We
love our hippie bus!
MOM Official
Jupiter Hollow hippie bus of legend...
Mom's
inauguration, Summer 1998... Our
dear friends Captain or just Mark and Dr. Clap show up
at a show at the Bar Next Door in Springfield, MO. with
an 11 window school bus which they purchased for us.
This is Mom..Mom at this stage was all schoolbus inside
and out with no modification whatsoever...well this would
never work for a traveling rock band, so we devised a
plan...
Captain, you have to understand is a very resourceful and wiley character..what
transpired next should go down in the annals of rock..Captain arranged
that we move the bus to a location on the edge of town..that location
was Mr. Irving Selzer's estate...this place was something to behold..Mr.
Selzer was the long time owner of a piano and organ store in Springfield..Nate
Arbeitman had known "Irv" for sometime and was integral in the relationship
between "Irv" and Jupiter Hollow...anyway the mansion itself was full
of antique organs and piano's, I'm talking pump organs and player piano's
folks..the shit. As for outside, there were Bentley's, Mercedes, Rolls
Royce's and others that he had collected, just sitting around..it was
truly amazing. Anyway, we pulled Mom into Mr. Selzer's estate and began
dismantling her...our very dear friends Richard and Joyce King came up
from Green Forest, AK. to paint a beautiful mural on Mom. They are both
great people and fantastic artists and we would not have been able to
complete the project without their amazing energy and spirit..they will
always be a part of Jupiter Hollow and MOM. Captain and our dear hog
farm friend "Hopper" arranged for Mom to be "blessed" by some ol' Hog
Farm faithful from the bay area..it was a very high time indeed..Mr.
Selzer gracefully refrained from the "blessing". We completed the project
and prepared for our maiden voyage to the west coast...a local news station
came out to Selzer's place to film and interview us on the day of our
departure.
A funny bus story... (as told by Randy)... First and
foremost I was asleep... Tony was driving "Mom" and Phoenix was his co-pilot.
(Phoenix is a good friend that had been on the bus since the Midwest).
Anyway "Mom was headed towards Arcata from San Fran, and evidently she
needed fuel. So they stopped somewhere outside of Eureka. Well we always
had a rule about knowing who was on or off the bus at any particular
stop... I was still asleep... anyway Heather had gotten off the bus to
use the restroom at this stop. Noone accounted for her and she was accidently
left at the station... I did not wake until Arcata and the first thing
I asked upon waking was the whereabouts of our Bass player Heather...
that's when it dawned upon them that she had been left at the gas station
outside Eureka, CA. The other side of the story is best told by Heather
herself!
Another
hippie bus – Samonberry's work of art!
Samonberry's
artwork covers his bus AMETHYST inside and out
OK, "Mom" holds
a special place in our hearts, of course. But if you're
looking for the ideal visual image of a hippie bus, we
would probably nominate this one painted by our favorite
artist Samonberry!
"Amethyst originated
in Wolfsburg, Germany, in the early 70's. She moved to
the states, and has been partying ever since! Almost lost,
she spent most of the 80's & early 90's covered in
moss, outside of Mushroomcrow, Washington. However, Samonberry
saved her, and they traveled together within the gypsy
circus known as Grateful Dead tour. She rang in the new
millennium at Ken Kesey's farm. They currently travel the
states, Canada & Mexico in search of the Greatest Adventure
Ever!" – Samonberry
Read more about Samonberry's hippie bus adventures, check
out detailed close-ups of the bus's exterior and interior,
and enjoy all his amazing psychedelic artwork at www.samonberry.com
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