  He was a modest and humble man, but nevertheless proud of his alliance with the Hopkinses and willingly participated in their meetings and seminars. She suggests his association with the Understanding group allowed him to believe, and to feel "I am somebody." 

She recalled that as a tinkerer, Charles not only invented a new kind of carburetor, but he proudly asserted he was the second person in the world to invent phosphorescent paint.  He had applied for a patent on his paint but was denied, as someone else had just beat him to punch filing the forms.  Nonetheless, Charles was proud of his invention.

The Understanding Unit which was hosted at Williams College were to her way of thinking made up of a very honest bunch.  They were not at all the Berkeley hip, but more like older residents of Albany, as she explained.  The group meetings had the aura of a reverent and happy feeling, the mood and message was "we're in touch with the reverence in life and this is how we search for meaning.  These were people who wanted to believe."   The group she maintains gave Charles and them all a real sense of belonging.   

She believes Charles last name may have been Barkley or Bartley. (If Barkley, this is not the same person who endorsed Nike glo in the dark shoes, the famous athlete).

This same resident, on the other hand, has mixed views of Dr. John W. Hopkins, and views him as either simply off balance or off balance and tinged with the attitudes and mores of a fraudulent grifter.  This perspective of Dr. John W. Hopkins was also shared by Phil and Audrey Small, who lived on the campus in the mid-1950s.  The Smalls decades later still tended to look on the school (of the occult) as a ruse of some kind on Dr. Hopkins's part.

Selling Out the Past

The whole neighborhood has changed since I lived there.  Williams College is currently for sale, a rock promoter bought the house with the small amphitheater and glen where I would watch plays with friends, and now the Carmelite nunnery is for sale (unoccupied since 2010 it seems).

(11.5.13 Listing from

 

Telescopes: Alien Influence

Think back to the Menger video interview post (Alien Electric Pianos and Plasma TVs, Nov 2, 2013)

Advertisement for Questar telescopes, c. 1955

The Telephone

Telephone, a play presented by the Mime Troupe after appearing in Ramparts in 1970, had more of the gutter puppets plus a character who is a long distance operator who shall remain unnamed. 

p. 71- 75 (Required reading)
(The San Francisco Mime Troupe Reader
edited by Susan Vaneta Mason

University of Michigan Press, Apr 13, 2005)

"Not bad for a puppet, huh?"

In 1967, Darryl Henriques (resident in Sandy and Ronnie's former cottage) backflipped his way onto the stage for his entrance in L'Amant Militaire.  He also took the role of the puppet, Punch, who "operated inside a cardboard box offstage, and apart from the script, a sarcastic commentator and cheerleader for the audience"

(p. 168 from "They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967"

 By David Maraniss
Simon and Schuster,  
Oct 4, 2004

Animals at Williams College

On the estate, on the grounds was an abundance of bird life and animal visitors who lived wild in the Berkeley hills.  In the rentals, residents kept companion animals of cats, dogs, Belgian rabbits.  Everyone loved animals there.  And stray cats would occasionally visit me and hop in the open window of my place, which was over 12 feet above ground level and come hang out a bit.

One evening at home in my basement flat I had cooked a large casserole of tricolored noodles and left it on the stove  to cool, with the window open.  I laid down and fell asleep as sleep was rare for me then, and intermittent when it arrived.  I kept awaking to sounds of small clinking and paid no mind and fell back into my slumbers.  When I awoke, the casserole dish was empty.

Another time, I had installed a Christmas tree and made garlands of popcorn and cranberries on string.  I went away for the holiday, and when I returned I found all the cranberries missing and only the popcorn left.

I would hear thumping in the storage room now and again.

Apparently a possum lived in the storage room, a fact I found out from the essential oil compounder who'd pushed her way into the estate.  She had seen the possum in the apartment and arranged to have the creature poisoned and killed.  She told me this much to my horror and anger.  She was soon in less than two months gone from the estate of her own volition as she had opened a storefront in San Francisco, too far for an easy commute from Berkeley, and she soon went out of business.

When Esther Dyson moved into the estate in 1963, she carried a pet praying mantis all the way from the East Coast, a long cross country auto trip with her mom at the wheel, her brother in the passenger seat, and Esther in the back seat with boxes and clothes.  And the praying mantis was traveling along in a little box with holes cut out in the lid and Esther would feed and care for the mantis along the way. Esther's mom got a job for the summer teaching math at Berkeley.  She recalled Dr. Hopkins in a kindly way.