Squeaky: Part 19

The scariest thing I've learned so far about Squeaky? I can totally understand how she fell in love with Charles Manson. I'm not talking about the off the wall grizzly bear, rotting in a jail cell today, I'm talking about the zen hippie lover she met 40 years ago. I mean first of all, look at that cowboy! And he knew how to make his women feel good, he was honest with them, and apparently terrific in bed. But most importantly, early on, he actually had some damn good ideas and philosophies about life!

One account really struck me. Charlie and the girls pick up a hitchhiker. After talking for a moment, Charlie offers to trade the guy all the money in his pocket for all the money in his own. The guy refuses repeatedly. Then Charlie asks the guy how much he has. $3.75. And Charlie? He whips out a roll of twenties, totally about a thousand dollars. Explaining why he would've made the trade, Charlie said:

"This stuff's not important. There's no security in it. The security's in you. See as long as you hang on to it like that, that's all you got."

Lyn mused later, "[People like the hitchhiker] will die clutching their high school rings, with a bank-full of money and yesterday's papers stashed in the garage- still unsatisfied. They will wonder why their life was unfulfilled, and hope to go to heaven, when they could have made a heaven right here, would that they feel the pleasure of giving."

Amen.