Alicia Abbott

So he could sometimes go out.

I mean, if he lived by himself with me, he'd never be able to go out at all.

And I also think you can't overestimate just how exciting it was to be openly gay in San Francisco in the 1970s.

I mean, Stonewall had happened in 1969.

Gay civil rights legislation was passing in different states.

And, you know, for the first time you could love openly and not be considered sick, not be arrested.

It was a very exciting, heady time.

And naturally, you know, my father would want to take part in that.

Well, like I said, he had roommates.

We had roommates that would be stand-ins as babysitters.

And so sometimes he would leave me with roommates so he could go out.

Sometimes he would take me out.

I mean, if it was a poetry reading, he would take me out with him.

And if it was on a school night, he would just let me fall asleep on a pillow in the corner and then take me home afterwards.

Right.

So I guess the benefit of this situation was I was, in the end, ended up being very integrated into his creative life because I had to tag along to so many of his creative outings.

He would eventually push me on stage to recite a poem, or if I was bored and making drawings while he was engaged in publishing work, he would take some of my drawings and illustrate his poems with them.

Yeah.

I mean, I think for me, and especially as I got older, I just was like, oh, these people are so weird.

And I don't, you know, I had a sort of a distaste for it.