{"id":2321,"date":"2023-10-17T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2321"},"modified":"2023-09-16T13:13:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T13:13:00","slug":"chap-26-how-rocky-developed-his-aptitude-for-what-is-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=2321","title":{"rendered":"Chap. 26 – How Rocky Developed His Aptitude for What is Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 26<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Rocky Developed His Aptitude for What is Fun<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Seeing it was a 600-mile trip to Norman, Oklahoma, we put some ground rules in place.  Spontaneity being first, we didn\u2019t have to stay a caravan.  \u201cWe don\u2019t all need to arrive in Norman at the same time, or even the same day,\u201d Sally said.  \u201cIf you want to break off and do something different \u2013 or take a detour to somewhere \u2013 we\u2019ll just meet at the first Walmart on the right once inside the city limits.\u201d  Jack, Sally, and now Huck, along with Big Sam went in the Rover.  Peaches and Sunshine were on their own.  The rest of us in the Yacht. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We were off to visit a friend of Rocky\u2019s, named Robin, who was a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.  \u201cThe guy,\u201d Rocky said, \u201cwho first introduced me to LSD.  Anybody got any good trippin\u2019 stories?\u201d  We were crossing the Texas panhandle on I-40 when this came up.  Already we knew that Rocky and Robin had been contract-bridge partners and even competed for the Bermuda Cup in 1971.  And we knew that Rocky took his bridge game seriously having told us the closest he came to being married was when a female opponent scored a grand slam bonus after he\u2019d redoubled his bid, and he proposed to her on the spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Patty picked up on Rocky\u2019s question: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you tell us about that first acid trip, Rocky.  I\u2019ll turn the camera on.  See if it can make-up for the lousy scenery around here \u2013 this is the flattest, most desolate land I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell,\u201d Rocky started, \u201cit was while I was in high school, the summer of 1969 and everybody was talking about Woodstock.  Robin and I knew each other from competitive bridge tournaments.  Robin was the Bridge Club Coach at Mounds View, where I was a sophomore and his star pupil.  Robin\u2019s family were all big-wigs with the BNSF Railroad, directly tracing the family lineage to James J. Hill.  At any rate, at age 16 he got me a job working for the railroad.  One day he asked me if I\u2019d ever dropped, saying he had been doing acid since<\/em> 1964<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cGeez, I said admiringly, ‘Is that how you got to be such a good bridge player?’  And he actually answered yes<\/em>, so I pretended I\u2019d been doing acid too.  Then Robin says, \u2018You wanna drop with me?\u2019  So of course I had to say yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, lots of things happened fast.  We were in the caboose on a run from the Twin Cities to Willmar.  Willmar\u2019s maybe about 100 miles west of Minneapolis.  Little did I know I was signing up for a twelve-hour trip.  When we get to the siding on the outskirts of Willmar, I started really coming-on.  It seemed like there were trains on every track going every direction at once.  When I told that to Robin he just laughed and said \u2018good stuff huh.\u2019  Then I started seeing colors, really hallucinating, seeing everything weird, and I said, \u2018since when does the BNSF paint lightning bolts on their cars?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cThat really got Robin laughing \u2013 uncontrollably \u2013 and then me too when he said, \u2018Those are zebra stripes, not lightning bolts.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWhat they do, the railroad, is have a taxi pick you up at the switchyard and take you to a motel to get some sleep before you\u2019re next assigned out.  That would be for Robin because he was headed out to Oklahoma City the next day.  For me, I was to do a quick turn around and head back to Minneapolis.  But we couldn\u2019t find the switchman\u2019s tower where the cab would be waiting.  Not that we couldn\u2019t see the tower, but it kept changing where it was.  We\u2019d start down one track and it would disappear.  So we\u2019d go back to where we started and see it again and start out again \u2013 feeling our way with our hands \u2013 touching the box cars to make sure we kept moving in one direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, the taxi driver finally came and<\/em> got<\/em> us<\/em> \u2018cuz he was watching us and says, \u2018What, are you guys lost?\u2019 and we both started laughing uncontrollably, again<\/em>.  We got to the motel and lots more happened, but really nothing.  Anyone watching us would think we\u2019re having a boring time, but it was anything but.  There\u2019s a body feeling too.  Kind of a tightening and moving all at once in your belly.  Your eyes are speeding ahead but your body is standing still.  You can kind of taste<\/em> a smell in your head \u2013 you smell yourself tripping.  At any rate, Robin kept telling me we would come down for sure and not to panic.  \u2018Panic is what kills you, not the LSD,\u2019 he told me.  \u2018It was panic that got Art Linkletter\u2019s daughter to jump out the window.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cSo what did you guys end up doing?\u201d Patty asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWell, we went to the Railroad Men\u2019s bar and pretended to drink and play cribbage for awhile.  Just kind of watching the scene and nursing our drinks.  But we weren\u2019t really playing cards either.  The cards were purple and orange.  Jacks looked like Queens.  Eventually, we went for a walk on some abandoned golf course and just talked about life, saw lots of weird things, like snakes slithering across the greens (really just twigs blowing in the wind).  When we finally came down, it was the next morning and Robin got me excused from missing my train \u2013 his dad being a big-wig \u2013 and got me another train back to the Cities.  But you know, friends for life, the guys you trip with.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cLast time I saw Robin, some 20 years ago, we had a reunion in Bermuda to watch the bridge championships.  By then he had mostly settled down somewhat and was teaching English somewhere, telling me his students’ favorite author was Hunter S. Thompson because he could do acid and write, which still makes me laugh \u2013 so you know, we\u2019re just good friends laughing at things going on.\u201d  (Wow, we thought, that\u2019s where Rocky got his taste for attire, his blue jean jackets, his aviator glasses \u2013 as well as his taste for fun.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u201cWhew,\u201d Patty croaked, \u201cthanks for taking me on that<\/em> trip.  I got high just hearing about it \u2013 you know, the taste, the feel.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 26 How Rocky Developed His Aptitude for What is Fun      Seeing it was a 600-mile trip to Norman, Oklahoma, we put some ground rules in place.  Spontaneity being first, we didn\u2019t have to stay a caravan.  \u201cWe don\u2019t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2777,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}