Personal Life
From 1970 to 1976, Cottonwood worked as a computer operator in St. Louis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Mountain View, California. Since 1976 Cottonwood has worked in the building trades as carpenter, plumber, and electrician and eventually became a general contractor doing house repairs. Since 1978 he has lived in the small mountain town of La Honda, California where he and his wife have raised three children. Cottonwood has said, "I used to bristle at being called a hippie but now I'm proud to be called an Old Hippie. La Honda is no longer the Acid Test/ Hell's Angel hangout of the Sixties, but it is still full of cranks, dreamers, and a few astonishing outlaws."
Cottonwood is the co-host of a La Honda tradition known as Lit Night, which is a monthly literary gathering in a bar with an open mic for locals to read their own or other people's works before a live, somewhat lubricated audience. The literary works range from cowboy poetry to Shakespearean drama. Their motto: "Get Lit!"
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