on September 3, 2013
If 1963 marked the end of the DRAGNET generation then 1964 seemed to mark the beginning of the ‘hip’ generation. I say that because in 1964 the young people I met (high school seniors or less) were ‘hip’ to the war, ‘hip’ to the ‘system’, ‘hip’ to the ‘separate but equal’ fallacy, and ‘hip’ to pot. This was a lot of ‘hipness’ to come from one generation I remember thinking to myself, as I encountered young person after young person all expressing the same cosmic view on the dismal condition of the World. At first, like anyone from my generation, I looked at all these new views as unorthodox.
Not being a person to dismiss an argument just because I didn’t hold the same particular point of view however, I set to ponder just what this new group of youth was saying. Even as I contemplated their views, stories appeared in the newspapers and magazines that lent credence to the arguments that I was hearing. As I began to see the logic and truth to these points of view, cracks began to appear in the ‘truths’ that I had been raised up on. I began to see that a large part of my belief system was based on status quo, and that status quo was based on images of false possibilities.
To say that I revamped my views overnight would be totally false as I still find new knowledge on an almost daily basis. With the information explosion still going on through the expanding cable TV universe and now with the Internet, everyday new information comes to light to replace old erroneous notions and attitudes.
As I noted earlier, my attitude toward marijuana then was that it was to be avoided at all cost, since it would lead directly to becoming a heroin addict. In fact, in my high school health class it was stated that 85% of the heroin addicts had smoked marijuana cigarettes, the ‘gateway drug’ theory. This was a statistic that I spouted to my college roommate and his friends who gathered in my room one night to smoke some ‘grass’ in pipes and joints in late 1963. They stuffed towels under the door and around the windows so none of the smoke smell would escape. I remember wondering why they went to such pains as I sat down to work on my trig assignment that was due the next day.
As they stood in the middle of the room puffing away, I worked diligently on my assignment taking scant notice that the room was filling up with second hand smoke. In no time at all it began to resemble a pool hall back in the days when cigarette smoking was permitted indoors. When I finally solved the riddle of the last trig problem that was due, I experienced something that they never told me about in health class. I reached for my pencil to write down the equation and saw my hand float over to the writing instrument like it was attached to a helium filled balloon. Finishing the answer, my hand again floated back to release the pencil. My brain made a mental note of this as I went to my bed and settled in for the night’s sleep. I had experienced what I would later learn was called a ‘contact’ high. I did watch my roommate and his friends to see what ill effects would overtake them after their transgression. – end part 2
Not being a person to dismiss an argument just because I didn’t hold the same particular point of view however, I set to ponder just what this new group of youth was saying. Even as I contemplated their views, stories appeared in the newspapers and magazines that lent credence to the arguments that I was hearing. As I began to see the logic and truth to these points of view, cracks began to appear in the ‘truths’ that I had been raised up on. I began to see that a large part of my belief system was based on status quo, and that status quo was based on images of false possibilities.
To say that I revamped my views overnight would be totally false as I still find new knowledge on an almost daily basis. With the information explosion still going on through the expanding cable TV universe and now with the Internet, everyday new information comes to light to replace old erroneous notions and attitudes.
As I noted earlier, my attitude toward marijuana then was that it was to be avoided at all cost, since it would lead directly to becoming a heroin addict. In fact, in my high school health class it was stated that 85% of the heroin addicts had smoked marijuana cigarettes, the ‘gateway drug’ theory. This was a statistic that I spouted to my college roommate and his friends who gathered in my room one night to smoke some ‘grass’ in pipes and joints in late 1963. They stuffed towels under the door and around the windows so none of the smoke smell would escape. I remember wondering why they went to such pains as I sat down to work on my trig assignment that was due the next day.
As they stood in the middle of the room puffing away, I worked diligently on my assignment taking scant notice that the room was filling up with second hand smoke. In no time at all it began to resemble a pool hall back in the days when cigarette smoking was permitted indoors. When I finally solved the riddle of the last trig problem that was due, I experienced something that they never told me about in health class. I reached for my pencil to write down the equation and saw my hand float over to the writing instrument like it was attached to a helium filled balloon. Finishing the answer, my hand again floated back to release the pencil. My brain made a mental note of this as I went to my bed and settled in for the night’s sleep. I had experienced what I would later learn was called a ‘contact’ high. I did watch my roommate and his friends to see what ill effects would overtake them after their transgression. – end part 2
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