With nearly ten hours of music and kids swarming everywhere, Point Richmond’s First Annual Fall Fest was a huge success. There was a pumpkin patch, jumper, interactive entertainment for kids, a healthy eating cooking school, chili cook-off, wine and beer garden and much more.

I had a great time running the hayride, a big moneymaker for PRAM.

One surprise was bumping into David Pierce, perhaps Richmond’s most unusual mayor. In a 1979 “The Great Shark Hunt” passage available from Google Books, Hunter S. Thompson reported:

Another notable exception was David Pierce, a 30-year old lawyer who was actually elected mayor of Richmond, California (population 101,000 plus) in 1964. Pierce mustered a huge black ghetto vote – mainly on the basis of his lifestyle and his promise to “bust standard oil.” He served, and in fact ran, the city for three years – but in 1967 he suddenly abandoned everything to move to a monastery in Nepal. He is now in Turkey, en route to aspen and then California, where he plans to run for governor.

Me, David Pierce and David Vincent

I seem to run into Pierce somewhere at least once a year. He now lives in Bangkok and regaled us with tales of his pet baby elephant. I guess we just missed him there. The last time I saw him he was stark naked on a gravel bar of the Eel River at the Kate Wolf Music Festival in Laytonville, CA.