Now! Day, Haight Street, Dec. 17, 1966
Photography by Gene Anthony

Agrarian communists: that’s how the Encyclopedia Britannica defines the Diggers of 1690. San Franciscans of the 1960s had their Diggers too, who were equally, amusingly, and earnestly convinced that the many could live off the leavings of the few, that waste is a resource and that money is an unnecessary bit of baggage. Of course, it should be noted that the Diggers of San Francisco had little to begin with and were free-spirited free thinkers who started off providing free food for the huge numbers of hungry Haight Ashbury pilgrims who found their Mecca in the music and counter-establishment of the moment. Their vision of a classless society unfettered by social authority did not, however, prevent the Diggers from collecting money or burning it to make a point. Now! Day arose from an acute need to raise bail money for two favorite Hell’s Angels. The atmosphere in San Francisco was more benign in the mid-sixties than it would become later in the decade; even a few policemen tossed money into the open-coffin collection plate, and many of the photographs that capture this day’s relative innocence were taken by superb photographer-on-the-spot, Gene Anthony.

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