This was my first experience with LSD. I’d read quite a bit about it and was highly intrigued. I was beginning to break away from my strict, WASP, prep-school upbringing.
It was May of 1967 and my friends and I had come up from Venice Beach to San Francisco for a huge anti-war rally (my parents thought I was staying with a school friend and brushing up on baseball..). After the march we all wanted to go out on the town. My friends wanted to go to strip bars on Broadway and I wanted to go to the Haight Ashbury, so we split up...
The Haight was jumpin', sidewalks packed with Happy people... I started chatting with a group of people (especially a blonde) when one of them said, "He's here!" He, it turned out was a short guy with real long straight black hair and beard who was introduced to me as God. God took seven of us on our first trip that night in the streets of the Haight. We each took one sugar cube. Of course, like all doses, I really have no idea how much it was.
After all these years there are still stand-out images in my mind. All the people and faces, the lights, the usual first acid trip insights and feeling of "we can work anything out." But there was some real wackiness too. Like while we were crossing a street and a cop car stopped for the light, then suddenly turned on all it's lights. We had seen the cop car as we approached the corner and a couple of people got rather fearful. We must have looked like a herd of deer caught in the head lights. The cop leaned out his window and God said "Thanks officer!" and I swear the cop said "and Happy Psychedelic Flashing to you folks too!" and we moved on, all feelings of paranoia gone.
Another wacky moment was at the all night donut shop when the glazed donut in my mouth became part of it. A little panic started and God said to me "Melt in your mouth or did your mouth melt?" and gave me a big wink. It seemed so true and ridiculous at the same time my panic deflated right away....
We then moved to the all-night Drugstore (the name of the place), which was a café/burger joint and we hung out there until about 5:00 a.m. in the morning. The Drugstore was packed with people, tripping, partying, wheeling & dealing hippies, all night long. I remember watching my glass of soda sparkling like diamonds!
Then at about 5:00 a.m., God herded us up and we moved into Golden Gate Park for the sunrise. At this point everybody kind of broke up. I then went over to where my friends from L.A. were staying and we went back to L.A.
About three years later, I was in a club in Hollywood and a woman came up to me, pronged me right in the eye (so to speak) and said, “You were there the night God gave us the acid!” Then I recognized her.
NA
The State says he's crazy.