ergonaut
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2006
- Messages
- 23
I was a cool fall afternoon as Paul, Robert, and I walked through the
gates of Bear Creek Park in southwest Denver. We had walked down to the
park as we had done so often to procure some pot for the approaching
sunset. There were numerous cars lining the roadway beside the main
field and as always there were many cars with lone occupants. As we
would walk along the grass down the row of cars the occupants of those
cars would quietly, slightly above a whisper, give inventory of what was
available.
"Snow?" One guy said.
"Blonde Leb?" Said another.
We were looking only for a couple of joints of brown Mexican so
we'walked on down the hall,' so to speak and we came to a car and the dude
inside smiled and said "Trips?" Well I had never tripped before and
neither had Robert, but Paul had done so the summer before while in
Austria. My interest had been peeked by Paul's musings so I slowed and
approached the car window. The guy in the car showed me the Camel
cigarette pack with about a two by three inch sheet of paper slipped in
side the cellophane. On each perforated square was a blue line drawing
of a dragon in flight. When he stated that they were three dollars a hit
I nervously told him I would take three. I leaned in and we made the
exchange. I walked quickly to catch up with the boys and we finished
making out rounds of this open-air drug market. As we walked down the
path towards the back of the park we began to take inventory of what all
we had got. Paul had bought ten black beauties, Robert, a quarter gram
of coke and a dime of seedy brown bud. And then there was me not quite
sure what I was in possession of. The sunset was rather beautiful aided
by the four or five joints we smoked. That sunset, however, paled in
comparison to every sunset that has come since.
Back at home, after dinner with my parents and my brother, I went up to
my room to get high. I took the three hits of Blue Dragon and placed
them on the desk in front of me. I took a few hits from my pipe and blew
the smoke out the window. I settled down with a magnifying glass to have
a closer look at the hits. I was excited to try them but wasn't sure
about doing them with my family right downstairs. It didn't take long
for me to talk myself into it by telling myself that if I got too high
or conspicuous I would just say goodnight and retire for the evening. I
picked up the tiny innocuous strip of three and placed them under my
tongue. I turned off the light in my room and went downstairs to the
family room to watch TV. Mum and Dad were in there watching an old movie
with Humphrey Bogart and Fred Mac Murray called 'The Caine Mutiny.' I
grabbed a blanket and snuggled down on the couch beside my mother.
Twenty or thirty minutes or so went by and I was starting to get anxious
that surely something must have been happening by now. I got up and went
to the kitchen to get a Coke. My knees felt kind of tense and weak and I
became aware that I really couldn't see myself actually drinking my
drink. I never the less poured the soda and returned to my spot on the
couch. By this point I was completely lost in regard to the movie. I was
more taken by my strange reflection in the double paned window. I
realised that this must be what I have been waiting for. I tried to
watch the movie for a short eternity but it just looked too contrived. I
was quickly beginning to wonder if perhaps I really should be 'getting
off to bed!' I quickly said goodnight and made a b-line for the stairs.
By the time I got to my room and closed the door behind me my heart was
racing and I thought my brain was gonna explode! In a good way of
course. I dragged the phone over to my bed and laid down and tried to
dial Paul. No answer. I turned on the small portable TV that I had and
tried to calm down. The acid was coming on in waves. Each wave felt more
immersive than the one before. I found a show, picked most likely
because of the colours of the background. I pulled the covers up under
my chin and began to look around my room. On my walls were the usual
posters of a teenaged boy. The familiar green Giza pyramid scene from
The Dark Side of the Moon album, Cheryl Tiegs in the pink bikini, etc.
Then I saw the ceiling! Oh my God! My everyday stippled ceiling swirled
and whirled above me like a demonized Japanese woodcut puzzle. I must
have watched that show go on for hours until I noticed the drapes. Let
me tell you my friends the drapes were totally moving -flowing as if
being blown by an imaginary breeze. Everything had three shadows from my
three bulbed desk lamp. Three offset shadows that made it even more
difficult to focus. I took the next couple of hours to quietly move
around my room and really see what was there. I was looking with new
eyes at things that were mundane in their normality and what I saw
leaped out at me with amazing detail and newfound meaning. The wood
grain on my desk deserved study, as did the carpet and the painted
texture of the walls! I slowly opened my door and looked out into the
hall -the house was completely dark. My God I thought what time is it? I
crept down the hall to the bathroom and went inside, closed the door,
and turned on the light. Bam! The brightness of the twenty or so light
bulbs that line the top of the mirror screamed at me and I was sure they
must have woken the whole house up. I took a few minutes to compose
myself. What an amazing drug I had taken! I stood there in front of the
mirror and looked at myself. I was shocked to see how big my pupils
were. I swear I could see inside the whole volume of my eyeballs!
Looking in the mirror at my face I could watch it changing into all
manner of forms. I could convince myself I was looking at my brother or
my father -or whoever I imagined I suppose -albeit a grotesque
caricature of them. When I peed I was completely taken by the lyrical
quality of the sounds made by my cascading torrent. When I was finished
the bubbles in the bowl reflected a million prismatic colours and seemed
to speak to me as each bubble, in turn, burst. When I flushed the toilet
there was, of course, a rush of noise that had me scrambling, scurrying
really, back to my hovel in fear of detection. I climbed back under the
covers and tried to watch some more TV. I glanced at the clock it said
3:30. This little adventure had been going on for a little over eight
hours! Good medicine indeed!
I noticed that the movie 'Kelly's Heroes'was now winding up and watching
the end of this old favourite put a smile on my face. Actually my cheeks
were sore with fatigue, like I had been smiling all night. I suddenly had
the urge to get a drink and was feeling like I was coming down a bit so I
slowly made my way down the hall to the top of the stairs. Now I must tell
you that our front living room was about twenty by twenty with a two storey
vaulted ceiling and when I got to the end of the hall and it opened up into
that great expanse I was caught by the size of it all. The sounds I made
were echoed from the far corners and seemed to reach me all slightly out of
phase. I was overcome by some vertigo and found myself holding onto the
railing with it under my arm pit and sort of hand over handing it down
to the ground floor. I moved quickly but softly to the kitchen and got a
glass of orange juice pausing only long enough to enjoy the fine grain
of the cupboard and the tile on the counter tops. As I stood there in
the pale florescent light from the desk I heard a rather frightening
sound -the door knob of my parents room turning! Their room was on the
main floor right off the kitchen and the TV room where my journey had
begun all those hours ago. I stood there unable to move as my dad
entered the kitchen. He was still half asleep and wasn't aware of my
presence. In his white JC Penny v-neck under shirt and his grey and
white paisley boxer shorts, his hair tussled about and his arms up in
front of his chest like feelers, he struck me as some kind of
psychedelic gopher or groundhog coming out after a long winters nap. As
I mused in this vision he noticed me standing of in the shadows at the
other end of the room and he let out a startled little yelp. As if that
was the funniest thing I had ever heard, I lightning quick put my hand
over my mouth to stifle any laughter. I managed to apologise for
startling him and high tailed it back up to safety.
I got into bed and turned off the lights in case he decided to follow me up
for an acceptable explanation of what I was up to. He didn't and I spent
the next several hours laying there until sleep thankfully arrived. I did
happen to catch the first of a lifetime of especially memorable sunrises
that morning before drifting off to sleep.
Ergonaut
Fall 1980
gates of Bear Creek Park in southwest Denver. We had walked down to the
park as we had done so often to procure some pot for the approaching
sunset. There were numerous cars lining the roadway beside the main
field and as always there were many cars with lone occupants. As we
would walk along the grass down the row of cars the occupants of those
cars would quietly, slightly above a whisper, give inventory of what was
available.
"Snow?" One guy said.
"Blonde Leb?" Said another.
We were looking only for a couple of joints of brown Mexican so
we'walked on down the hall,' so to speak and we came to a car and the dude
inside smiled and said "Trips?" Well I had never tripped before and
neither had Robert, but Paul had done so the summer before while in
Austria. My interest had been peeked by Paul's musings so I slowed and
approached the car window. The guy in the car showed me the Camel
cigarette pack with about a two by three inch sheet of paper slipped in
side the cellophane. On each perforated square was a blue line drawing
of a dragon in flight. When he stated that they were three dollars a hit
I nervously told him I would take three. I leaned in and we made the
exchange. I walked quickly to catch up with the boys and we finished
making out rounds of this open-air drug market. As we walked down the
path towards the back of the park we began to take inventory of what all
we had got. Paul had bought ten black beauties, Robert, a quarter gram
of coke and a dime of seedy brown bud. And then there was me not quite
sure what I was in possession of. The sunset was rather beautiful aided
by the four or five joints we smoked. That sunset, however, paled in
comparison to every sunset that has come since.
Back at home, after dinner with my parents and my brother, I went up to
my room to get high. I took the three hits of Blue Dragon and placed
them on the desk in front of me. I took a few hits from my pipe and blew
the smoke out the window. I settled down with a magnifying glass to have
a closer look at the hits. I was excited to try them but wasn't sure
about doing them with my family right downstairs. It didn't take long
for me to talk myself into it by telling myself that if I got too high
or conspicuous I would just say goodnight and retire for the evening. I
picked up the tiny innocuous strip of three and placed them under my
tongue. I turned off the light in my room and went downstairs to the
family room to watch TV. Mum and Dad were in there watching an old movie
with Humphrey Bogart and Fred Mac Murray called 'The Caine Mutiny.' I
grabbed a blanket and snuggled down on the couch beside my mother.
Twenty or thirty minutes or so went by and I was starting to get anxious
that surely something must have been happening by now. I got up and went
to the kitchen to get a Coke. My knees felt kind of tense and weak and I
became aware that I really couldn't see myself actually drinking my
drink. I never the less poured the soda and returned to my spot on the
couch. By this point I was completely lost in regard to the movie. I was
more taken by my strange reflection in the double paned window. I
realised that this must be what I have been waiting for. I tried to
watch the movie for a short eternity but it just looked too contrived. I
was quickly beginning to wonder if perhaps I really should be 'getting
off to bed!' I quickly said goodnight and made a b-line for the stairs.
By the time I got to my room and closed the door behind me my heart was
racing and I thought my brain was gonna explode! In a good way of
course. I dragged the phone over to my bed and laid down and tried to
dial Paul. No answer. I turned on the small portable TV that I had and
tried to calm down. The acid was coming on in waves. Each wave felt more
immersive than the one before. I found a show, picked most likely
because of the colours of the background. I pulled the covers up under
my chin and began to look around my room. On my walls were the usual
posters of a teenaged boy. The familiar green Giza pyramid scene from
The Dark Side of the Moon album, Cheryl Tiegs in the pink bikini, etc.
Then I saw the ceiling! Oh my God! My everyday stippled ceiling swirled
and whirled above me like a demonized Japanese woodcut puzzle. I must
have watched that show go on for hours until I noticed the drapes. Let
me tell you my friends the drapes were totally moving -flowing as if
being blown by an imaginary breeze. Everything had three shadows from my
three bulbed desk lamp. Three offset shadows that made it even more
difficult to focus. I took the next couple of hours to quietly move
around my room and really see what was there. I was looking with new
eyes at things that were mundane in their normality and what I saw
leaped out at me with amazing detail and newfound meaning. The wood
grain on my desk deserved study, as did the carpet and the painted
texture of the walls! I slowly opened my door and looked out into the
hall -the house was completely dark. My God I thought what time is it? I
crept down the hall to the bathroom and went inside, closed the door,
and turned on the light. Bam! The brightness of the twenty or so light
bulbs that line the top of the mirror screamed at me and I was sure they
must have woken the whole house up. I took a few minutes to compose
myself. What an amazing drug I had taken! I stood there in front of the
mirror and looked at myself. I was shocked to see how big my pupils
were. I swear I could see inside the whole volume of my eyeballs!
Looking in the mirror at my face I could watch it changing into all
manner of forms. I could convince myself I was looking at my brother or
my father -or whoever I imagined I suppose -albeit a grotesque
caricature of them. When I peed I was completely taken by the lyrical
quality of the sounds made by my cascading torrent. When I was finished
the bubbles in the bowl reflected a million prismatic colours and seemed
to speak to me as each bubble, in turn, burst. When I flushed the toilet
there was, of course, a rush of noise that had me scrambling, scurrying
really, back to my hovel in fear of detection. I climbed back under the
covers and tried to watch some more TV. I glanced at the clock it said
3:30. This little adventure had been going on for a little over eight
hours! Good medicine indeed!
I noticed that the movie 'Kelly's Heroes'was now winding up and watching
the end of this old favourite put a smile on my face. Actually my cheeks
were sore with fatigue, like I had been smiling all night. I suddenly had
the urge to get a drink and was feeling like I was coming down a bit so I
slowly made my way down the hall to the top of the stairs. Now I must tell
you that our front living room was about twenty by twenty with a two storey
vaulted ceiling and when I got to the end of the hall and it opened up into
that great expanse I was caught by the size of it all. The sounds I made
were echoed from the far corners and seemed to reach me all slightly out of
phase. I was overcome by some vertigo and found myself holding onto the
railing with it under my arm pit and sort of hand over handing it down
to the ground floor. I moved quickly but softly to the kitchen and got a
glass of orange juice pausing only long enough to enjoy the fine grain
of the cupboard and the tile on the counter tops. As I stood there in
the pale florescent light from the desk I heard a rather frightening
sound -the door knob of my parents room turning! Their room was on the
main floor right off the kitchen and the TV room where my journey had
begun all those hours ago. I stood there unable to move as my dad
entered the kitchen. He was still half asleep and wasn't aware of my
presence. In his white JC Penny v-neck under shirt and his grey and
white paisley boxer shorts, his hair tussled about and his arms up in
front of his chest like feelers, he struck me as some kind of
psychedelic gopher or groundhog coming out after a long winters nap. As
I mused in this vision he noticed me standing of in the shadows at the
other end of the room and he let out a startled little yelp. As if that
was the funniest thing I had ever heard, I lightning quick put my hand
over my mouth to stifle any laughter. I managed to apologise for
startling him and high tailed it back up to safety.
I got into bed and turned off the lights in case he decided to follow me up
for an acceptable explanation of what I was up to. He didn't and I spent
the next several hours laying there until sleep thankfully arrived. I did
happen to catch the first of a lifetime of especially memorable sunrises
that morning before drifting off to sleep.
Ergonaut
Fall 1980
