T-Minus 24 Hours: My Past Burns (part one)

Hmmm.... This is only the second year in seven playa visits I will be attending that I do not have a romantic partner.

1987: Baker Beach Burn #2

My first "burning man" (although most of the 800 or so of us didn't really understand it at the time) was the June 21 burn at Baker Beach in San Francisco.  I was in my first marriage, living in Los Angeles but I was in Northern California for my company doing some work with a client and I decided to spend the weekend, go to Berkeley and maybe see a baseball game (the Giants were playing the Dodgers and at time I was a Dodger fan).  A friend of mine called me up and said "hey, this guy I know is going out to the beach tonight like the did last year and they are going to have a party and burn down a 15' wooden man. Want to go?"  It sounded like fun so we headed down there, and arrived about 8pm.  The party was going, with various alcoholic beverages and an abundance of joints being passed around, and some loud music from a boombox. Finally they lit the man and it burned and we danced around and then we went home.  Ho-hum.  My first "burning man" ;-)  I had no idea what it really was until almost 10 years later when I picked up a Time magazine article about the Nevada Burning Man (which was now in its 8th year) and they talked about that long-ago burn on Baker Beach.  I called my friend and asked him if he knew anything about it and he said "oh yeah, its the same folks, they had to stop doing it on the beach in San Francisco so they changed it to Labor Day and went out to the desert near Reno." But it wasn't something I was likely to do in my first marriage and so I didn't.  Then I got divorced in 2001 and my life began to change.

2002: Floating World

I had just met the woman who I would later marry (my second marriage). We had gone on a date to the Hollywood Bowl and it looked like it could be "the real thing". I told her about Burning Man and she got very interested, but she couldn't go because of her kids. However, I was already committed.  I went with my roommate Peggy who gifted me a ticket in exchange for a ride to the burn and back. Because I had already fallen pretty head-over-heels, I did Burning Man 2002 (my first real playa burn) as if I was already in a relationship (which to some extent I was). 

2003: Beyond Belief

By 2003, I returned this time with Barbara, who I married just several months later (and although we continually tried to go back home to the playa together after 2003, we never ever did make it back out as partners). 

2004-6: Nothing

These years were missed for various kid's school/parent's birthday issues that made it impossible for us to go.

(to be continued...)