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Ken Kesey

Paul De Carli: Hanging out with Ken Kesey on Perry Lane

by Linda Hubbard Gulker on May 29, 2010

in Authors, Faces of Menlo, Featured, Hidden Menlo, History, Neighborhoods, Writers

Paul DiCarli, longtime resident of Perry Lane

Perry Lane, a sliver of a street in unincorporated Menlo Park just west of Sand Hill Road, was once the epicenter of Bohemian Menlo Park. And SRI senior scientist emeritus Paul De Carli can dish the dirt – and spin the yarns – about life on the street for 50 years.

“We owned 11 & 13 Perry [of which #13 remains, pictured below],” says Paul. “Ken Kesey lived at #9. He was an OK neighbor – I enjoyed going to his parties. He’d cook pineapple chili. It sounds weird but it was good.”

Kesey’s house is gone, along with the other cottages that surrounded a giant oak tree. They were torn down around 1964, and new ranch style houses were built. Says Paul about Kesey: “Ken was a big faker. During the day he’d act like he didn’t have a care in the world – he’d be out shooting baskets. But I’d see him hunched over his typewriter in the middle of the night – he was writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He never wanted to advertise that you have to work like hell to write a book.”

Number 13 Perry Lane, an authentic holdover from the days of Ken Kesey and the Merry PrankstersPaul and his wife Anne lived in 13 Perry and rented the cottage they owned at #11. Their tenant during the Kesey years was Gene Farmer (who went on to be a successful TV comedy writer – The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Chico and the Man, That’s My Mama, Sanford and Son). “A little portion of our yard was screened off,” recalls Paul. “Gene came over one day and said, ‘Take a look at that.’ The pot that Ken had planted was higher than the screen. Gene said he’d take care of it, and when I came home from work it was gone.”

Paul and Anne left Perry Lane last year and are renting an apartment near downtown Menlo. Most of their neighbors are gone, too. Their occasional house sitter – and official Merry Prankster – Roy Sebern lives in East Palo Alto. Dancer Chloe Scott now lives in southern California closer to family. Retired psychologist Vic Lovell, who suggested that Kesey volunteer to test LSD, is also gone.

uni park map 300x188 Paul De Carli: Hanging out with Ken Kesey on Perry LaneThe cottages, built as shotgun houses when adjoining Stanford University was taken over as an Army camp in World War I, are also disappearing. “Most of the Perry Lane houses were only marginally modernized,” says Paul. “And even those that were don’t suit the tastes of people nowadays. Our house was over 100 years old and didn’t meet any current building codes. I had to work hard to keep the house alive without attracting attention of officials.” (Aside: Street signs say “Perry Avenue” but locals it Perry Lane.)

Paul relishes the fact that he spent most of his life in unincorporated Menlo Park because, he says frankly, “I hate the city of Menlo Park. ”

His passion resonates from a time he shared space with three roommates on Laurel Dr. while he was attending Stanford. “We only had one parking space but more than one car. Menlo Park had [and still does] a no overnight parking rule. We’d get tickets for parking overnight. We went to the city to get overnight parking permits. The flat answer was “no.’”

Years later the city of Menlo Park was considering annexing the small triangle of streets that included Perry Lane [map above]. Paul was vociferous in opposition. “At one meeting the city manager explained that the overnight parking prohibition was helpful to the Menlo Park police. I pointed out that the police work for us, not the other way around.”

It's actually Perry Avenue, but everyone calls it Perry LaneAccording to Paul, Perry Lane always marched to it own tune.  “We had a big housewarming are our guests played music from Handel’s Royal Fireworks. At the conclusion, some of our guests decided to top things off by throwing fire crackers into a 50 gallon oil drum. The explosion brought out the deputy sheriffs who told us to cool it.

“They showed up again the next mooring. Turns out that the noise wasn’t the issue.  What they really wanted to warn us about was having parties that were racially mixed.”

By the mid-60s, Kesey had moved to La Honda, taking  the Merry Pranksters with him. “Ken was OK, ” says Paul, “but what annoyed me was his followers. He loved having that attentive audience.” As for Perry Lane: “It had an infamous reputation long before Ken Kesey moved on it.”

Photo of Paul DiCarli by Linda Hubbard Gulker

Photos of Perry Lane house and street sign by Chris Gulker

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Menlo Park’s musical lore – Jerry, the Dead, Vince and more

by Linda Hubbard Gulker on February 7, 2010

in History, Music

In a touch of irony, while the InMenlo team was talking jazz with KCSM’s Alisa Clancy yesterday, two different blog posts appeared about music related events and lore that happened in 94025.

There’s a terrific recap  about the Grateful Dead – including its various offshots – and Menlo Park on the Lost Live Dead blog. In showing how connected the Dead was to Menlo Park, even though they considered themselves a Palo Alto band, the writer, Corry Arnold, takes the reader through a litany of long gone Menlo establishments and places. Magoo’s Pizza Parlor, the Underground, Guitars Unlimited. For anyone who lived in the area in the 60s – or wish they did – it’s a really fun read.

Personal note: I’ve long wondered where Ken Kesey’s house was on Perry Lane but can’t figure out how Perry Lane (or Avenue) could have extended to where the Oak Creek Apartments now are, as one of Arnold’s sources thought (he and I have been emailing back and forth on the subject). There’s long been a row of ranch houses – built in the early ’50s – that run along the San Francisquito Creek side of Oak Ave. Then there’s the issue of where the street would have crossed the creek itself. Perry Lane now dead ends on its eastern end at the Oak Knoll School tennis courts. It could have extended at one time to Oak Avenue, I guess; finding out when the tennis courts were built could solve that part of the puzzle. Here’s the Google map so that you can see the area in question – open to hearing any other recollections.

Meanwhile, another blog, Saber Point, featured a memorial post to jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, who died 34 years ago at the Red Cottage Inn in Menlo Park. It’s also an interesting read. Evidently Guaraldi was playing a gig at Butterfield’s which the post says was adjacent to the Red Cottage Inn, which still exists.

Personal note: Growing up in Menlo, I remember the Red Cottage restaurant very well. It was a bit of a special occasion place, at least for my household. The last restaurant housed in the same place was Gaylord’s, now boarded up and awaiting redevelopment. Does anyone remember Butterfield’s and where it was?

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