Casey was a writer looking for his big break, and I was a young editor wanting to ride his coattails, but neither of us knew what to expect when we went to Hal's farm in Paso Robles, California, on the idyllic central coast. Hal Chase was one of the original beatniks, a man who fled from the world for his genius pursuits and to raise his family of nine, who were more like a tribe than anything to do with the nuclear family. Casey and I got our big break, but it wasn't what we expected.