That was back in 1969-1970. The truth is that the couple who rented the first floor of this house were also pot smokers, flower children of the time. They were pretty great people, mellowed by pot smoking I'm sure. But my brothers???
We were the imperfect Catholic family, raised in the church, seven boys (one died at 3 days old), two girls (one, of course, being me), a working mother, and an alcoholic dad. We were at church seven days a week because we cleaned the convent and school on Saturdays to help pay for all of us attending the parochial school. Attending Mass six days a week affected each of us in a different way, the common denominator being that none of us attend Mass any longer, at least not since Mom died.
However, we were trained in the traditional Catholic value system as taught in school and as disciplined rather than as demonstrated by the parents. Do what I say not what I do... okay.
Thus, protected by naivete I was dumb in the ways of drugs and believed everything I was told about their threatened ruination of everything bodily. There was a TV commercial popular in the day that shows an egg, "This is your brain" and then an egg frying, "This is your brain on drugs." What else could I believe, no way was I ever going to try the stuff!
Ok, so back to my brothers and their visit to Mom via my apartment, I mean, after all, these are my long trusted brothers! So, after calming down I just listened to them discuss their separate adventures in Vietnam. Wow, hard to believe that there really was a war going on halfway around the world, even if the media and the president kept saying that it really wasn't a war.
Well, we took Tim's car to Mom's house. We both had GTO convertibles, his was '67 automatic and mine was a '66 3-speed. Nice cars, and fun. So, in the car with Tim driving and Dan riding in the passenger car, I rode on the console. Although I didn't and wouldn't smoke pot, they passed a joint (or two?) back and forth blowing smoke at me nearly the whole ride to Mom's house. My word, after that EVERYthing was funny to me. I was so self-conscious but when Mom looked at me, then at Tim, and asked him if he fed me some funny pills, I nearly exploded. That much I remember.
So after that I wasn't QUITE so demeaning to "potheads" but I'll admit I was prejudice to some point. I still kept it out of "my world" even as I learned to accept it. I was always too paranoid and didn't partake with my brothers or our common friends. And I nearly cried when Danny's friend Randy told me I was "naturally stoned." How rude! But Danny explained it later that it was a compliment because I could be just as funny as them without being stoned. That made me feel better and less uptight. But I still wouldn't smoke it.
...to be continued....
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