Lassie's Mom and The Stony Brook People

While we were playing at the Factory in Beverly Hills, CA we met June Lockhart (known to most of our contemporaries as Lassie’s Mom). http://www.junelockhart.com/. She often came to the Factory for dinner with her daughter, Anne (best known for her role as Lt. Sheba on Battlelstar Galactica). One evening, June approached us and told us how much she enjoyed our music. She asked if we would like to come to her house for her birthday party. Of course, we accepted happily. Her “house” was actually a penthouse in a huge high-rise building on the Pacific Palisades, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. When we all arrived in Eddie’s red Chevy van, the guard at the gate was not inclined to let us in. After a phone call to June’s penthouse we were grudgingly admitted. People just didn’t like hippies in those days, I guess. We went up to June’s penthouse and as we entered we realized that it was one of those “Hollywood” parties full of people who were “in the business”. We really didn’t know any of those people and they couldn’t care less about us, so we retreated outside to the rather large balcony and enjoyed the view of the ocean. A little while later, Anne (who was in her teens at that time) came out and invited us to come and hang out in her room. A few of us went with her and did hang out for a while. Before long, the party was breaking up and we thought it best to leave, even though we hadn’t been able to talk with June very much. As we got to the door, June ran over and told us not to leave and please wait while she changed her clothes. She was wearing a very lovely evening dress at the time. All the other guests had left the party and we just sat around in the living room, waiting for June to reappear. And what an entrance she made!!! There was Lassie’s Mom in an oversized t-shirt that reached almost to her ankles and on that t-shirt was a painting of a naked woman from the neck down (you can imagine how that looked with June’s head sticking out on top)!!! To say we were surprised would be a total understatement. She thanked us for waiting and sat down with us on the floor. She showed us a book she liked that, as I remember, was about diseases or something weird like that. We hung out and talked for quite a while and she was totally gracious and down-to-earth. Eventually, we had to leave and she went down to our truck to see us off. In the parking lot she showed us how to whistle by pulling out her lower lip and sucking air inwards. And a piercing whistle it was too! All in all it was a magical evening with one of my favorite TV stars and certainly something most people don’t have the opportunity to experience.