1971
Our Neighbors 1

When Bill and I moved into the duplex there were two young college girls living next door in the other half, Sue and Michele, who both came from Fort Walton Beach and went to high school together.  Living in a duplex with their front door two feet from our front door, we were always seeing each other as we came and went and I soon got to know them. They were the same age is me and both working on degrees in education, although I think they were working more on finding husbands.  They were fun and like to party a lot, often having several of their friends from Fort Walton Beach over.  It wasn't long before I started spending time at their place hanging out with their friends.  Bill was around and would talk to them on occasion but didn't spend any time over at their place like I did.  After a few months I noticed a change in the girls, it seemed that Michele was hitting on me and Sue hitting on Bill.  I'm not quick to catch on to such things, but it was becoming obvious, Michele would often, touch me, or when watching TV would sit right next to me holding my arm.  Then there was the one day Bill was working and she came over and sat next to me on the couch, getting closer and closer, then leaning forward asked me to kiss her, which I did.  She laid back, pulling me closer to her and we kissed some more, snuggling closer.  The whole time my mind  racing, it was like I was standing there watching myself and her, I analyzed, rationalized each kiss, where to put my hand, was I crushing her under me, I wasn't enjoying it, partly because I couldn't let myself relax and enjoy it, but also, I just wasn't all that attracted to her.  She was attractive in a way, short, nice body, but I didn't find her frizzy red hair and heavily freckled face all that attractive.  But here she was, coming on to me, I wasn't going to turn her down.  Actually, I did.  We stopped, I don't remember what I said, but she went home. 

While Michele was hitting on me, Sue was doing the same thing with Bill, she started coming over to our place more but only when Bill was home, and she clearly was flirting with him.  I think the two girls had a bet between them of which of them could seduce Bill or me the first.  I don't know if Sue won or not, but I do know that Michele did not win. She flirted less after that, although she still did some, and we remained friendly until they moved out.

Tony and Cathy were two of Sue and Michele's friends also from Fort Walton beach who would often be at their place and I would hang out with them.  Tony was a short guy of Italian heritage which he proudly would tell everybody. I liked Tony, he was a real practical, down to earth guy and we became friends.  Although he said he attended school, it was more part time for he also worked laying tile as a part time job.  He said his father ran a tile business in Fort Walton and he had been laying tile since a little kid and was quite good at it.  Tony lived a couple of blocks off of University in a big house that had several bedrooms, all rented out to students, and I would sometimes hang out there between classes.

Cathy was very pretty and had the sweetest southern accent I had ever heard, and I had a crush on her.  The thing I remember most about Cathy was one day while she was next door she said she was moving to a new apartment and asked if everyone could help and if perhaps borrow Bill's truck.  Bill’s truck was one of the many vehicles that Bill had while I lived with him. The truck wasn't your regular pickup truck, but a huge, four ton, farm truck made for hauling cattle, It had a large wooden bed in back, with wood slats for sides rising over eight feet high.  It was an old truck, like from 1950, six speed manual gear box which you had to double clutch to change gears, a cab so high up you had to climb up to it,  putting you six feet above other cars in traffic.  It was a really big truck.  I asked Bill if I could borrow it to help Cathy move, he said yes and gave me the keys.  On the day of the move, I drove it over to Cathy's old apartment where the Fort Walton gang were gathered, Sue, Michele, Toni were all there.  As usual a joint or two was passed around when Cathy said the soup was ready. I asked what soup, and they said mushroom soup, magic mushroom soup, and explained it was Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup in which they had added some of the local “magic” psilocybin mushrooms.  Ok, I never tried that before and was handed a cup 3/4's full of soup. After we all ate the soup, we  proceeded to move Cathy's things out and load them into the truck.  Now I didn't know what to expect from eating mushrooms, I had read Carlos Castaneda book The Teachings of Don Juan and soon everything I saw everything had like rainbow rings of color around them, trees, cars, people, everything.  We got the truck loaded and amazingly, I safely drove it over to Cathy's new apartment where we apparently unloaded it and then I drove the truck back to my and Bill's place.  I don't remember the unloading and driving home part, only getting home and laying in bed staring up at the ceiling with thoughts and images racing through my mind before falling asleep.