Albert Saijo

by Joanne Kyger

When I came back from almost two years traveling to Europe and New York in the late 60’s I found the Summer of Love and the Bay Area very changed and awash with psychedelic participants.

I went to visit Albert who was living in Mill Valley.

He showed me some new household practices he had learned. When you are sweeping the floor in the morning, take a piece of newspaper and dampen one edge and lay it on the floor. Then you sweep all the dust from the floor onto it and fold it up and put it neatly in the wastebasket.

And then I asked him, how can I understand what’s going on with this new Hippie culture ?

Albert said, well, when you wake up in the morning, get stoned.
And I mean really really stoned. If you do this everyday you can eventually change your consciousness.

So I did this morning practice, and about 15 years later when I saw him next I asked Did you ever say when we were supposed to stop?

Albert Fairchild Saijo, February 4, 1926 – June 2, 2011