Like most people my age much of my youth was spent in the pursuit of obtaining better and better drugs...... Much like today's average Korean student chases straight A+'s I chased A+ drugs...... I know, I know...you are saying...how revolting....today we see people who use drugs as the subject of celebrity rehab or drooling on camera for TMZ and then becoming a punchline for a bad joke.........but in the mid 70's kids who used drugs saw it as a social calling......
Today I just can't do drugs.....stopped when I was 20 (except for the odd toke about every 5 years.....and oh yeah...Cocaine in the 80's...but that's another chapter..) ...if I take a hit now I go stunned..........I have chosen this word to become a non-descriptive and used it as a danglingparticiple or homeless (?) word but really...I do go stunned.......3 tokes gives me 3 days of uninterrupted duh........I have long since grown out of wanting to be like that..........
But in 76 drugs were fun....really they were.....they were not some escape to Neverland but were a way of connecting with your fellow friend.......
A side effect of all this connecting was often a lot of stupid shit...but hey......great stories to tell the Grand kids......they will think you're a Loon....but all the more lovable.... (" Hey did you know that Granny was a pothead once....?" Really...I shit you not...!"....but I digress..)
There are times when the events that happened to you would not have been possible were it not for drugs......or at least I would like to think of it this way....
In the summer of 76, me, Victor, Ray Lasell and I think Mike Graff got into Victor's little Blue Ford Truck.....we went down to the beach and the area around Ft Rodd Hill in Victoria......Ft Rodd had been built late in the 19th century to defend us from Russian whalers or some such shit....hard to believe that in the 19th century a boatload of Vodka soused Russian whalers posed that much of a national threat but hey.......who am I to knock a Federal boondoggle like building a gigantic fort in the hinterlands ostensibly to defend Canada's sovereignty from whalers or other sports fishermen....but I digress.....
On the Ft Rodd land there are a bunch of gun emplacements.....at one time they held a giant Howitzer of some sort......loaded and ready to obliterate any whaler that came even close.....these guns were long gone...(having never fired a shot I might add...) and what was left was the bunkers....concrete a foot thick.......(all built to repulse drunk Russian whalers and their weapon of choice..... a Trebuchet loaded with Whale blubber.....) ...anyways
These buildings all had flat concrete roofs.......all of which was the perfect perch to lay upon on a hot summer night to watch the stars....talk with your friends and get away from parents......
On this night...we all got up on a bunkers roof.....beautifully warm......stars were out....it was an idyllic night.......so we sparked up adoobie....and laid around to commune....
For some reason....my inner dialogue was saying to me...you need to roll over and look straight up at the stars.......go ahead......you deserve it....
At the time I was laying on my right side with my head propped up and into my hand.....
These were big wide flat roofs........Ithought...or at least my inner dialogue told me......and that I had plenty of room with which to roll over on........However reality was a bit different...
I was laying on my side right along the edge of the roof....all of which was about 15 feet above the rocks below......
We were talking in low, quiet, nearly conspiratorial tones....everyone was in eye contact with each other as we lounged upon that roof.....
So.......in the midst of the conversation......my inner dialogue said...Hey rollover and look at the stars.....Ok I said...trust the inner voice.. (NOT!)
So as we all talked about life, love, dislikes and the future....I rolled over and off of the roof.....
Now sometimes..... moments will last forever...and this was one of those moments.......I remember being about halfway through the roll and I noticed everyone else's eyes had become as big as fried eggs.......I think a nano second later I was pretty sure I had done something wrong......but was not sure entirely what it was.....
As I continued to roll past the edge of the roof and to slowly plummet to sure death I had the strangest recollection of thinking...hmm..this is a really dumb way to die.......and then that intermniable float/plummet to the rocks below....
How is it that time can stretch....?....and why is it that time stretches at these moments.....?.these and other cosmic questions trotted through my head as I sped towards certain death or possible disfigurement.....
CRACK....!!!! I hit the bare, craggy rocks below.....silence........was I dead...? was I horribly maimed.....? I could only hear the sounds of whispers coming from the roof above......."he rolled off the roof...did you see it...he fucking rolled off the fucking roof..."...
I lay there.....not sure if I should move...
I then started to chuckle.......above me and peering over the ledge.... 15 feet away.... a pair of eyes looked over and then another...and another....like a small family of Raccoon's peering into the garbage can I saw Victor, Ray and Mike look down at me, blinking in silent disbelief........"Are you ok...?"
Today I just can't do drugs.....stopped when I was 20 (except for the odd toke about every 5 years.....and oh yeah...Cocaine in the 80's...but that's another chapter..) ...if I take a hit now I go stunned..........I have chosen this word to become a non-descriptive and used it as a danglingparticiple or homeless (?) word but really...I do go stunned.......3 tokes gives me 3 days of uninterrupted duh........I have long since grown out of wanting to be like that..........
But in 76 drugs were fun....really they were.....they were not some escape to Neverland but were a way of connecting with your fellow friend.......
A side effect of all this connecting was often a lot of stupid shit...but hey......great stories to tell the Grand kids......they will think you're a Loon....but all the more lovable.... (" Hey did you know that Granny was a pothead once....?" Really...I shit you not...!"....but I digress..)
There are times when the events that happened to you would not have been possible were it not for drugs......or at least I would like to think of it this way....
In the summer of 76, me, Victor, Ray Lasell and I think Mike Graff got into Victor's little Blue Ford Truck.....we went down to the beach and the area around Ft Rodd Hill in Victoria......Ft Rodd had been built late in the 19th century to defend us from Russian whalers or some such shit....hard to believe that in the 19th century a boatload of Vodka soused Russian whalers posed that much of a national threat but hey.......who am I to knock a Federal boondoggle like building a gigantic fort in the hinterlands ostensibly to defend Canada's sovereignty from whalers or other sports fishermen....but I digress.....
On the Ft Rodd land there are a bunch of gun emplacements.....at one time they held a giant Howitzer of some sort......loaded and ready to obliterate any whaler that came even close.....these guns were long gone...(having never fired a shot I might add...) and what was left was the bunkers....concrete a foot thick.......(all built to repulse drunk Russian whalers and their weapon of choice..... a Trebuchet loaded with Whale blubber.....) ...anyways
These buildings all had flat concrete roofs.......all of which was the perfect perch to lay upon on a hot summer night to watch the stars....talk with your friends and get away from parents......
On this night...we all got up on a bunkers roof.....beautifully warm......stars were out....it was an idyllic night.......so we sparked up adoobie....and laid around to commune....
For some reason....my inner dialogue was saying to me...you need to roll over and look straight up at the stars.......go ahead......you deserve it....
At the time I was laying on my right side with my head propped up and into my hand.....
These were big wide flat roofs........Ithought...or at least my inner dialogue told me......and that I had plenty of room with which to roll over on........However reality was a bit different...
I was laying on my side right along the edge of the roof....all of which was about 15 feet above the rocks below......
We were talking in low, quiet, nearly conspiratorial tones....everyone was in eye contact with each other as we lounged upon that roof.....
So.......in the midst of the conversation......my inner dialogue said...Hey rollover and look at the stars.....Ok I said...trust the inner voice.. (NOT!)
So as we all talked about life, love, dislikes and the future....I rolled over and off of the roof.....
Now sometimes..... moments will last forever...and this was one of those moments.......I remember being about halfway through the roll and I noticed everyone else's eyes had become as big as fried eggs.......I think a nano second later I was pretty sure I had done something wrong......but was not sure entirely what it was.....
As I continued to roll past the edge of the roof and to slowly plummet to sure death I had the strangest recollection of thinking...hmm..this is a really dumb way to die.......and then that intermniable float/plummet to the rocks below....
How is it that time can stretch....?....and why is it that time stretches at these moments.....?.these and other cosmic questions trotted through my head as I sped towards certain death or possible disfigurement.....
CRACK....!!!! I hit the bare, craggy rocks below.....silence........was I dead...? was I horribly maimed.....? I could only hear the sounds of whispers coming from the roof above......."he rolled off the roof...did you see it...he fucking rolled off the fucking roof..."...
I lay there.....not sure if I should move...
I then started to chuckle.......above me and peering over the ledge.... 15 feet away.... a pair of eyes looked over and then another...and another....like a small family of Raccoon's peering into the garbage can I saw Victor, Ray and Mike look down at me, blinking in silent disbelief........"Are you ok...?"
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