HIPPIE TALES FROM THE 70S by Rosalea

Where are all the old hippies hiding who won't share on this blog? My, how things have changed from the days when you roamed the halls of Rosalea's Hotel, higher than a kite!
I remember one farmer who had "outside" interests of many kinds. His crops weren't always wheat. He gated his property and kept a stash of guns and had a huge spotlight for the farm yard light. He sometimes did work for me at the hotel, but sometimes he didn't.....too high too function properly. Or he'd do work and it would be so messed up, I'd have to redo it myself. One night a nice looking, well-dressed woman appeared in the back hallway, startling me a bit as no one really knew how to come in the back way. When I jumped and made a comment, so did the woman, who has laughing hard--it was the farmer in drag, and he was obviously very comfortable in it.
I never involved myself with the drugs as I was scared to death of what they'd do to the body and the mind over time. But I didn't care what other people did, just as long as they'd get high before they checked in so the hotel would be clean in case of inspections (I understand there were some, but of course, nothing was there.) Knowing people as I do at this stage in life, I am sure some of them violated my request but I was too naive to realize it because I thought all people were still honorable. ha ha Have I learned a lot since those early naive years as a young Mennonite artistic innkeeper on the prairies!
It was such a vital time of society and now in retrospect, I realize how important Rosalea's Hotel was. At the time, I was just trying to maintain and eek out subsistence in a hostile community of hypocrites and rednecks. I loved the guests. I loved the input, the ideas, the creative minds, the free spirits. Sometimes they were far and few between, but they mattered so much. Now is the time to preserve Rosalea's Hotel (closed since the mid 80s after more hostile attacks by locals and I could no longer endure alone, and I moved to Kansas City) as an important moment in Time. (I returned in 1994 -- to another round of small town hell--stories for another time and place.)
Please share your TRUE stories of the Rosalea's Hotel era as future generations need to know--all of it!