Ok. Right now I'm going to go over the mechanics of some of the pot parties I started going to. So this guy was a little older than me. He ran with a whole different adult-like circle. Everyone at these parties were like four to six years older than me. I tried to find a picture anywhere of a big pot party, but there's good reason why you can't find one. Times really were different. We were just getting over Ozzie and Harriet. Marijuana was a pretty big crime still, if the cops wanted it to be. People just didn't take pictures as much. You couldn't bring a roll of film to be developed that had drugs or nudity in it or the cops would be knocking at your door. I guess when polaroids got popular that could work, but pictures of pot parties were definitely frowned upon.
So the first one of these things took place in a typical Long Island house. Most of them took place in the basement. Usually 20 to 30 people there. There were only a few drivers, so the neighborhood didn't get filled up with cars. My guess is that the neighbors didn't call the cops 'cause who knows if their college kids were over there too.
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| Typical Long Island House |
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| Usually not like this, but there were a lot of people and drugs. |
So I walk in there and everyone is sitting on the floor in a big oblong circle. Pretty sure my eyes got real big. "Oh, cool," to myself. Plopped ourselves down on the floor. Cool. They had three pipes moving around the circle at a time. I tried to find a picture of typical pipes back then. There must be one. Bongs were not being used yet, as far as I know. Maybe somewhere, I'm not sure. Water pipes were though. These pipes were made with brass parts covered in wooden pieces. I'm sure they were made like this for a while, but I don't see them now. You could unscrew the bowl or chamber and parts of the stem. You could take it apart and conceal it better. Easier to clean also. The pipes being used here were much longer because there was more than one thing being smoked. Give it a second to get to your throat. Since I was new, I got to fill pipes. I was just taking everything in. We used three chambers. Opium in the bottom, hash in the middle and pot in the top chamber. Everyone pretty much just laid around. No major activity or dancing. Just sex in the bedrooms at times. I guess this all became commonplace but it was a little radical at the time. I don't think we ever paid anything for what we used, or had a problem with use of the "facilities." This guy was pretty much the alpha male. Peace until confronted. Remember, Long Island hippies did have fist fights.
There were always a couple of guys in charge of loading up the turntable. People didn't congregate around the stereo experts. They were in charge. I know what I was listening to, but I couldn't tell you the name of it. It was the best rock and roll you could hear. Heavy listeners.
I went to a number of these big congregations, but most of the time it was a smaller group. That's when you could get into those philosophical conversations. I'll cover what when on there. That's when you'll hear more personal views. It didn't go on a forever anyway. Started getting a little scary and weird to me.
