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Check out "Stillkesey" on my friends list to see the sexiest girl on the planet, she is the sweetest thing to ever happen to my life. There is some spectacular Kesey stuff at her site, it is really worth checking her out. My wife Stephanie (stillkesey), is the spark that started Key-Z Productions (key-z.com) and our son Caleb who is a 14 year old chess prodigy who is taking after his grandpa in a big way.
I grew up in a world that I did not know was strange!! I thought that every child must have a day-glo circus surrounding them. The Merry Pranksters where wonderful playmates, they could play with you and your toys for hours on end, and life seemed to be as new to them as it was to me. I was proud to be a part of that gang and what they where doing, because lets face it, it was a blast!! Painting with bright colored fingerpaints is always a good time, but it is much better when you get it all over a bus. I can still vividly remember riding on top of the bus during the 1964 trip with Cassady driving down the California coast road, ripping around the corners, leaning over the edge of the sea cliff.
I am very happy to have been able to share my father with everyone out there. That you know how special of a person he was gives us a great connection. He was honest, and firm, and knew where he stood. As a father these are very important traits. I grew up on a farm where chores and duties where an important part of my daily life. Farm and family where what it was about for dad, almost to the point of it being spiritual. My brother, two sisters and I learned not to question his greater wisdom, and learned to jump whenever he told us to do something, no matter how strange it seemed at the time. Many farm projects seemed to us kids to be pointless and excessive, but the point often was in working together on common goal and getting our hands dirty in down to earth projects.It was great times back then, wrestling, Grateful Dead, Egypt, Mexico, London with the Beatles, and then came our families great tragedy; the University of Oregon wrestling van fell down an icy cliff, taking my brother Jed's life with it.
Soon after my wedding in 1990, dad purchased his second Further bus. All of the pranksters sprang back to true form and had the bus looking good and ready to roll in a matter of months. A couple years later Stephanie gave birth to our son. We named him Caleb,the name that my dad gave my brother Jed in his writings. Caleb took to his grandpa like a duck to water, and the two where inseparable. From his earliest days Caleb was a fixture on Further's new travels, almost a mascot. At the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland Ohio, Dad performed a special ceremony inducting Caleb as the youngest member of the Merry Band of Pranksters. The Pranksters played flutes and drums and Ken made a speech, and draped a banner and badge across Caleb, who did his best to keep a straight face as he joined the ranks of his heroes. Caleb was a mainstay on top of Further as it traveled the countryside in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland in 1999. Caleb has grown tall since then, and has accomplished much in music, writing, sports, and has excelled in the chess world winning multiple state championships and even a national title at the American Open Scholastic tournament this year.
We live just down the road from that farm I grew up on, where all the magic happened.
See my website http://www.key-z.com/ for excusive Kesey/Merry Prankster/Acid Test stuff... like: DVDs, Signed Posters, CDs, Signed Blotter Art, Books, Shirts, Photos, Writings...etc.
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