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Eric Janson's troubled youth led to his complete metamorphous in Last Chance Canyon. Eric, like many young people in the Sixties, had become entangled in a destructive lifestyle and was on a ruinous path. When Eric lost his close friend Sandy Apostolides in a tragic accident, he experienced an eye-opening revelation.
Eric and Sandy had been friends since they were 14, often coming to the canyon to visit Bickel with Sandy's father Alex Apostolides. Bickel took a major role in raising the boys properly. "It wasn't uncommon to hear our names followed by a string of cussing," Eric said when the salty old miner found the boys had been up to some youthful foolishness. "We had to learn to do things Walt's way, but he also gave us the freedom we needed to become men, and he loved us like sons."
In fact, all the young people who came to spend any time in the mining camp soon realized that a gruff admonishment from Bickel was his way of expressing love. Not only did Walt have many of his own grandchildren, he gladly took on the parent role for many like Eric and Sandy. For some of us, who were making foolish youthful decisions well into our early 30's, Bickel was always there to intervene with attitude adjustments.
Just before Eric graduated from high school, Sandy was killed in a freak accident while working on a friend's racecar. Eric spent the last day of his 18-year-old friend's life in the hospital with him. He said Sandy couldn't talk but was able to communicate with notes. They had been immortal young men, running like coyote pups in the Mojave Desert, and now they had reality to consider.
"Me, I took to escaping with LSD," Janson said of how he dealt with the loss. "I stayed stoned for a year making sandals up in Calabasas."
Janson said that one day he found himself in a drug cloud packing a duffel bag, unsure of why he was doing it or where he was going. As his head cleared, he realized he needed to go home. He begged the grandfather of one of his hippie friends to drive him all the way out to Last Chance Canyon where Walt greeted him like the prodigal son at the cabin door.
Alex had scattered his son's ashes on the mesa that is now, for that reason, called Sandy's Mesa. Eric told me once, he found himself hiking the mesa and talking to Sandy as if he were still alive. He said it was almost as if his friend's spirit was in the wind. His comment gave me a lyric line for Bickel's song; " I know a place where there's ages in the canyon rocks and spirits in the wind. I know a man who went in that canyon, and never came out again."
Janson's two years at the camp gave him the foundation needed for a steady productive life. Bickel taught Eric a number of useful machinist and mechanical skills. This mastery, he would someday use to support a family. He learned how to handle dynamite, and work safely in underground shafts. He helped Bickel make, repair, and maintain the ingenious mining equipment still seen around the camp today. Mostly, he became an expert at living a clean, hardworking life, and grew to be a far better man than he ever thought he could be.
When Eric married Andree, a French Algerian woman, in 1977, Walt Bickel donned a power-blue leisure suit to be his best man. Eric and Andree had two children, Christian and Valerie. They were eventually divorced and his wife moved to Oregon. Eric was left to raise the children and lived a number of years as a single parent.
"My children have grown," Janson said, "and they both will always remember Walt and Last Chance. Christian works in Hollywood as an audio engineer for a radio show. Valerie graduated from UCLA and works for MGM studios."
He took up the mandolin, and became an accomplished bluegrass musician, and played folk events all over the country. In fact, he wrote and played a mandolin composition for Bickel's funeral.
"When Walt passed away, his daughter Laura Ann, asked Tom Cody to do the service," Janson said. "To the tune of 'Ashoken Farwell' played on my mandolin, we walked to Sandy's Mesa. With his ashes scattered to the wind and not a dry eye among us, we said our goodbyes to an old friend."
Janson eventually became a Christian, and lives a quiet life near Lake Isabella. He's a motorcycle enthusiast, and often travels with his old friend Tom Cody. He works for Kern County and looks to retire soon.
"You know," Eric said, "Walt was my mentor and best friend, and sometimes we still talk. All I have to do is shut up, and listen to the wind."
Above Eric is shown with his son Christian. Christian is now grown and works in the movie industry.
Walt Bickel was Eric's best man for his 1977 wedding. Leisure suits and a good time was had by all.
Eric is shown sleeping on Sandy's Mesa with his son Christian in the late Seventies.
Taken in the early Seventies, this image shows Eric Janson hinking on Sandy's Mesa
Sandy's Mesa was named for Eric's best friend Sandy Apostolides who died young
and whose ashes were scattered in this mesa located behind Walt Bickel's cabin.
This image was likely taken in 1970 on an outting with Alika Herring.
At the table is Walt Bickel, Alika Herring, and Eric Janson, who was
then living with Bickel in Last Chance.
