Ronald Schulz
RONALD SCHULZ was born in 1952 in Chicago. He dropped out to explore the Sixties radical counterculture before hitchhiking across Europe and Africa on a roundabout Buddhist pilgrimage to Nepal. Now a semi-retired hobo writing his honest history of those tumultuous times, he hopes to honor departed friends before he too vanishes from this Earthly paradise. He has taken advanced writing classes at the University of Washington and Hugo House. Ronald is a father of two, and grandfather of three, who believes in living life to the fullest, regardless of circumstances.
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Chicago Rage
Memoir
Free Love, Drugs, and Riots. A time in US history. A time of turmoil. And a time of unrest. A five-part memoir as seen through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Ron trying to earn enough money to continue his exploration of the emerging Counterculture, just after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. From the exploration of the underground culture of Chicago to the streets of New York, this recollection of the riots and first inter-racial romance tells of the trials we all face, even today. And then Karen entered his life - a young run-a-way with wild thoughts of tearing down Pig City. From freedom to jail, Ron must re-evaluate his life’s direction and to look at the world in a wider scope. Take an amazing journey through the memory of a man from another generation as he struggled to find his position in life–as most of the world is doing today. |
Home at the Edge
Memoir
In the tumultuous backdrop of the 1969 Chicago Haymarket riot, Ron, a spirited seventeen-year-old, finds himself trapped in Cook County jail. Upon his release, courtesy of his father's intervention, Ron's journey takes a detour through a mental institution. Here, amidst the backdrop of societal expectations, he encounters fellow "hippie-freaks" grappling with their identities. As they resist a program designed to mold them into societal norms, Ron's heartstrings are tugged by the enigmatic Marge, a love that remains tantalizingly out of reach. A serendipitous discovery of the graves from the original Haymarket riot offers Ron and Pete a profound connection to the past, bridging generations of revolutionaries. But life outside isn't any simpler. Amidst love affairs thwarted by institutional powers, a chilling encounter with a Satanist lover, and the haunting specter of friends lost to their inner demons, Ron's resilience is tested. With the weight of lost loves and the looming draft, Ron's spirit remains unbroken. His adventures, from selling underground paraphernalia to confronting the harsh realities of a society in flux, paint a vivid portrait of a young man's journey in a transformative era as he grapples with love, loss, and the pull of revolution. |
Party at the End of the Rainbow
Memoir
The Party at the End of the Rainbow is a creative nonfiction memoir that reads like a novel. Released from jail and the asylum in 1970, Ron turns eighteen and gets his draft card, but he can never betray his convictions or cut his hair and join the straight society. From Rock Concert to gritty city streets, Ron hits the road and finds wild love and wilder sex, along with betrayal. Ron and his wild, tree-hugging band of saboteur friends fight back against the Establishment from the first Earth Day school walkout until he joins the White Panthers, whose motto is, "Dope, Rock 'n' Roll And Fucking in the Streets!" This memoir is a sequel to CHICAGO RAGE, and he is working on more to follow about his adventures when he ran away to New Orleans at 15, communal life in the frozen north, and traveling the world on the cheap to spend nine months in a Buddhist Monastery. |
Spirit Quest 1969: Tripping Through Lands of Enchantment
Memoir
Spirit Quest 1969: Tripping Through Lands of Enchantment, is the true tale of a disaffected suburban kid hitchhiking through western America to discover the counterculture communes in 1969. In 1969, when he was seventeen years old, Ronald dropped out of high school near Chicago to explore the counterculture in the Rocky Mountains. After taking a huge dose of LSD, he wandered into the Navajo reservation seeking supernatural visions, meeting missionaries and students of Indian lore. He joined a group marriage commune in Taos at the height of the Hippie-Chicano conflict. The domineering personalities he found in communal life disappointed him, but the concept of living together in non-monogamous families inspired him to continue working to improve the concept. Low on cash, Ron decided to return to the city to earn enough money to continue exploring the street scene and New Left world in Chicago and New York, which will soon appear as a follow-up book. |