I loved that area. Telegraph Ave was a treat. I'd just go there on my own in my lovely 68 mustang. I'd walk all the way down telegraph until there were no people selling stuff, then walk all the way back...
I don't think I ever bought anything from the street vendors - I'm actually a poor consumer. Did you like the homemade jewelry? The henna tattooing, the tie-die t-shirts? I met one girl, in town for a free Grateful Dead show, selling magic wands - they were actually pretty cool looking. I almost bought a didgeridoo once.
Living within walking distance, I spent a lot of time in the used book stores and record shops. I don't even know how many slices of Blondie's pizza I've eaten. There were tons of nooks and crannies along there and just off on the side streets - Manuel's Mexican place for underage drinking, the basement at Blake's for pool and local garage rock, the basement at Leonard's Record's for foreign and other hard to find movie rentals, upstairs at Kip's for, well, all I ever got was a horrible pizza (turns out it's not that hard to make really lousy pizza, who knew?), the commie bookstore for free local kook posters for my collection, the place across from them with international newspapers and magazines, the Lhasa Karnak Herb Company, Shambala Books, the place selling bronze deities and other great stuff from India... All long gone. Well, except for the commie bookstore.
I'd usually go to the outdoor coffee shop up the street, across from the law school, but I'd go to Caffè Mediterraneum if it was raining - it always seemed like a place revolutions were being hatched..
