Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Furthur on down the road
Back in my sleepy lil chill town.... We would almost religiously gather at the Majik tree. Whether it was to smoke, hacky sack or just plain chill. It was there I met some of the most random of people. I had learned of a place in the ghetto called The Hippie Hotel. A lot of the people I met lived there. This place was a huge boarding house in the middle of Crack Town. I think it had like 6 bedrooms 2 kitchens and I am not quite sure how many bathrooms. It was filled with musicians, dealers, poets and artist. 2-3 to a room. This is where D. met the Pumkin Gods. Flea fell off the 2nd story balcony. HBG would play in the kitchen. Some girls dad showed up with a shotgun. A few of us from the house would go out Shroomin every night. We would bring back copious amounts. Lay them on huge sheets of paper and dry them out for sale. We even tried to grow mushrooms in the attic. The Cops had heard we had an acid lab. When they arrived and searched they found a bucket full of cow shit with one lil shroom poking out. As I had said before, I dated a cops daughter. Before they showed up she let me know not to go home. I was already tripping on shrooms when I heard so i kinda freaked. I need somewhere to go. Who could I call? Who would help me? G.! That's who. Now this was before every one had cell phones. But I did know where he was. He was doing a show. That's where I am going to go! I arrive at the venue and realize I am walking into a church. This really fucked with my head.I kept thinking that God was going to strike me down. I used the Church phone and ended up breaking up with my girlfriend because I would drag her to hell with me. I was crying....and lonely. Then the play was over and after what seemed an eternity came G. I told G. of my situation and of course he sympathized. Who wouldn't sympathize with someone that had God knows how many shrooms,1 gram of hash, 4 hits of acid and 1/2 oz of bud? So we decided to get out of town for a few days and go to Orlando. There we laid low and let the heat cool.
Gainsville Green
So I had my first real taste of the whole Hippie scene. It was good, bad and rockin. I believe watching this show created a hunger for live music. My buddy M. and I had heard of this festival in Gainesville called the Alachua County Music Harvest. 2 Days of Music and camping. So we loaded up my 1986 Volkswagen Golf and headed out. The ride there I don't really remember but I remember rain. It let up as we arrived and stayed away for a good while. We set up the old blue canvas A-Frame tent and smoked a phatty and headed out. We got to the field just as Spider Monkey taking the stage. The were a local band that did well but never made it quite as well as they had hoped. Their live show was sick! Then came De La Soul and they tore it up and to finish the night George Clinton phunked it up. I remember dancing in the mud and believing I was at home. The show ended and on the way back to camp the skies opened up once more. We huddled in the tent and smoked till the tent turned green. I awoke at around 4:30 in the morning to our tent being flooded with a couple of inches of water. As I went to wake up M. I notice a furry critter in the tent. I took my flashlight and low and behold a dog had adopted us for the night. Where did this dog come from and why us? I guess we will never know.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Like I said I was HOOKED!
Like I said.... I was hooked! All I could think about was how open my mind had become. I was going to open all of my friends minds also. We would all hang out at J.'s house. He was slightly younger than I but into the same things. We would all gather at his house and partake of this mind blowing thing called acid. We would listen to The Cure, The Smiths and The Doors. We would write poetry and think we had it all figured out. We would believe we were invisible or that the grass was talking to us. We would watch each others faces contort and the walls would melt. We would go into the historic district and go insane among the tourist. I had finally gotten my sense of style. I would wear a psychedelic T-shirt with plaid short, a pair of OX Blood Doc Martins and Rainbow socks. Oh yeah I was fuckin cool.
I would skip school in my senior year and go to M.'s house. He had graduated and his mom was a teacher so she was not there during school hours. I would go around to his bedroom window and knock and knock and knock. The I would say, "Hey, I have a joint!" I would hear him reply, "meet me at the door". You could hear him scuffling through the house and hear the heavy wooden door creek slowly open and here he stood in his tighty whities asking where the joint was. Then I would have to break the news I had none, it was my way of getting him out of bed. We would sit around watching MTV and finally walk the long walk to downtown. We would walk into the ghetto to go to corner store since it was the only one that would sell quarts of malt liquor to us kids of 16. We would go and drink it at the gazebo. Then the rest of the downtown rats would come and join. The cops would run us off after a while. We would move spots over to the Majik Tree. We would sit and talk and goof off. Then when the time was right we would go in search of acid.
When we had acid it was as if the world did not matter for we were creating our own. We had our own set of rules and systems. We watched out for each other. With nothing but love to save us. We would go and hang out at the local Head Shop. The owner was this really cool Dead Head. He would show us pipes bongs and pictures. The artwork on the walls was amazing.
Then one day out of the blue he got robbed. I get a phone call at my house. It was the owner telling me he knew I had robbed him. BULL SHIT! I explained that he had my name but was obviously confused on who I was. So I offered to meet him and show him that I was Henry but not the person he thought I was. So we met up for coffee at the local Head Coffee Shop and he agreed. I was not who he was thinking. He then told me he was going to see Jerry Garcia in Hampton VA. He told me that if I wanted to go he would buy my ticket and give a ride. All I had to do was sell T-shirts he had made! Let me tell you he made some bad ass shirts!
Now I had never been to a Dead Show before, so I had no idea of what to expect. When we get to Lot it was a fucking circus. I had never seen anything like it. People juggling fire sticks and playing Djembe drums. I was totally in shock! At the same time I was totally in love with it. He gave me a handful of shirts and sent me on my way. I was way too busy taking in the scene to sell these shirts. I could hear music coming from every direction. You could not get away from the sound of the Nitrous tanks filling the air. The sun fell and the owner found me wandering and said it 's time to go in. On our way in we stopped and smoked and took some acid and found a few balloons. For those of you who have never done a whip-it, it is laughing gas. Only not in the dentist office. I think I burned a few billion brain cells that night. When we arrived inside, I was trippin nuts! I watched the whole show in amazement. After the show we went and slept in the truck while the others slept in a hotel. We had to protect the merchandise. The owner said he was running to the bar and would return. When he returned it was with Tanqueray. We sat and talked and drank. We did not have tickets for the next night but stayed on lot to sell. When we found our buddy he had nothing with him. He said an officer arrested him for peddling without a license. When we studied the citation there was a court date set for Thanksgiving. We were duped.
I would skip school in my senior year and go to M.'s house. He had graduated and his mom was a teacher so she was not there during school hours. I would go around to his bedroom window and knock and knock and knock. The I would say, "Hey, I have a joint!" I would hear him reply, "meet me at the door". You could hear him scuffling through the house and hear the heavy wooden door creek slowly open and here he stood in his tighty whities asking where the joint was. Then I would have to break the news I had none, it was my way of getting him out of bed. We would sit around watching MTV and finally walk the long walk to downtown. We would walk into the ghetto to go to corner store since it was the only one that would sell quarts of malt liquor to us kids of 16. We would go and drink it at the gazebo. Then the rest of the downtown rats would come and join. The cops would run us off after a while. We would move spots over to the Majik Tree. We would sit and talk and goof off. Then when the time was right we would go in search of acid.
When we had acid it was as if the world did not matter for we were creating our own. We had our own set of rules and systems. We watched out for each other. With nothing but love to save us. We would go and hang out at the local Head Shop. The owner was this really cool Dead Head. He would show us pipes bongs and pictures. The artwork on the walls was amazing.
Then one day out of the blue he got robbed. I get a phone call at my house. It was the owner telling me he knew I had robbed him. BULL SHIT! I explained that he had my name but was obviously confused on who I was. So I offered to meet him and show him that I was Henry but not the person he thought I was. So we met up for coffee at the local Head Coffee Shop and he agreed. I was not who he was thinking. He then told me he was going to see Jerry Garcia in Hampton VA. He told me that if I wanted to go he would buy my ticket and give a ride. All I had to do was sell T-shirts he had made! Let me tell you he made some bad ass shirts!
Now I had never been to a Dead Show before, so I had no idea of what to expect. When we get to Lot it was a fucking circus. I had never seen anything like it. People juggling fire sticks and playing Djembe drums. I was totally in shock! At the same time I was totally in love with it. He gave me a handful of shirts and sent me on my way. I was way too busy taking in the scene to sell these shirts. I could hear music coming from every direction. You could not get away from the sound of the Nitrous tanks filling the air. The sun fell and the owner found me wandering and said it 's time to go in. On our way in we stopped and smoked and took some acid and found a few balloons. For those of you who have never done a whip-it, it is laughing gas. Only not in the dentist office. I think I burned a few billion brain cells that night. When we arrived inside, I was trippin nuts! I watched the whole show in amazement. After the show we went and slept in the truck while the others slept in a hotel. We had to protect the merchandise. The owner said he was running to the bar and would return. When he returned it was with Tanqueray. We sat and talked and drank. We did not have tickets for the next night but stayed on lot to sell. When we found our buddy he had nothing with him. He said an officer arrested him for peddling without a license. When we studied the citation there was a court date set for Thanksgiving. We were duped.
Monday, March 15, 2010
How do I begin?
I never thought of myself as a blogger or anything of the sort. Maybe I am doing this for self therapy... Hmmm...
A lot of things lately have come back from the past. Mostly memories and friends that cause those memories to come rushing back like a flood of sunshine, shit and giggles. I have done a lot of traveling and met many people. I have lived in a tent a car a bus and even slept using the stars as a blanket. I have 3 children and 1 whom I dearly wish was mine. My boy is 5 and my girls are 3. (they are twins) All 3 have the same birth date. I am divorced and at present moment separated from my last lover. I am not down on life because I know me and how I work. I will make the best of any situation. i do not wallow in self pity nor do I like to hear others that do. If I don't like my fucking life, only I can change it.
Now that I am older(34), I look back and can analyze what I have done. Truth be told, I have done a lot more than most people. When I was 15 I started doing community theatre. We were doing a production of Oliver Twist. I was in that stage where I was too old to hang out with the kids and too young to hang with the adults. Then there was one very nice woman who let me hang with her. I had a huge crush on her, but of course she was taken. She would invite me out to party with the adults for the "after show". We would go to the local bar and since I was in full costume and make up they did not realize i was under age. So I would have a couple of drinks and enjoy listening to what the adults had to say. Then one night at a cast party, I was sitting on a couch by myself when i was approached by a man. We will Just call him G. He said to me' " I don't usually distribute to minors but here". He handed me a pipe. I had never smoked weed before so I was not really sure what to do. So I took a huge puff of green smoke into my lungs and held it until I coughed. I did that a few times. Then my world was rocked! I remember giggling until my sides hurt. It seemed at that point the party got so much better.
I did not see G. again for many months. That is until I went to a Civil War reenactment. We stopped to pick someone up and guess who? G! We had had a blast. We were camping out smoking and laughing. Here i was 15 chillin with adults. I was cool! After the weekend, we exchanged numbers and began to hang out. A lot! I would crash at his place smoke weed and get drunk. We would go to see theatre and white trash parties. I got so drunk I would pass the fuck out.
Then I met K. she was a cute lil blond. A friend introduced us. I was in love. She was getting into the whole Goth thing and since she was, you better be damn sure I was too. She introduced me to pills like Valium and such. Her dad was a cop but for some reason liked me. They would take me on family trips and let me spend holidays with them. Little did they know that I was banging their daughter. If we weren't around I was finger bandging or getting head and trying to act like I knew what I was doing in the sack. K. had introduced me to this guy M. He was a few years older than I but very cool. We would all go to Einstein A-Go-Go. It was a Goth friendly club We would go and request songs from The Dead Milkmen, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Mudhoney. M. and I became very close friends. One night M. and this other dude S. came and picked me up from work and we went to our dealers house. He told us he had some acid. M and S had done it before and I not wanting to look like a pussy bought 2 hits. It was these tiny little squares of paper they called "Purple Lotus". I thought " yeah right this won't get me high". So I stuck these squares of paper under my tongue like they had instructed. I kept thinking that I was not getting off. Then we hit Ponte Vedra Beach. As soon as I stood up out of the cramped car my life changed. I saw everything in 3-D. I would see lights pass in front of my eyes a thousand times. I had the most profound thoughts and uncontrollable happiness. We ran along the beach for hours. Chasing the lights and dodging the stars. My footprints would glow in the incandescent seaweed. The universe and I were one. We listened to Hendrix on the way home saw the music dancing on the windshield. Then after the tape was over we realized we had not moved. We then made it back to town. They dropped me off at my parents house. I slowly snuck in the front door and was playing Laser Tag with the flashing lights off of the VCR. When I finally made it back to my room I could not fall asleep. I would close my eyes and see beautiful colors folding into themselves. I learning the meaning of life in a picture. The words on the newspaper were marching down the page like a well formed ant invasion. I was hooked!
A lot of things lately have come back from the past. Mostly memories and friends that cause those memories to come rushing back like a flood of sunshine, shit and giggles. I have done a lot of traveling and met many people. I have lived in a tent a car a bus and even slept using the stars as a blanket. I have 3 children and 1 whom I dearly wish was mine. My boy is 5 and my girls are 3. (they are twins) All 3 have the same birth date. I am divorced and at present moment separated from my last lover. I am not down on life because I know me and how I work. I will make the best of any situation. i do not wallow in self pity nor do I like to hear others that do. If I don't like my fucking life, only I can change it.
Now that I am older(34), I look back and can analyze what I have done. Truth be told, I have done a lot more than most people. When I was 15 I started doing community theatre. We were doing a production of Oliver Twist. I was in that stage where I was too old to hang out with the kids and too young to hang with the adults. Then there was one very nice woman who let me hang with her. I had a huge crush on her, but of course she was taken. She would invite me out to party with the adults for the "after show". We would go to the local bar and since I was in full costume and make up they did not realize i was under age. So I would have a couple of drinks and enjoy listening to what the adults had to say. Then one night at a cast party, I was sitting on a couch by myself when i was approached by a man. We will Just call him G. He said to me' " I don't usually distribute to minors but here". He handed me a pipe. I had never smoked weed before so I was not really sure what to do. So I took a huge puff of green smoke into my lungs and held it until I coughed. I did that a few times. Then my world was rocked! I remember giggling until my sides hurt. It seemed at that point the party got so much better.
I did not see G. again for many months. That is until I went to a Civil War reenactment. We stopped to pick someone up and guess who? G! We had had a blast. We were camping out smoking and laughing. Here i was 15 chillin with adults. I was cool! After the weekend, we exchanged numbers and began to hang out. A lot! I would crash at his place smoke weed and get drunk. We would go to see theatre and white trash parties. I got so drunk I would pass the fuck out.
Then I met K. she was a cute lil blond. A friend introduced us. I was in love. She was getting into the whole Goth thing and since she was, you better be damn sure I was too. She introduced me to pills like Valium and such. Her dad was a cop but for some reason liked me. They would take me on family trips and let me spend holidays with them. Little did they know that I was banging their daughter. If we weren't around I was finger bandging or getting head and trying to act like I knew what I was doing in the sack. K. had introduced me to this guy M. He was a few years older than I but very cool. We would all go to Einstein A-Go-Go. It was a Goth friendly club We would go and request songs from The Dead Milkmen, Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Mudhoney. M. and I became very close friends. One night M. and this other dude S. came and picked me up from work and we went to our dealers house. He told us he had some acid. M and S had done it before and I not wanting to look like a pussy bought 2 hits. It was these tiny little squares of paper they called "Purple Lotus". I thought " yeah right this won't get me high". So I stuck these squares of paper under my tongue like they had instructed. I kept thinking that I was not getting off. Then we hit Ponte Vedra Beach. As soon as I stood up out of the cramped car my life changed. I saw everything in 3-D. I would see lights pass in front of my eyes a thousand times. I had the most profound thoughts and uncontrollable happiness. We ran along the beach for hours. Chasing the lights and dodging the stars. My footprints would glow in the incandescent seaweed. The universe and I were one. We listened to Hendrix on the way home saw the music dancing on the windshield. Then after the tape was over we realized we had not moved. We then made it back to town. They dropped me off at my parents house. I slowly snuck in the front door and was playing Laser Tag with the flashing lights off of the VCR. When I finally made it back to my room I could not fall asleep. I would close my eyes and see beautiful colors folding into themselves. I learning the meaning of life in a picture. The words on the newspaper were marching down the page like a well formed ant invasion. I was hooked!
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