Garwood Mansion

[gash]

Hey Stnft.....,Yeah....It's my attempt at perfecting a new surfing trick....instead of "Hang Ten".....I was going for "Hang Teeth"....never did catch on.......GDGT

[highhat]

I seem to remember another religious idiot named Jones...something to do with Kool-Aid...

Well the Rev. Jones was given a bill for $180,000.00
Protection charges by the Fed & Fla law enforcement agencies...Now that`s publicity you can`t just buy...Huh!
Book burnin` redneck; mouthbreathin`, lop-eared, inbred...I`m surprised that some of those types aren`t wearing helmets full time...

[john collier]

Finally from L.Elbinger some great connection....http://www.detroityes.com/mb/attachm...1&d=1284907665

[stnfrnt]

heeeere's gleeman!

Attachment 7445

[highhat]

Spiritually splendid...I hadn`t really thought about the "poverty in a palace" aspect but I guess that`s just about what it was...

[Lee Elbinger]

Yesterday [[18 SEP 10), I received a call from John Collier who told me about his Gar Wood Mansion blog. I was part of the original group who lived at the Gar Wood Mansion in 1971. I was known by my nickname "Lee" in those days; I started using my legal name "Lewis" as I entered professional life and now use that name exclusively. I met my wife Barbra at the "Gar Wood" as we called it and our daughter Spirit was conceived there. Congratulations, John, for preserving this unique moment in the cultural history of Detroit.

My beloved wife passed away in 2002. I wrote and produced a CD of songs in her honor; anyone who knew her can request a copy by sending me an address to which to mail the CD.

I have been working as a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department for the past 26 years. I currently work as the Deputy Political Advisor at Central Command in Tampa, Florida. I will probably retire next year to live in Connecticut with visits to Istanbul and India whenever possible.

Peace and blessings to the unique group of souls who made the Gar Wood Mansion fun, exciting and magical.

Shalom = Salaam = Shanti,
Lewis "Lee" Elbinger
eastwest_unity@yahoo.com

[gash]

Gleeman pic..love the boat with the cover and a nice clean dock, great T-shirt.....oh and the banjo ain't to shabby either......With the look in his eyes, it looks like he is taking aim at something.....is it a banjo or something more sinister.....only the Shadow knows...........

Fantastic to hear from Lewis "Lee"...........welcome home Bro....GDGT

[stnfrnt]

Went down to the harbor today.

Attachment 7446

Attachment 7447


It was pretty nice down there.

[1KielsonDrive]

Finally from L.Elbinger some great connection....http://www.detroityes.com/mb/attachm...1&d=1284907665

Very nice poem. I just don't happen to share the sentiments.

[1KielsonDrive]

Went down to the harbor today.

Attachment 7446

Attachment 7447

It was pretty nice down there.

One time I was at the Queen Mary, my friend Suzy and I were in her yellow Gremlin, so overloaded it looked like a low rider. We'd spent a good part of the summer in SoCal, left San Diego a couple days before, with stops in Newport, Huntington and Seal Beach. We toured Mary, hopped in the Gremlin to continue our road trip to Michigan. The luggage carrier fell off of the roof and bikes and rack fell off of the back, breaking the rear hatch window in the process. I thought it was hilarious. She thought otherwise. We made it home anyway - minus the bikes. Thanks for the photos, Larry.

[ruth]

LEE!!!!!
I'm so glad you've joined us. I wasn't around when you were there but I have heard about you. Another good friend of mine, Howard White has mentioned you often.....I do hope you stay in touch with us so you and Spirit will join us at our next reunion.....yes there WILL be one. We just haven't set a date yet.

Please send me your contact info and I'll get you on our "official" list.
you can reach me at ruthhoff@uiuc.edu.

Thank you John Collier for bringing Lee to our conversatoin. Lee, I hope you'll have the opportunity to go back and read the thread from the beiginning....it reads like an amazing novel...and I'm sure you'll add a few stories of your own.

WELCOME ABOARD.

[stnfrnt]

Lewis [[Lee) Elbinger Welcome Aboard!!

Do you still paddle your kayak to work?

Attachment 7451
Are you on your way to work here?

[Lee Elbinger]

Well, it is pretty amazing after 40 years to reconnect with the Gar Wood folk. I clicked on Larry's profile and discovered that he is one day older than me. Yes, I was born on June 10, 1947 and he was born on June 9, 1947. What a difference a day makes.

I sent you an email, Ruth. My email address is listed at the end of my post, but here it is again: eastwest_unity@yahoo.com.

I clicked on 1 Kielson Drive's profile and did not find any information so I do not know who it is. The poem [[actually it is the lyrics to a song which I find myself singing now) is a bit dark, but I never accepted the heroin vibes in the house and finally moved out when those vibes came to dominate.

I remember Dancin' Dan. And Eddie the drummer who John says has not been reunited with this group. Most of all, there was Barbra who first saw me dancing in the ballroom in my blue velvet sharwanee and asked "Who is that madman?" She stayed around for 31 years to find out and we had great adventures all over the world together. She is still with me in spirit and in Spirit, our daughter, who channels her from time to time.

When I was 36, Barbra did a numerological analysis of the names "Lee" and "Lewis" and told me that "Lewis" was the stronger, more suitable one. That is fortunate because Lewis is my legal name and I have used it ever since [[not Lou or Louie or anything like that).

I am in Tampa now. I worked on the staff of General Petraeus until the end of June when the Rolling Stone magazine article sent him to Afghanistan. I hope to retire next year in Connecticut and start the Connecticut Institute of Spiritual Politics.

Yes, the Gar Wood reunion is attractive in a way that my Mumford High School reunion never attracted me. We shall see where I am when it occurs.

It is getting late now and I will stop. I keep thinking about Ekhardt Tolle's The Power of Now and the teaching that the past and future are unreal, illusory. So I focus myself in the here and now and say Namaste [[The God in me salutes the God in you) to all.

Shalom = Salaam = Shanti,
Lee/Lewis

[Lee Elbinger]

The way we were...

[highhat]

Too bad you got to the mansion late...H was not the prevelant nor the drug of choice when I moved in... Lasting friendships were made,food was shared ,recluses were allowed to be just that...The parties were what allowed us to live in and improve the mansion. Good to see your still alive as so many have passed. God loves Rock & Roll...

[EastownPunk]

Sorry to hear it, Whaler. Maybe some Coors or some Labatts from Doctor Kielson would help? Maybe some Coors AND some Labatts. I'll throw in a couple of Jezzy's [[Polish brandy). I got the scrip for ya'.

I can "highly" recomend Doctor Kielson. I have my script's filled there at least once a week and I know I feel better every time I leave.

[EastownPunk]

Went down to the harbor today.

Attachment 7446

Attachment 7447

It was pretty nice down there.

That's quite the understatement.

[1KielsonDrive]

Too bad you got to the mansion late...H was not the prevelant nor the drug of choice when I moved in... Lasting friendships were made,food was shared ,recluses were allowed to be just that...The parties were what allowed us to live in and improve the mansion. Good to see your still alive as so many have passed. God loves Rock & Roll...

Thanks Highhat. I agree. There were problems when I was hanging out. They might've become more so as time went on, but I don't recall H becoming the over-riding problem. Certainly, it was present. I think the key here is that we all have different memories of the Gar Wood and over the last couple of years, on this thread in particular, we've discovered that the truth lies somewhere between all of those memories. Lewis, it's nice to have you on board and contributing your recollections. You seem to have had a most unusual life trajectory, post Gar Wood. Best.

[stnfrnt]

Lewis.....great to have you on board and ditto 1kd and highhat. That being duly noted, I would like to thank you for serving your country...plain and simple..I really appreciate it. Jump in here whenever you can. I remember Barbara....she was beautiful in so many ways.

[highhat]

Lee...These people [[the F.O.G. ers ) have been trying without success to find Eddie Saenz,the drummer of whom you speak and Fergie [[ I only know that name ). I know this is a reach but you got any buddies that can help find our friends ? You don`t have to show your hand ....maybe they`ll just surface . Until I learned how to run the confuser [[computor) last March I was totally in the dark about this gathering of the tribe...
GarWoodians.
If you can, do read the entire site ...It`s quite a trip its ownself.

[Lee Elbinger]

TO 1KIELSONDRIVE:

Yes, I have had a wonderful life trajectory and thank God for it. I joined the Foreign Service in December 1984. During my 26 year career I have had 16 assignments in nine foreign countries: Oman, Saudi Arabia [[twice), Sudan, Germany, Kenya, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India and Turkey. I speak Russian. I earned my MBA degree at University of New Haven in Connecticut in 1983 and a Masters of Strategic Studies [[MSS) at the Air War College in Alabama in 2007. If life is an apple, I have taken a huge bite of it.

This experience – reconnecting with Garwoodians and recognizing that I am a Garwoodian – causes me to examine my roots and look backward in a way that signals a new chapter in my life. I will retire soon and have started clearing out and letting go of past identities. The major lesson of Barbra's death was letting go. She let go in a big way; I am letting go in small ways.

The Gar Wood experience was a launching pad for what Barbra and I called "mansion karma." Jesus said "In my Father's house there are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you" [[John, xiv, 2) Barbra and I lived in many mansions all around the world. Some of my favorites: Darjeeling, India, Khartoum, Sudan, Nairobi, Kenya. I lived on the 17th floor of a luxury high-rise in Istanbul that overlooked the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara [[did a song and video about that called "The Real Bosphorus View is Inside You"). It was like hovering in a spaceship over the city. Artists, yogis and mystics congregated at my house and we held Full Moon Meditation Meetings. In a sense, I never left the Gar Wood. I carried it with me wherever I went and I realize it is with me now.

TO STNFRNT:

I was touched by your kind and simple "thank you" for service to the country. No one has ever done that before and it took me by surprise. I never expected thanks, of course, and the privilege of representing the United States of America overseas is often thanks enough. It is not really service to the country or the material interests of the American people but service to the ideals which our country represents. You do not really appreciate America until you live in other countries for a long period of time. The whole world, of course, is beautiful and there are great experiences to be found everywhere, but, in spite of our obvious faults, America has and is something special. We are united by that bond.

Larry, I plan to visit Santa Monica, CA, in early October. Perhaps we can meet then and maybe work on the "Gar Wood Memories" song together.

TO HIGHHAT:

You are right: I forgot that the parties were rent-raisers. I wrote the song shortly after moving out and it expressed what I was feeling at the time. This is what I originally wrote:

We had parties celebrating nothing
except our lust and different ego trips.
I have learned that change must come from something
more than getting stoned and being hip.

Here is what I would say now:

We had parties celebrating freedom
and used them as a way to pay the rent.
Now I see the dancing and the music
was part of our tradition and ascent.

Thanks, Highhat, for keeping the flame burning. I will read the journal as best I can [[it's a lot to read). Regarding finding missing members…we'll talk.

Shalom = Salaam = Shanti,
Lewis

[Whaler]

Been a way for a while...The trip keeps getting better..Nice to see you Lee..and as Stone said Thanks for your service!!!!..I was just a visitor at the Gar Wood...but boy oh boy the Train keeps a Rollin...Peace...Whaler

[EastownPunk]

Is this the same Lee Elbinger that gave a talk on Y. B. Yeats' at Oakland University in 1969?

[1KielsonDrive]

TO 1KIELSONDRIVE:

Yes, I have had a wonderful life trajectory and thank God for it. I joined the Foreign Service in December 1984. During my 26 year career I have had 16 assignments in nine foreign countries: Oman, Saudi Arabia [[twice), Sudan, Germany, Kenya, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India and Turkey. I speak Russian. I earned my MBA degree at University of New Haven in Connecticut in 1983 and a Masters of Strategic Studies [[MSS) at the Air War College in Alabama in 2007. If life is an apple, I have taken a huge bite of it.

This experience – reconnecting with Garwoodians and recognizing that I am a Garwoodian – causes me to examine my roots and look backward in a way that signals a new chapter in my life. I will retire soon and have started clearing out and letting go of past identities. The major lesson of Barbra's death was letting go. She let go in a big way; I am letting go in small ways.

The Gar Wood experience was a launching pad for what Barbra and I called "mansion karma." Jesus said "In my Father's house there are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you" [[John, xiv, 2) Barbra and I lived in many mansions all around the world. Some of my favorites: Darjeeling, India, Khartoum, Sudan, Nairobi, Kenya. I lived on the 17th floor of a luxury high-rise in Istanbul that overlooked the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara [[did a song and video about that called "The Real Bosphorus View is Inside You"). It was like hovering in a spaceship over the city. Artists, yogis and mystics congregated at my house and we held Full Moon Meditation Meetings. In a sense, I never left the Gar Wood. I carried it with me wherever I went and I realize it is with me now.

TO STNFRNT:

I was touched by your kind and simple "thank you" for service to the country. No one has ever done that before and it took me by surprise. I never expected thanks, of course, and the privilege of representing the United States of America overseas is often thanks enough. It is not really service to the country or the material interests of the American people but service to the ideals which our country represents. You do not really appreciate America until you live in other countries for a long period of time. The whole world, of course, is beautiful and there are great experiences to be found everywhere, but, in spite of our obvious faults, America has and is something special. We are united by that bond.

Larry, I plan to visit Santa Monica, CA, in early October. Perhaps we can meet then and maybe work on the "Gar Wood Memories" song together.

TO HIGHHAT:

You are right: I forgot that the parties were rent-raisers. I wrote the song shortly after moving out and it expressed what I was feeling at the time. This is what I originally wrote:

We had parties celebrating nothing
except our lust and different ego trips.
I have learned that change must come from something
more than getting stoned and being hip.

Here is what I would say now:

We had parties celebrating freedom
and used them as a way to pay the rent.
Now I see the dancing and the music
was part of our tradition and ascent.

Thanks, Highhat, for keeping the flame burning. I will read the journal as best I can [[it's a lot to read). Regarding finding missing members…we'll talk.

Shalom = Salaam = Shanti,
Lewis

The two most important parts of your letter to all of us. Quite at odds with each other but yet quite in harmony. I think we've all carried the Gar Wood with us through our lives. A life defining experience no matter what followed.

[Lee Elbinger]

Is this the same Lee Elbinger that gave a talk on Y. B. Yeats' at Oakland University in 1969?

Yep. Same one.