"Jones! Are you trippin?"
"I don't know, man."
Jones and acid went together about as well as Jones and booze, which is to say not at all.
It was at a party in, I think, December of 1979 when I was home on leave after re-enlisting in the Army. It was snowing, anyway.
Someone had acid or 'shrooms. I forget which. Me, Vance, and Jones did them, Jones for the first time. He sat on his knees in staring at a coffee table, sweating like a pig.
Of course, it was hotter than hell in there. I'm thinking maybe we were trying to convince Jones that that was where he was, too.
Later on, Vance and I split, deciding to drive up to Sandia Crest. We were drunk and tripping. But about the time we hit Cedar Crest, where the snow was about 10 inches deep, and no one else had traveled the road, the hallucinogen wore off. Suddenly we were just drunk. Vance hit a slick spot and the truck spun a 180. He didn't seem to notice, and I thought it was best to not mention it.
I guess we made it home safe and sound, though I have no clear proof of that.
The 180 slide was our indicator that we had gone far enough up the mountain that night. I don"t think I said anything at that point as there was no need. I simply acted as if I had done the move on purpose and headed back. Rick and I left more than one party in those days. Our attention span was not long. I later learned to sit in one spot for hours and drink, but with Rick around, we didn't let the moss grow.There would be time for that after death.We felt the need to go "full tilt boogie" as it were in the day. Sometimes this style worked for us but a couple of times....well, you can guess. Once at some pub at Coronado Mall, we were listing to our new favorite bad, "the Bourban Brothers?" Somethig or another, anyway, these guys liked us cause we 'helped' them out during breaks. This translated into Rick and I ironically becoming the winners in every parlor/ bar game the band did. This meant we won free drinks. The last thing I remember was a Manager telling Rick, "your friend must maintain an upright position to remain in the bar." I quickly answered by rising up off the table(while at the same time knocking over Ricks drink and saying, "I'm fine. But I think I'd like to go to my truck now.") I woke sweating my ass off in the morning sun locked neatly away in my truck in the Mall parking lot. At my feet I found a scrawled note from Rick. 'You dirty pig fucker. The cops ran me off and made me walk home." Apparently, APD thought that while Rick was simply trying to move me over so he could drive, they thought he was trying to rob me.
ReplyDeleteA good friend will say, "wow, that sounded cool" While a great friend will write you a note calling you a pig fucker.
That was most certainly in my Hunter S. Thompson days.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the Bourbon Brothers. I'd forgotten about them.
And, yes, we did seem to leave a lot of parties early. There was a lot of obnoxious drunken behavior as we build up a massive karmic debt.
The story related by Vance was in the summer of 1979, in between my Army stints. I'd come back from Germany, a fat, scary looking freak. My parents had divorced while I was overseas -- I found out about it two weeks after the fact. I was kind of devastated. My mom (40 at the time)was running around with some jerk of a guy. My sister was freaking out over the divorce still, and no one was really dealing with it. I was drinking and smoking all night and sleeping until noon, and not looking for a job.
Plus I was stealing my mom's Darvon and a few other tranqs, and Vance and I were mixing them with mass quantities of alcohol. Not good.
The summer of 1979 was the Altamont of the Moonpie crew. We thought we'd gotten our freedom, but our freedom had gotten us. Whatever the fuck that means.