1974
Karate

I really liked the karate class I took in the fall quarter and found out that the instructor offered free classes so I started attending them.  The classes were held on Florida Field in the middle of the afternoon and were well attended with over fifty students.  I enjoyed the classes, the movement, the stretching, the focus of the mind and finding a meditative quality about the katas.  

Neighbors 3

The first of January Jim and Wayne, both going to Veterinarian school at the University, moved in next door.  Wayne was a six foot, muscular country boy while Jim, also big, but shorter and stocky.  Jim and Wayne were all the time partying, and I soon was hanging out regularly at their place getting high.  I never saw Jim and Wayne study and they partied so much I don’t see how they made it through Vet school.  I saw my first pound of pot when I was over at their place one day when Wayne brings out a paper bag and dumped the contents on the table, a full pound of pot.  I had bought an ounce before which fits in a small baggy, here was a huge mound of it on the table.  Jim and Wayne sorted the pound, divided into ounce sized baggies.  They were nice enough to give me a discount on one.  When I said they like to party, I mean crazy party.  I was at their place one Friday afternoon and after smoking a couple of joints, Jim brings out a baggy of pills, Quaaludes, which were popular at the time and gave he me one.  It was nice, giving me an even more mellow state than pot alone did.  A bit later they brought a small glass vial with a white substance, cocaine, something I had heard about but never seen before.  Jim proceeded to  spread out in even two inch long lines on a mirror then using a rolled up dollar bill snorted it up his nose with Wayne doing the same.  There was still two smaller lines Jim said was for me but I already so high from the pot and quaalude that I said no, I was good, so Jim and Wayne finished it off. 

Alternative story:

I didn't know what cocaine was, I had heard of it but didn't know what it looked like, and here it was on the table.  I watch Wany pour a bit on a mirror, chop it up fine with a razor blade and divide it into a pair of two lines and third smaller pair of lines.  Jim rolled a dollar bill into a roll, put it in his nose, bent over and sucked a line up off the mirror.  Wow that was crazy, I thought as Jim did a second line with the other nostril.  Wayne followed suit, sitting back up, Jim said to me, those are for you.  Ok, I didn't expect that but I recognized that I could see it coming.  I waffled a bit, saying "I don't know."  But Jim said "You should try it, I think you will like it."  Well whether brave or foolish, I took the dollar bill, put it up to my nose and sucked up the first line and sat back up.  Wow, what a rush, I put the dollar bill to my other nostril and did the second line, even more WOW.  I felt like my mind was going a hundred miles an hour, everything looked brighter, Wayne and Jim smiled. 

They then said they were going to the Library, not the school library, but a bar called the “Library”, named such that students could tell their parents they “were at the library”.  I said I would meet them there but drove separately for I new they would be out much later than I would want to.  Upon arriving I got a beer and joined Jim and Wayne at the foosball and air hocky tables and played a few games.  While I nursed my beer, and then a second, Jim and Wayne must have finished off a half dozen each.  I don’t know how they were still winning on the foosball table.  After a couple of hours with Jim and Wayne still going strong, I had had enough and returned home.