I-Thou was a coffee shop in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Jessica Willamy took Ben and Polly there in January 1967 soon after they met. There, she told the time travellers the full story of her relationship with the then-missing Denny Glass.
In her middle age, Jess described it thus, in part:
- "You could always count on seeing life at the I-Thou. Some beat poet dreaming he was Allen Ginsberg ... a chick sway[ing] to music no one else could hear ... beards, long hair, tie-dye, camouflage, denim, beads, bangles, smoke, voices filled with passion, hope, politics, freedom. It was blast, the Haight in essence, everything I valued." (PROSE: Wonderland)
Behind the scenes[]
- Wonderland consistently renders the name of the joint as I-Thou. Real world sources more typically have it to be I/Thou.
- The name of the shop derives from a philosophical movement started in the 1920s through the publication of the book, I and Thou.
External links[]
- Map of Haight-Ashbury in January 1967, showing location of I-Thou