recognize Baba’s face from that brief appearance on his show. So old Joe Pyne did his bit for the Avatar, although in reverse gear.

It was 2 a.m. February 1, 1969, when Ivy Duce phoned me that Baba had dropped His body. Don Stevens had called from London, hearing the news from Baba's brother, Adi. Jr. I waited a while, in a state of shock, then phoned Margaret Craske in New York — 5:30 a.m. her time, and asked her to call the Myrtle Beach Center. Fred Winterfeldt didn't believe the news and cabled India. Yes, the Master had left us, physically. But only a few garbled lines appeared in the L.A. Times (UP) that a silent holy man, Meher Baba, had died in a cave in North India! They would not print a retraction. But Elliott Mintz on radio announced Baba's death beautifully. The underground papers reported it with photo and vita. The Cosmic Star published Rick Chapman's long account. But how was I to tell all those dear young people who had never met Him? Especially those that had signed up for the '69 Last Darshan trip to meet Him in April? Two chartered planes were reserved. Fortunately, two stalwarts, Jack Small and Susan Herr, took over. Quickly, the young lovers gathered at my home. The love and devotion in their hearts for Baba held up under this blow to their hopes, and were an inspiration to me. As one said, "We never saw Baba in the body, so we will not miss it but we will feel His Love."

Some did drop away from the chartered plane flight (set for April 9 in combination with the Sufis up north). In the end, only one planeload left. I had a hectic time reorganizing the group flight — "hippies" were notoriously careless about details like messages, addresses, payments, passports, etc. Several took off independently to hitch-hike there, going overland! Bill Files, a teenager was one; he made it, but got very sick. Every Monday night at the Venice bookstore, we all lined up for our travel shots, given to us free by the concerned parents (a doctor and a nurse) of one 16 year old girl. We sang, we chanted Baba’s name, we gazed lovingly at His photos, we clung even closer together in our peculiar combination of grief and joy. It was a "passages" point for us all. I got the Asian flu and had to drop out of this first flight with my dear "Angelenos." I missed the second flight also and went on the third, in early June, leaving from New York, with the "Society for Avatar Meher Baba." Most were from New Jersey. Coincidence: Just two weeks before I left, Mattel held a shotgun at my head: they were transferring me to Plainfield, N.J.!

Our special "Last Darshan" issue, Volume 13, No. 1-2 describes in detail these three flights of Westerners to the abode of the Beloved in Guruprasad, Poona, so I won't go into them here. How these young lovers dared to go halfway round the world loving the Avatar "Not in the flesh but in the spirit," as St. John says, is an amazing story, and even made the pages of the New Yorker magazine (under "Jai Baba"). Two prophesies of Baba were fulfilled — He gave darshan lying down, and His new young "jewels" came for this darshan out of the West as He had told the mandali. And they still go on pilgrimage, now to Meherazad and Meherabad . . . the pilgrimage of the heart, a wonderful generation! They are still the core of Baba groups everywhere.

It was very heart-breaking for me to have to pack up and leave L.A. in August, 1969 to the wilds of New Jersey, leaving behind this circle of young Baba lovers. I was glad I had encouraged them to be self-directive and this they were. The Venice bookstore and the Pasadena bookstore survived. Finally, when I returned in 1971, meetings were being held mostly in Pasadena on Union St. They had successfully kept a real bookstore going and had entertained guests from India like Rano Gayley, Meherji Karkaria, and Adi K. Irani.

What about my almost-two-years in New Jersey? A most interesting hiatus for me, useless as far as my career went — I was constantly given more money and less work, a typical Mattel gaff. But Plainfield was near Rutgers University and I started a