The Thomas Fire - A Silver Lining
Buzz Glasky
On December 4, 2017, Manager/Caretakers Buzz and Ginger Glasky evacuated with their Airsteam travel trailer to Oceano, CA, because the Thomas Fire had forced them to leave Meher Mount.
Buzz and Ginger continued to stay in Oceano during fire cleanup and recovery, often traveling three to four hours to and from Meher Mount. Before they left Oceano in late May, a number of followers of Meher Baba visited them and the Dunite museum with Gavin Arthur's house, where Meher Baba had spent the night in 1934.
On December 11, 2017, Buzz posted this story on Facebook about their stay in Oceano.
SUNRISE ON THE OCEANO DUNES. Buzz and Ginger Glasky, after evacuating from Meher Mount in December 2017, parked their Airsteam Trailer next to the Oceano Dunes in Oceano, CA. (Photo: Buzz Glasky, February 19, 2018)
BY BUZZ GLASKY
So every cloud does indeed have a silver lining. We evacuated Meher Mount on Sulphur Mountain Road to downtown Ojai; evacuated Ojai to Santa Barbara; and evacuated Santa Barbara to Oceano, 90 miles north, to outrun the fire, smoke, and ash.
There is a little museum in Oceano that is only open two hours a week, and we made it for the last hour. Mark, the docent, gave us a great tour, but it didn't take him long to figure out we were here for Meher Baba. To that end, he gave us a tour of Gavin Arthur's, a Dunite, house where Baba spent the night in 1934. Going in the house is not part of the "normal" tour!
Mark has done so much work to restore the house to its original condition, new foundation, repainted the interior with original colors, and landscaping with plants the Dunite's used for tea and flowers.
An account of Meher Baba's visit to Oceano in 1934:
“On 26 December 1934 Baba, with the mandali, Norina, Elizabeth, Ruano, Nadine and the others, made the almost four-hour drive to Oceano in three cars, arriving at 3:30 in the afternoon.
A physician, Dr. Rudolf W. Gerber, lived in Oceano with his family. Baba stopped first at his home and the doctor accompanied the party to the dunes.
Baba and the men mandali occupied Gavin’s cabin and the others stayed in other nearby ones. It was quite cold at night but one of the inhabitants (George Blais), whose habits resembled a sadhu’s, merely wrapped a shawl around himself and covered himself with a blanket of newspapers when he slept.
Baba and the mandali passed an uncomfortable night in the cold, with no heaters in their cabin. (They had been told not to burn the kerosene lanterns for long, lest the poisonous fumes accumulate in the closed cabin.)
Baba granted interviews that day to those living nearby. Among them were Marian Thorp, who stayed at the colony in the cottage that had been built for Baba, and Hugo Seelig, a poet and kabbalist, who was interested in developing higher consciousness. Baba explained certain aspects of lust, anger and greed, which Seelig had been confused about and wanted clarified.”
More Information on Meher Baba’s Visit to the Dunites
To read more information about Meher Baba's 1934 visit to the Dunites in Oceano, CA, see the story "Mystery of the Dunites," by Valerie McKean from Glow International, published in February 2005.
There's a short article, "The Dunites: Building a Utopia in the Oceano Dunes," by Sarah Linn, published on the KCET website on July 7, 2013. It mentions Meher Baba's visit and shows the cabin where Meher Baba stayed.
Norm Hammond, who helped organize the Dunite museum at the Oceano Train Depot, has written a book, The Dunites.
BUZZ AND GINGER GLAKSY with the restored house of Arthur Gavin in the background. Gavin was part of the Dunite group living in the dunes at Oceano when Avatar Meher Baba visited and spent the night in that house in 1934.