The Red People

The last time I was in Santa Cruz, I drove past the 'Red People' house on Mission Street. It's the place where followers of the Osho, Bagwhan Rajneesh lived. It was across the street from my Junior High, and we'd see them coming and going all day.

If you saw a group of folks wearing red outfits around town, in the days before gangs caught on, it usually meant they belonged to the Osho group. They would go onto form a giant commune in Oregon, and come under investigation for bio-terrorism, for poisoning salad bars in the area

I was inspired to work it into 1985 somehow, so, I put together this illustration of one of those encounters. Plus, the photo of the actual house now, which is a law office of some kind: