River Jude Bottom was born August 23rd, 1970 in Madras, Oregon on a farm

where parents John Lee Bottom and Arland Duntz were employed.

Arlen was born in the Bronx, New York,

to Jewish parents whose family had emigrated

from Russia and Hungary. John Lee was from Fontana, California,

a Catholic of English, German, and French ancestry.

In 1968, Arlen left home to travel across the United States.

While hitchhiking in Northern California, she met John Lee.

They married on September 13, 1969, less than a year after meeting.

The couple lived what could be described as a Bohemian lifestyle, which means they kind of lived in unconventional existence, often in the

company of like-minded people with few permanent ties. The lifestyle usually

involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits.

They may be described as wanderers or adventurers or vagabonds.

The term was first used to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished

artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors.

They may be associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment,

political, or social viewpoints, which are often expressed through free love,

frugality, and in some cases voluntary poverty.

A more economically privileged, wealthy, or aristocratic Bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as Hope bohem, literally meaning

high bohemia.

So the couple moved around often with their infant son.

Rivers' first name came from the River of Life in Hermann Hessa's book,

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