Babs' True Thanksgiving Day, 1967

Four Or Five Guy© Babs - th' IoF©'s Token Tomato - crashes thru th' mirror ceiling to drop this swell screed on our Circular Bed O' Dreams™.

There are days in our lives that are just - beautiful. Like Friday, November 24th, the day after Thanksgiving Day, 1967. I was twenty-years-old, in my third year at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and majoring in Applied Mathematics. 

The day before, I had Thanksgiving dinner in Caltech’s dining hall with Jennifer and her roommate Sandy. We weren’t close friends, but we had smoked weed (we called it grass back then) a few times. Both of them had a “hipper than thou” attitude, but they were always friendly enough, and the campus was empty due to the holiday, so what the hell. After dinner, the conversation turned to contraception. I gave them the name and address of a nearby woman doctor who gave the Pill to unmarried women, and a pharmacy that didn’t ask questions, or look at your ring finger (who’s hipper now, bitches?). The Pill in 1967 was illegal for unmarried women and would remain so until 1972. 

On our table is a copy of the psychedelic newspaper, The San Francisco Oracle. After reading a few articles, I say to Jennifer: “LSD sounds very interesting” to which she replied “Let’s do some tomorrow!” Sandy smiled and nodded her head in agreement. Jennifer and Sandy had dropped acid a few times before, but I was a newbie to the drug scene, having smoked weed for the first time only a few months earlier in July, during summer break back home in Brooklyn. Jennifer got up, walked across the dinning hall, sat at another table for a few minutes, came back, opened her hand, and showed us three sugar cubes. We made arrangements to meet at their place after lunch the next day. 

That evening, I was trying to solve a differential equation [phew! rock n' roll! - Ed.], but I couldn’t concentrate due to the anxiety I was feeling about taking LSD. Would I think I could fly, and jump off of Jennifer and Sandy’s roof? What kind of hallucinations would I have, what would I see? What about those bum trips? Flashbacks? The media was reporting stories on chromosomal damage and genetic mutations. There was a rumor going around, that you could be declared legally insane if you took LSD more than five times! But everything they told us about weed in high school was complete crap. Also, I knew LSD was wildly popular in certain intellectual circles, and that was a club I wanted to join [welcome to th' Isle O' Foam© - Ed.]. 

The next day, I’m apprehensive while walking to Jennifer and Sandy’s place. It’s raining, there are a few records under my arm, that I’m trying to keep dry. When I arrive, Sandy is making some kind of herbal tea, and on their kitchen table incense is burning. Jennifer walks into the kitchen and hands out the sugar cubes. We let the sugar cubes dissolve in our mouths, smoke a joint, and sit there like we’re waiting for a bus or something, smoking cigarettes.

Twenty minutes or so later, The Doors first album is playing, the room looks exactly the same and yet somehow different, everything has a sheen that it didn’t have thirty minutes ago. Sandy is rolling some joints and starts to giggle, which causes all of us to laugh. I feel hyper-aware, and in amazement I watch rain drops rolling down the window. The music sounds incredible, and I wish I had a piano to play.

Tim Buckley’s album Goodbye and Hello is now playing, and Sandy goes very quiet and is staring across the room. Jennifer and I look at each other and start laughing. I light a cigarette, and it feels like the cigarette is smoking me. There’s an exposed brick wall in the living room that I can’t stop staring at, it almost looks like it is breathing and all these little colored lights dancing around between myself and the wall. I feel euphoric, and think back to the article I read yesterday in The San Francisco Oracle that mentioned The Cosmic Joke and start laughing hysterically. I wonder if this is enlightenment or if I’m having grandiose delusions, or maybe both? Who knows? Who cares? I’ve never had so much fun just sitting around! 

 

It’s now 7PM, we’ve been tripping for six hours, I’m still very high, but it’s not as intense now. I decide to leave, so I thank Jennifer and Sandy, and say goodbye. Walking home across the campus, my mind is racing. I think about my abstract algebra class that is so confusing, but now I see it in a different light, “I can do this!” I think to myself.

 

As I’m walking there’s a large puddle from the day’s rain, as I step to avoid it, I can see the reflection of the moon in it, it looks beautiful, a light breeze makes it ripple, and I start laughing. As I bend over to take a closer look, I hear a voice behind me, “Are you OK?” I turn around and there’s an athletic looking guy who looks concerned, “I’m fine” I say, still giggling. “I thought you were crying,” he said, followed by “What’s so funny?” “The universe is what’s so funny,” I tell him. He gives me a knowing look and smile, and says: “Last Saturday the universe was a funny place for me too. Take care, and happy trails!” and walks away. I go home, listen to music, and play my piano. Later I chain-smoke cigarettes thinking about the day's events.

 

The following Monday, I’m back in the in Caltech dining hall in line with my tray, when a voice says: “How funny is the universe today?” It’s the guy from Friday night, I tell him: “It's still funny, but not as funny as Friday.” He laughs and says: “Probably not as beautiful either, right?” I smile. We have lunch together, blow off our afternoon classes, and make each other laugh having a conversation which would last for the next forty-five years - beautiful.

 

Epilogue
 

Sandy graduated with a degree in philosophy, joined The Peace Corps, and disappeared.

Jennifer went on to become a biochemist (now retired).