Paddy O’Sullivan

I met Paddy O’Sullivan in the mid 1980’s at La Honda’s Apple Jacks, a favorite hangout for all the local Santa Cruz mountain folks and many Bay Area adventurers. My girlfriend Syd and I would walk in and find an empty booth along the wall near the shuffle board and enjoy a brew. Often, we would welcome the company of a transplant from the North Beach beat poets of the 1950’s: Patty O’Sullivan. We would make room for Paddy and order a beer for him and we would talk with Paddy and listen to his stories. He seemed quite enamored with Syd and would recite poems for her.

In the late 1950’s, he wrote “Weep not my Children”, a poetic pamphlet containing several of his poems. I still have a signed copy. I remember him caring around a little note pad in his pocket. He would thumb through and quote from various writings. Sometimes he would write something down. That notepad seemed to always be a part of him.

Wes Rose, one of our University Park neighbors, remembers Paddy well. He met Paddy in La Honda. Wes says that a women, Barbara Lutz, had a used clothing store and she brought Paddy to La Honda in the late 1970s.. She later opened a dry goods store in La Honda. Meanwhile, Paddy seemed to bounce between North Beach where he had a lot of friends in there and then back down to La Honda. Wes remembers many years ago when he was up in SF near City Lights bookstore and Vesuvio’s when he spotted a group poster of North Beach poets up on the bar’s bulletin board. As Wes looked at the poster closer and closer he realized that one of them was Paddy. Wes some how managed to get the poster and gave it to Betty Nogues who in turn gave it to Paddy. Betty remembers this too. I am not sure what happened to that poster after Paddy got it.

Joe Cottonwood, a local La Honda resident, carpenter, and author, has an interesting and informative article on Paddy. Joe recounts some of the same memories I and others have, yet Joe is a much better writer and so worth reading.

No one knows the real story of how Paddy lost his right hand. Wes remembers Paddy saying that a tiger had bitten it off. This was the most common story, although others remember it was a crocodile. Also unknown was when it occurred. Patty had both hands in 1959 as seen in the video “Street Fair 1959” (see 1:15 where Paddy is shown in his feather hat).