Adding to the Janis Joplin story, two volunteers from Rick Shearer and my Pernambuco group -- Marv Packer and Josh Coburn --were at the Florida Annex also and spent the better part of Carnval with her partying. When they got back to Pernambuco, they told Rick Shearer and the rest of our ag co-op turma about this wild American. They had never heard of her as neither of them listened to rock and roll and had left the States in '67 before she reached her popularity. Those of us who had Big Brother and the Holding Company albums were pretty sick.
My own best memory of the Florida--besides the great breakfasts with fresh fruit every morning--was the warm muggy evening when I couldn't sleep in my Anexo room, and decided to take a walk down to the Flamengo beach around 2 AM. When I got down to the beach, I noticed the lights were on at the soccer field behind the beach. There was a group of young and middle aged men playing a very competitive soccer game; one of the goalies being a bare-chested, older, bald-headed, fat guy. It was a great game, one of the best soccer matches I saw in Brazil, and it was played from 2 to 4 in the morning by a bunch of regular Brazilian guys. I finally got back to my Anexo room around dawn, I didn't sleep much that night, but what the hell, you're only 23 once in your life and you're in Rio de Janeiro, a cidade maravilhosa.
John Reeder PE 69-72
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