A life In The Day (36)

NIGHTMARES and TEARS

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TEARS and NIGHTMARES

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( and still on our way to the River of Gold)

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We drove for at least 100 miles , before exhaustion, adrenaline depletion, hunger, thirst, less light over dangerous terrain and sore butts made us stop for the night.

We arrived to the vicinity of the then Provence, QUICHE , by driving around the base of the mountains, near the town of Zacapa in Guatemala, just west of the Honduran boarder.

By this time on our bikes , we had come to see camp sites with ease and rapidity .

It wasn't hard for us to find a a hidden site among the boulders for the night.

We hadn't talked since we left the village and started ridding...........and we didn't talk much now........

We mechanically went about setting up camp...............................

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The moon covered half the sky that night,

It was an erie stillness,

Joel just leaned against the big rock and looked at the desert in front of Him and was looking at nothing ........nothing but the same blood I was seeing in visual overlays...

I reached over into my pack and grabbed some Javolina Jerky and cut a piece off for Him with my "boy scout" knife and as I turned to toss it over to Him saw that He had a bottle of Tequila at His lips , the whole time I saw silent tears running down His dirt smeared face ........

I just looked at Him an saw My agony reflected there and could say nothing..........

He couldn't say anything ..........I wouldn't say anything.........

He was drinking His oblivion ..............I chose to smoke into mine..............

I left Him there and got up to go walk into the desert and smoke My brains away..........

I lite a joint , took a hit ,looked at Joel silently crying , drinking His tequila and staring at nothing in the silver moon lite desert where I was about to go walking...........

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I just started walking and walking ..............

It might seem to the casual reader that this part of the journal would be easy to relate.........you have NO idea what this is costing me NOW..............!

I have no idea how long or where I walked , I didn't care .

E S D

A Life In The Day (35)

CENTRAL AMERICA and the POLITICOS

(and the gold ..................eventually.)

During that particular time in my life , politics really didn't mean a shit load to me if it didn't deal with America. So there's really not much I can say that would sound nice , except that that which we saw in the near boarder frontier south of Chiapas and yet northwest of Huehuetenango , was enough to say that AMERICA is the BEST FUCKING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD !!!!!

As Joel and I were nearing the check point to enter Central America , we camped in the forest to hunt , relax , (as if we weren't doing that all along :) ), and smoke up the rest of our shit ! ha ha ha , and a good thing that ! Although we had finally smoked up our "gift" , in our ventures to villages and making friends with local kids our age , we learned how and where to get and gather our own Peyote for the future. Ha ha ha ha ha .

Literally , staying in the shadows of the forests and really being well accepted by many of the villages that we encountered on our way south , we came to find that the local police and military installations in the up coming localities were not of pure hearts. (remember it's1964-5 )

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In the 16'th century , a family's' only chance to receive any semblance of "wealth" , was to "INDENTURE" , their male child into the clergy ,for only the clergy would or could acquire the riches of the poor !, and in being sycophants to the power of the CHURCH, hope to rise in the ranks of the Religious Hypocrisy !

BUT , in the 20'th century, the only hope in Central and South America for ANY kind of wealth or freedom not only for the family , but for the INDIVIDUAL was to go into the army !

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Joel and I came to the village of Piernas Pequenas , who made thies names up in the old times ?

We were a bit north east of Huixoc . A small village then .

We didn't mean to skirt boarders , mainly because we didn't see many of them as we rode Thur the deserts, but ......

We were close to the forest clearing and set up camp but didn't lite a fire , (good for us ) , and were intending to walk into the village , mainly because our Bikes made rude sounds ( remember ? no baffles!) and most of the people at that time would have been scared ................

The sun was setting as we started walking to the village when we heard gunfire and screaming ,

A LOT OF SCREAMING ...........

We fell on our bellies at the sounds of the first bullets , and both crawled to the top of a small rise

to look over the edge and not be seen by the Federales and possibly killed ourselves.

What I saw is what follows .

There were 3 trucks in the small convoy with about 10 or 11 soldiers in each one.

Each one was armed as if for a lite recon , with riffles , (M1's acquired from U.S. Army surplus ) , ammo , and tequila and some were even smoking reefer . (we were down wind) . They were already pretty well cooked and laughing uproariously and were herding the villagers , ( what later counted out to be 147 souls) , into the center of the pueblo to be divided into 3 groups.

The first were all males over what seemed to be 13 years of age or so , the second were all the young boys and the third were ALL the females of ALL ages .

Some soldiers were building fires in the square from wood acquired by destroying the wooden shacks around the center and lit after being doused with kerosene. The light from the fires and the head lamps of the trucks was more then enough to see the horrors that were soon to unfold before our eyes.

2 of the soldiers began to haul women roughly by there garments and ripping them off in front of the other soldiers , where husbands or relatives of the woman in question would run to her rescue only to be hit down with a rifle butt to the head , and then ordered by laughing soldiers to drag the unconscious and bleeding man back to the group of remaining prisoners , the soldiers would then continue to ask if this one or that one was to be kept , only to be told in loud yells of drunken mirth whether "SI or NO ", if there was a "NO" , the woman , either too old or too ugly or too fat by the soldiers choices , would be thrown into the group of male prisoners where men would gallantly take off their shirts and place around the women in a futile attempt to cover their shame.

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As all this was happening , 3 other soldiers were setting up a 50 cal. water cooled machine gun on its tri-pod on the rear of the truck facing the group of men and women at the other end of the village !

There was so much crying and screaming .......

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That night I lost my innocence....

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The machine gun opened up without any signal I could see!

The cacophony of the horrific symphony that followed could only have been composed by "HIERONYMUS BOSCH" , Himself............."THE CRIES OF HELL........."

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never until that night

had I ever had any idea what a 50 caliber bullet

could do to a human body............

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as the bullets started ripping Thur the air, Joel screamed in horror, without even thinking,I quickly rolled to my right and covered his mouth with my hand and whispered viciously, "SHUT UP YOU DUMB FUCK! YOU WANT TO GET US KILLED TO?!"

The sound of the first volley was the only thing that kept us from being heard or found out !

Time seemed to slow down like in a surrealistic movie directed by "Sam Peckinpah", where a second was stretched into a minute , a minute into an hour........

They had made the villagers stand in rows of 20 or so , like ranks in an army platoon as they started to commence the SLAUGHTER!!!

The bullets were coming down from an angle on the back of the truck .

As the hammer hit the first cartridge of the first bullet , I was given the, Gift/Curse of SUPER HEARING AND SIGHT .

The first sweep of the 50 cal. slugs from left to right , blew , tore , ripped apart , how ever the fuck you want to describe the fucking CARNAGE!! ,of the innocent villagers .........

bullets hit the first ranks , about shoulder high , they showered the second rank with their life's blood , bone fragments , and globs bright red stuff of their lungs .

As the bullets passed Thur the first row of villagers and commenced into the second row , they hit about "gut high", ripping out their intestines and spines ! The third row was more cruel , in the respect that they were hitting or going thur the hips and thigh bones , all the while making them all fall down like puppets with the strings cut , and still alive !.....but not for long , the massive bleeding drained them quickly, and slowed them down like stupid windup toys'.

After the men and women in group 1 were machined gunned and killed , the soldiers then started the real carnage !

The remaining 2 groups of villagers,(the remaining women and boys), were screaming or in shock as the soldiers reached them .

There were 8 or so, soldiers that chose the boys to brutalize .

The older boys were grabbed by the hair and slapped into semi-consciousness , then ripped their clothes off and bent over anything close at hand to be penetrated and raped!

The younger ones were just SCREAMING in fear and clutching at each other in terror, if they attempted to run to their mothers they were either cuffed or shot!

I saw a young woman who had to be in her third trimester who was pushed to her back then slit from vagina to breast bone only to have her yet unborn fetus pulled from her womb by its feet.

She crawled to the feet of the soldier, the whole time attempting to hold in her intestines, only to beg for the life of her child. The sadistic shit said that he would give her one last kiss of her baby , and proceeded to swing the fetus by its feet and smash it against her head ! All the while laughing!!!!!!

THIS WENT ON ALL NIGHT LONG.................the screams were less strong in their plea for death .....the gun shots were less numerous in the fact that there were less to fight back ...........AND MORE OF THE DEAD

At one point in time, I saw some of the soldiers who were tired of the children they had used and done with ,or were dead , throw him or her into the community water well , located in the center of the plaza ,their were some still alive and screaming for help at the bottom, one of the soldiers stood at its edge with 2

fragmentation grenades , pull both pins . I saw both the bars pop off at the same time and counted with him!

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , he dropped them both in , 9 , 10 ! the muffled explosion could be heard even to where Joel and I lay hidden , but the gush of flame shooting out of the top of the well was like a fart from HELL , flame shot up for yards into the night!!!!!!

There was no more screaming of children from the bottom of the well ...........

I held Joel in my arms like I did to my kid brother,Blair , when He was scared by a neighbors big dog , all trembling and crying.

I couldn't tear my eyes away the whole time .........

Dawn started to break ,and the soldiers started to gather their shit together and start to leave . There was one soldier left ,who walked among those scattered on the ground of the plaza

with his gun drawn and shot any who he thought might be alive ! HE WAS SYSTEMATIC ,THAT FUCKER ! MAY HE ROT IN HELL!!!!!!!!

As dawn was breaking the horizon , the trucks were pulling out of the village .

Joel and I waited at least an hour after the caravan had left before we even thought to approach the village.

Joel kept pulling at my arm screaming "NO! NO!!!!!!! " , I KEPT GOING ON TO SEE IF I COULD HELP?

Joel got 8 or 10 yards from the first body , fell to his knees and puked and kept puking .....

I walked on crying the whole time , preying that I might know enough of "boy scout"first aid to help someone , ANYONE .......GAWD THE CARNAGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THERE WAS NOTHING WE COULD DO TO HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

E S D

A Life In The Day (34)

VERACRUZ-CENTRAL AMERICA-POLITICOS-

JUNGLES,(and eventually the gold)

We came to Veracruz with no preconceived ideas of what to expect,

all we knew was that we smelled of kerosene and were ready for another adventure ! ha ha ha .

Veracruz isn't anything today like it was in the 60's . Then it was a free booting beach town with plenty of European tourists and locales trying to sell everything from splinters of the "TRUE CROSS" , to maps of "The Fountain of Youth" drawn by PONCE DE LEON.

To Joel , it meant a new and varied feeding ground for his perusal of snacks to put on his plate . (remember that Joel had JUST lost his virginity a few months ago and at this point he thought that the world was nothing more then a woman with her legs spread..)

For me ? The beach was all that I really wanted , it seems strange that even then , the sea was calling to my soul .........

I would hang out by the fishermens beaches and watched how after a day of fishing and clearing their nets ......... I just sat there on the beaches and absorbed all that I saw....

If there was work to be done and I could help , I would offer ......at first I was treated with some suspicion , but after a while of seeing my earnestness and the questions I asked AND not asking for pay . (they thought I was a retard or dumb ! ), they finally accepted me with benevolent mirth and gratitude .

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((In 1963 when I first ran away from ......home (?) I ran to the waters of the sea to Balboa Peninsula on the Southern California Coast where I managed to sleep under a MERRY -GO - ROUND by The Pavilion until I could find a CHEAP room with the money that I had squirrelled away form my mother while working my jobs after school .

You want to hear of a horror story to challenge "MOMMY DEAREST"?

Hang on ! ............)

(Remember that I had said earlier that my mother had gone WACKO?

At times she pushed it over the edge before the movie came out !

Liver was cheap from the butcher shop back in the day , to the extent that it turned out to be a staple at the table.(I HATE LIVER!!!! either smothered in onions , or covered in threats of a beatings with a coat hanger !). As a kid of 13 , before step-dad #3 , I would be told not to get up from the table until I cleaned up my plate , and do it fast so I could go to bed and mother could go out ................

My revulsion to Liver was so pronounced that even with threats I wouldn't eat IT !

I remember only that it was late one evening and I was so sleepy that I fell asleep with my face in the plate.

I was awakened to the strident voice of a terrifying Harpie behind and above me beating my back with a wire coat hanger screaming , "How dare you for not eating your food that I sacrificed to bring to this table for you ! and all you do is is leave it to spoil ! there are children in China starving for lack of food , and here you sit with ungratefulness ! "

I ate ..she stopped beating me ...I got up in tears from the table...I took 3 steps towards her and threw up on her going out party dress !!!!!!!!! , or the time that I got a job selling violets on street corners for 35 cents a bunch from 8am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays only to come home to have my money taken from me by her and told that it was going into the bank , (I never saw a bank book !), or the Most awakening moment when I had a job at, " KRESSGY'S 5 and Dime Store" with their counter cafe. I was a dishwasher there after school for money to buy dumb things , like shoes I wanted , or books that I wanted , or paper and pencils I wanted for school that I needed .

At the end of the week we would all get paid in cash and leave Thur the employees door to go our separate ways ..... one nite my mother was standing out there dressed to kill , the guys later said that she was a knock-out and even though she was beautiful ( think RITA MORENO in West Side Story and you would see Her twin !) , felt sorry for me for what she did .!

I saw her there and was proud for having such a stunning and beautiful mother and walked up to her and beam where upon without so much as a , "hello", she tells me to give her my pay envelop ! I said "no , I need paper and drafting erasers of my drafting class.", she then proceeded to slap the shit out of me and said "don't you EVER talk back to me !"

she rocked me back on my heels , my face was a pallet of colors, my eyes watered , I didn't drop a tear .the other guys were standing around and in back of her , they didn't know what to think , I didn't give a shit . I gave her the pay envelop and walked away ..................

At that moment , she ceased to exist both in my mind and my heart as she was destined to 10 years in the future along with her future husband and my 2 brothers and 2 sisters............

hit head on , on X-MAS EVE by a happy fucking drunk doing over a hundred MPH on the Santa Monica Freeway !

Suffice it to say that the next morning I skipped class to see the manager to ask him to doctor my pay slips in the future so that he had his REAL records but in my envelop to have it say $10 less each and every time . (apparently he had heard what had happened the night before , news travels fast in small communities of a store work force...... ) , he was understanding and said ,

"ok , kid. " ))

Sorry folks , I kinda got side tracked into the juvenile pit of hell ......

When I did find a place to stay in BALBOA , I then managed to get not 1 but 2 part time jobs , one at a cafe on the peninsula washing dishes and all I could eat of the leftovers at the end of the night , and the other at a liquor store to hide a six-pack of beer a week for excitement. ha ha ha AND an apartment on the island and since school was starting in a couple of weeks managed to enroll myself in CORONA DEL MAR High School by forging parental signatures .Even in a runaway situation I managed to maintain a 3.4 average.

While attending classes I became friends with Neal Darling , and as it turned out He and his father lived in the bay on a 70' Yawl sailboat. I was fascinated by all the stories that I heard from his father and the magical mysteries of the boat and the sea itself !! :)

I do believe that that was the time , no the Moment that set the corner stone of my love for the sea.

ESD

A Life In The Day (33)

FROM THE BEACHES TO THE JUNGLES

(and getting closer to the GOLD )

Medically speaking.......... ha ha ha ha ha ........WE HAD LOADED DICE !!!!!!!

Keeping that in mind..........that this was he age of SIMPLE afflictions....

As we traveled we had few encounters with scorpions or snakes , other then what we killed for food , or insects.

Our MAJOR encounters with the frailties of humans were those of the HUMAN kind . ha ha ha

TO WIT : CRABS AND GONORRHEA.(sp).

As I said ,Joel HAD to stop at each and every Bordello in EACH and every village , town or city ! ha ha ha ha ha . (remember that FRANKENSTEIN SCHLONG? )R O T F

Editors note : at this point in time the Mexicans were NOT known for their personal hygiene , that's not meaning to say that they were a disgusting people , but Thur lack of education or availability, they just didn't bath . (go figure .), but at times the package was better looking then the contense !

And I was one to eat with my eyes as well !

This which follows may sound or be rather disgusting to you Gentile readers , so you MAY wish to close your eyes at what comes next !

Being as how Joel and I were rather frequent guests to houses of ill repute .......(ha ha ha ha ha ha ......) , we MANAGED to ACQUIRE gifts of ......gifts.

to wit : CRABS BY THE TRUCK LOADS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you are 17 , urban legends abound ! and fortunately , some really worked !

It seemed at times like this one of our biggest expenses were new CLEAN underwear, pants and supplies of kerosene in plastic containers ! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA .

Once past the mountain range and south east of Cordoba about 15 or 20 kilometers we came across a small village called ,"Carne Viejos" ! HONEST ! THAT WAS THE NAME !!!!!!!!! oops , it means "old meat " ha ha ha ha ha ha ...........

Can you imagine , in a prophetic sense for the future? (who would have thunk? ).

A village populate by OLD MEN !!!!!!!!!! And the ONLY reason why it had YOUNG WOMEN there was .....was ............ beats the fuck outta me ! ...........

To this day I have NO idea! but that was REALITY at THAT time .. go figure !..........

but the young women were there ! ALOT of YOUNG WOMEN !! To Joel and I it ment?.........

BOOTY CALL !!!!!!!!!!!! :)

At THIS moment inject, "the Mormon tabernacle choir " singing , to the accompaniment of THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA...

(with EVERY aspect of DRAMATIC PATHOS!)

(sing this to the BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC )

"Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the BOOTY :

he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of HOOCH are stored:

he hath loosed the belts of faithfuls, who's pants are a bulging...........

OUR HORMONES MARCH , (march? like hell! we were running like bats outta hell!with grins! ), ON.............

GLORY! , GLORY! for our youngness!

GLORY ! GLORY ! FOR OUR HORMONES!

GLORY! GLORY! FOR our innocents!

OUR ERECTIONS MARCHED US ON..........

tra-la ,tra-la

2 weeks later , and 12 to 18 lbs lighter.............................:)

:)

:)

We NOW had cause to use THE KEROSENE !!!!!!!!

It has to be said here that Kerosene does not feel good when poured on the genitals .........

but boy it sure does kill crabs !!!!!!!!

We had set up a campsite close to a small river and had food caught and cooked before we started to self medicate............... ha ha ha ...

We had an idea that what came next wouldn't be fun , but we had NO idea how NOT fun it would be!!

We stood next to the river , just in case ........... who knew.................

we stripped down , grabbed the bottles of kerosene and poured !!!!!!!!!!!!!!..................

( even though Joel and I had acquired our post pubescent voices, anyone looking at us would have thought that they were seeing 2 mutant little boys who had growth hormones in overdrive and thies 2 giant little boys were jumping around SCREAMING like little girls trying to keep our hands off our genitals while the kerosene did its work !!!!!!!!!)

This went on for 3 days , we DRENCHED our pants , underwear , sox and blankets in kerosene , when

they sun dried we would then RINSE them in the river to try and get the smell out of them .

In the future , it would be a boon to me , a bane to Joel! ha ha ha ha .

We FINALLY got to VERACRUZ !!!!!!!!!!!!

OK , so I'm gonna try to get Thur this as fast as I can , I'm sure your bored with the hormonal adventures? ha ha ha ha

ESD

A Life In The Day (32)

ON THE ROAD ...AGAIN ?

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HA HA HA HA HA .............

On our way to Veracruz , Joel PROVED His worth with the sling! ha ha aha ha ha ha .

From that point on , We didn't want for lack of food, and perty much we hunted at night unless we wanted a change in diet . (fish was a nice change after hunting at night , the Javolinas cleaned and dressed ready for the fires , ) Javelinas are nocturnal and Joel REALLY impressed the hell outta me with his ability not only at hunting and stalking but bagging game on the hoof ,so at sunrise , Joel and I would sit by the streams or rivers at sunrise , lite up a joint and just fish until we caught something. Amazing how patient one can be when your stoned...... ha ha ha ha ......

And by the time the fish were cleaned and some prairie hen eggs were set cooking along with the Javolinas ? , We were fat cats sitting on Alien Territories Heaven , Dreaming about our futures .

Joel would dream of being a GREAT artist , living somewhere in EUROPE , selling His paintings to the richest of the rich of world residents , Me ?

Me? ...........I was only thinking about worlds beyond worlds...............what makes this one tick ............

whats over that hill?.................what more is there out there for me to learn?......... who will I meet .................what will I do in this world ..........good ? bad?..............will I be a doctor ? a mathematician a research scientist .....................will I be an author,will I be an explorer................... will I know love ............

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((Imagine if you can . the landscape of MARS, at night , DIFFERENT YES? HA HA HA ...)

(thank you JOHN CARTER!) EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS may your soul and memory be blessed !))

During the days that followed , there were times that we bagged and smoked enough food so as not to worry about food for a day or two and could afford not to have to hunt .

Now We both had time to basically have fun and explore and just goof off, (as if we weren't doing that all along! ha ha ah ah ).

AGAIN, think of that Mars (VASOOM), night land scape only in a south Mexican Desert at ..........? midnight ?

We came to the mountain range between us and the sea . We found new game to hunt and bag , we found new cliffs to climb , ( more on that in the future when I am in Israel ! ha ha ha ) ,

BUT above all , we met new people and ways of life .

We came/drove into a village so small one would just call it a bunch of huts with dogs (future food ), chickens(ditto) , small scrawny fields of corn , beans , a clean well , and a shitload of kids !

I guess that's what happens when there's no "JAY LENO" on late nite TV., go figure .................

(and the catholic church fostered this reprehensible way of life !!!!!!!!!!!!!)--(GO OUT AND POPULATE THE WORLD WITH SOLDIERS OF GAWD! DON'T WORRY ! WE WILL LEAD THEM , but NOT feed them !!!!!!!!! that's YOUR responsibility!).those pompous fucks !

NOW I will get on this little soap box .

It seemed that almost each and every small town or pueblo that we came to had some sort of church or in some of the bigger towns , Cathedrals . AND EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM HAD THE WEALTH OF THEIR FLOCKS ENCRUSTED ON THE WALLS IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER !!!!!!!

Be it GOLD Platted Statues , Jewel studded Crucifixes , Golden Chalices , OUTLANDISHLY ORNATE ALTERS fit for KINGS , MONARCHS !

And the whole time their parishioner peasants were going hungry !

( at that time in history BIRTH CONTROL for Latin American countries was a SACRILEGIOUS CONCEPT! Pope Pious XII (?) And ANYONE who practiced it would be DAMNED TO HELL! )

In one large town , Joel and I saw little kids go to the back door of their churches and beg for milk , which they dutifully took home to their fathers who in turn went to bakers and SOLD the milk for money AND THEN went to the local Cantina to buy drinks for the day !!!!

THIES kids would walk the streets for the day begging from tourists for more money which they would bring home that night to turn over to their fathers again!!!!!! We found things out like this from other kids like us who came to hang out with us at our camp fires on the outskirts of said towns , it seemed that kids(guys) our age thought that Joel and I were GREAT ADVENTURES OF THE WORLD !!!

Thies kids would tell us of horror stories of their drunken fathers and how they would come home after a hard day of drinking and pull the blanket separating the main room from the rest of the family and commence to rape their mothers as the older ones would attempt to shield the little ones with stories of Mexican Fairy tales as their mothers cried behind the "room " partition. I mean , after all , this action was sanctioned by the CHURCH . They were bringing more soldiers of GAWD into the world.........(even if 3 out of 5 babies died before the age of 5 ! )

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Maybe at the time we were some of the first freedom riders planting seeds of change.......

( do your best to change it ! ..if you can't ? . leave it (as we did ) , and start over again with a better life !!!.......Use your minds to free yourselves !!!!!!!!!!! )

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A little known FACT ! THE CATHOLIC CHURCH -- IS -- THE BIGGEST ECONOMIC WEALTH HOLDER -----------

IN THE WORLD !!!!!!

(GOOGLE it folks ! )

E S D

A Life In The Day (31)

THE NEXT DAY.................

HA HA HA HA .......no really , I'm better now....................HA HA HA HA HA AAAAAA.......

the day started like any other day , EXCEPT that when Joel woke up? , I started LAUGHING MY ASS OFF AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA .............

He had a knot on His head the size of a goose egg! HA HA HA AH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..............I knew it was not the thing to do , but hey! we were 17!!!!!!!!!

and it was cool to laugh at your buddy!!!!!

Finally, I got my act together , I managed to go check Him out , aside from His hurt ego and my aching sides , and His BUMP , (!) , HA HA HA HA .........He was OK .

That morning , Joel woke up with a Head ache , me ? with a malicious grin, ha ha ha .

He , Joel , actually laughed with me . We went on ..

As events turned out , Joel REALLY became good with the SLING (!)

In the next few days Joel REALLY SHOWED OFF His STUFF!

in the beginning , I may HIT 3 , He hit 1 , as time progressed ? it went 3:2, then 3:3 , AND IF GAWD WEREN'T MY WITNESS ? Joel RAMMED UP TO 3:5 . or the other way around . 5(him ) : 3 (me ) . what ever.

At this point in time Joel and I had fun competing for the best bag ! ha ha ha ha ....

He .....WE , .....REALLY had fun getting food , and as goofy as it may sound? We felt as we had an Angle , (ZAPATA ) , looking over us ...... (GO FIGURE !) ha ha ha .....

By this time we were north of Tlaxcala on our way to Veracruz , it was almost a strait shot east to the sea !

( YEAH BABY ! ).......

AND THEN THERE WERE JOELS' BORDELLOS

You were expecting me to RAT on a brother? ha ha ha ......................

not today ................ suffice it to say He created His own "FRANKENSTEIN-SCHLONG" ! ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA ..........(a good JEWISH BOY GONE BAD ? where have I heard THAT before ? ) ROTF-HMS-LMAO ! ( R O T F =rolling on the floor , H M S = holding my sides , L M A O = laughing my ass off )

I wish I could share the energy of this mirth with you .! It would be enough to POWER MANHATTAN for a night !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

E S D

A Life In The Day (30)

............BETTER NOW............

ROTF-HMS-LMAO , ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

OK , OK , I really have it together now....................HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ..

ha ha ah ahahah aha ha ahaha ha ha ha ah a...........................i'll- ha ha ha ha- be back later- ha ha ha ha .................OUT COLD........ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA ..........

E S D

A Life In The Day (29)

BE WARNED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told you to go pee before you read this entry !!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA .........OK

OK , so I said earlier that I was perty good, HELL NO ! I was GREAT with my WHAMO SLINGSHOT! ha ha ha . And I was the food gather-er. and how I loved to rub it in to Joel .

OK , OK , OK ................(the ONLY IMPRESSION I DO -JOE PESSICE- ) ha ha ha ha . So as we are going South but East of Zacatecas , to be close but not IN any big cities , ( the small towns were just fine for us. ), and Joel STILL had the opportunity to VISIT bordellos . (HA HA HA HA HA .....Joel had CREATED HIS OWN MONSTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) , and WE STILL HAD plenty OF MOTA ! AND WE DID LISTEN TO "EL ZAPATA's " injunction about NOT going into ANY city with this GREAT shit!

Did you know that there are some REALLY BEAUTIFUL forest areas in South Eastern portions of Mexico? anyway , ........... ha ha ha ha ...........OK ,so NOW think about the LAST EPISODE of

"STAR WARS", with the little furry teddy bears ? The FOREST PLANET ? ha ha ha ha ...

think about it ! IT WILL BE COMING UP A BIT LATER ! ha ha ha ha ha ...................

OK , Joel and I are going on our merry way and to go North of Mexico City , but South of San Luis Potosi . really between the 2 .

So as Joel and I are riding thru the combination of deserts and lush forest we begin to see more Game and Joel decides to become a DAVID to the GOLIATH of GAME , and starts practicing on a "SLING" that He made so at least He can say that He brings in food now! ..........ha ha ha ha ha ha ................sorry , but it get a whole lot better as it goes along .................

As the days go on , Joel starts to practice with his sling, when I go off to get some meat and tubers, there are times that I had a good day and bagged meat easily, and came back to the camp to see Joel practicing on cacti . I gotta give Joel credit for stick-to-it-ness. He REALLY tried hard at mastering the SLING ! and if push comes to shove , outta 10 shots? at least 1 hit close to the cactus ! ha ha ha ha.......(IT GETS BETTER !) ......ha ha ha ha ha ...........in time He did get better to the N'th degree ! ( BUT NOT YET !!!!) ROTF - HMS - LMAO !

So now We are in the territory of , or close to the town of , Teocelo on our way to Veracruz,

and for the most part we had what I come to think was normal passage . We met many nice people of /from surrounding villages. Many of whom were envious and some but not few were glad that they were not wanderers and seemed to be happy to have their own land.

One couldn't look down at them , one could only look at them with awe and respect.

OK , so Joe and I are South of Jalapa on our way to Veracruz , We wanted to go to the sea for fun and girls ! ha ha ha ha ........So as we are on our way and still in the desert Joel wants to impress me by showing off His skills with the sling...............ha ha ha ha ha ha ..................................... ( here it comes folks ! )....... OK , so we are in litely treed woods and He says, " lets go hunting! " , I say, "what the fuck. ok.", He takes the lead and we come across a herd (?) , of JAVOLINAS .

editors note :

Peccary, also javelina, common name for a small, nocturnal wild pig, confined to the southwestern United States south to central Argentina. It is 0.8 to 1.1 m (2.6 to 3.6 ft) long, 44 to 69 cm (17 to 27 in) high at the shoulder, weighs about 14 to 40 kg (31 to 88 lb), and has grizzled gray-black or brown-black hair. Three species are known. The collared peccary, with a white neck band, is wide-ranging; it roams in groups of 2 to 50 animals, feeding on insects, roots, fruit, and reptiles. The white-lipped peccary is a less common, slightly larger forest dweller that runs in herds of up to several hundred individuals. The Chacoan peccary, with longer legs, ears, and snout, was originally described from subfossil remains, and was thought to have become extinct some 11,000 years ago. A live animal was subsequently discovered in Argentina, and was first reported in scientific literature in 1975.

OK , enough of that , so we come across a small heard of Javolinas and we start approaching them , ha ha ha ha ha ..... and now Joel reaches in his pocket for a smooth stone from a river bed we had passed and seats it in the pouch , ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ........ (sorry folks, but I know whats coming up ! ) , ..ha ha ha ha ...........OK , so picture a classic GREEK statue of a GREEK JAVELIN THROWER and you are seeing Joel , up and twirling the stone in His sling around His head, ha ha ha ha ha ha aha .....................with His arm pointing out in front of him pointing at the Javolinas.

the animals He intends to hit ! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ..........(GO PEE NOW FOLKS ! )............ha ha ha ha ha ..........So there Joel is standing up twirling the sling above His head , ha ha ha ha ha ha ha , and it catches on His out stretched hand and drops down in the level of the swing and ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and starts to rap around His arm and neck , ha ha ha ha ha like that little EWOK from STAR WARS , (remember Him ? ) HA HA HA HA

and like in the movie it wraps around his neck and arm with rapidity in ever shortening circles at the same time gathering speed until it slaps Him up along side the head and knocked Him cold ! ROTF-HMS-LMAO , HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ....................................

I couldn't help myself .I fell down on the ground LAUGHING SO HARD rolling in the dirt like "PIG PEN " FROM THE comic strip PEANUTS , tears STREAMING HA HA HA HA HA DOWN MY FACE , HA HA HA HA , AND i HADN'T peed YET BEFORE wE WENT OUT ON THE ha ha ha ha THE HUNT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA H A..........and I peed my pants , HA HA HA HA HA , and didn't care !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ........

I should have been concerned with Joels' health and well being , BUT I COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING!!!!!!!!!!!!HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAA...........(tears now even come to my eyes!!!!!!!!! HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. ), i couldn't stoppppppp...................

E S D

A Life In The Day (28)

................. THE GIFTS ................

We woke up the next morning ,bright eyed and bushy tailed. ( NO PUN !)., and

as we set about stoking the embers of last nights fire and ready-ing coffee, I started to relate to Joel what I thought could have been a dream and just needed feed back on the weirdness of it .

Joel perty much co-oburated all that I thought , it being a WEIRD DREAM , and we both started laughing !!!!!!

Joel said He was going to the bikes for something and a moment later I heard Him call me over in kind of a panic!

IT WASN'T A DREAM !!

From Joel's handlebars were hanging 4 cleaned and dress rabbits , from mine were both our helmets with one full of prairie hen eggs and in the other a KILO of REEFER in it !!!!!!! WHOA !!!

YEAH BABY !!!!

Without saying a word Joel got 2 of the rabbits , took them back to the camp fire and cooked them and the eggs , we ate and didn't say a word until we had digested both the food and our thoughts.

By this time it was about 10 am , ( really late for the desert ), Joel looks over at me and asked,

" so what do ya think about it all ? "

I replied , " If all that went down last night was for real , then the way I see it , we have CARTE BLANCH as far as our travel goes. at least as long as we choose to stay in the country of Mexico. But hey , there's more to the world then Mexico! ha ha ha (you see we had more balls then brains ! remember we are 17 !)"

So we cleaned up camp and hit the road again but just before we did I stopped , bent over and picked up desert sand and faced to the North and threw up some sand , then I turned to the West and did the same as I did to the South and East. Joel asked me what the hell I was doing , and I told him , "I'm saying THANK YOU TO MOTHER EARTH FOR OUR BOUNTY .".

The funny thing was that Joel didn't laugh but did the same thing.

We headed south of Saltillo going perty much down the center of the Mexico corridor with no particular time schedule in mind.

Along the way we had some REALLY super nite rides !

ASSUMPTION on THE EDITORS' PART :

" Have you ever danced with the devil in the cold moonlight? , Or soared to the silvery moon on ethereal , (than you Lindy ) wings of gossamer thoughts and returned to the earth and chased Bats as they flew though the night winds chasing their nocturnal foods only to scare the shit out of them ,wondering " what the hell was that?!"? all the while doing 50 MPH on a desert highway with no headlights at 2am , and the moon shining down with the blue brightness of the SUN ?with nothing before or behind you for MILES and MILES? "

LET ME DIGRESS......... :)

Remember that I had said / thought/wondered , if the MOTA, was laced with ground PEYOTE?

Well , Joel and I ,because of our GIFT, now had the pleasure of sharing "joints" during the days rides , and subsequently had a fucking ball (!) riding thru the desert at night !

Sometimes we even did 14MPH at a stretch...................... :)

Time at this point was liken to sand that you emptied out of your shoe while sitting down after walking on the beach ..........

Hunger was liken to a Very distant relative knocking on the door 5 houses down the road.......................

Worry was like something that had been flushed down the toilet , yesterday.................

The future was like a brand new NEW YORK STYLE CHEESECAKE and a PITCHER of ICE COLD MILK beside it just WAITING TO BE EATEN !!!!!!!

Think of the clearest night you have EVER encountered outside under the canopy of Gawds cloak. The BRIGHTEST night that you EVER thought you saw was a black room compared to the skies of a DESERT , hundreds of miles from civilization and neon lights ! You could sit , or RIDE (HA HA HA HA ) and see the Majesty of THE HEAVENS and all the balls on the celestial pool table as they all banked off the rails OF THE UNIVERSE !!!!!!!!!!!

WOWSER !!!!!!!!!!

We would plan our days so that we were rested enough to settle at a campsite at sunset and eat a bit so that we could "burn" a "J" and then RIDE THE HIGHWAYS AT NIGHT with NO HEADLIGHTS ON ! And with NO sound on other then our WELL TUNED BIKES!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A FUCKING RUSH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine riding on the surface of the MOON , or MARS !!!!!!!! ( THANK YOU John Carter for letting me and my buddy ride on your canals of VASOOM !!!!!!! :) PS. I love your diaries ! )

E S D

A Life In The Day (27)

---------LATER THAT NIGHT--------

Now here it gets dicey .........

OK , so now (what , 1/2 hour later?) , everyone is perty well smashed including Joel and myself , who no longer even CARE if we get drawn and quartered or raped or thrown into a locked room full of rabid Jehovah's Whiteness's confronting 2 drunk JEW boys !

So here we are all merrily sitting around the fire when "EL ZAPATA", says "Trigan la MOTA, HOMBRES ! " (translated = bring on the shit boys, mary jane , weed , REEFER .............),

YEAH BABY!!!!!!

By this time Joel and I didn't give a rats ass what might happen to us ! Hell , We had a full stomach of lizards , snake , cactus pears , Tequila and JUST smoked a shit load of REEFER !

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .........

christ ! I'm getting a contact high just typing this out !!!!!!!!!

He and his men seemed to be dealing with the high better then Joel and I .We were just sitting there , bleary eyed with shit eating grins on our faces and full stomachs as He said to us , " That boy that the 2 of you had befriended at "LA PLATA Catina" is my nephew ., and I was told that you , (as He looked at me .), treated Him with dignity and brotherhood.!"

(HOW THE HELL DID HE KNOW THIS? we didn't see any telephone poles, wires, heliographs , smoke signals , pony express.....WE DIDN'T SEE DICK!! HOW... DID... HE... KNOW ??? !!! ).

From that point on We were in LA LA LAND.............

As the night progressed Joel and I seemed to go in and out of that "PURPLE HAZE " that you might have heard that GUY sing about in the '60s . In retrospect I have often wondered

if "LA MOTA " , could of had some ground up "PEYOTE " mixed in with it . All that I know is that it was the COOLEST reefer that I've EVER had in My life, bar none !

So the rest that transpired during the rest of the night was all kind of a blur.....

I kinda remember that "EL ZAPATA" , said something about gratitude for the humanity and generosity that I had shown to his nephew, that and the fact that after "watching"(?) us and seeing how we had managed to live off the land like true "HIJOSES (sp) DE LA TIERRA"

= "SONS OF THE EARTH", he was happy and willing to grant us "SAFE PASSAGE FROM ANY AND ALL BANDIDOS " we might encounter on our way to Central America . (apparently , that was the extent of His power, influence (?) , also it seemed as we found out Early the next morning a GREAT TRAVEL GIFT with the injunction not to have it on our person if we came to any city , being "GRINGOS"and all.

I think that we ALL laughed a great deal that night and comradery was as thick among us as

honey on hot buttered toast. ( somewhere along the way Joel and I passed out only to be wakened by a BEAUTIFUL sun peeking over the mountains in the east . )

AND THE GIFTS !

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A Life In The Day (26)

.................THE LAST SUPPER ?.................

I really don't know how to continue with this part of the narrative because it gets kinda involved........

Here He tells some of his men to bring more food , ( what ? , they were expecting us? ) and 3 more guys emerge from the boundary of the campfire light and cart in 6 rabbits , and as quick as one can "moan"

O M G !

Theis guys GUT theis RABBITS WITH SPEED AND EFFICIENCY!!!!!!!!!! and build up our fire and start cooking them !

The whole time Joel and I are thinking , "We should stand up , bend over , put our heads between our legs , and kiss our asses GOODBYE! ". As the rabbits start cooking , He asks , "tiene bebe? " , ( have anything to drink? ).

Smart ass me , trying to look cool , nod and reach over and give Him the bottle of Tequila, (( MY HAND WAS SHAKING SO MUCH THAT IF IT WERE CARBONATED IT WOULD HAVE GOUTED A FOUNTAIN OF FOAM! think a "Mello" candy dropped into a liter of COKE !) ( I can't swear to this but I think I saw a quicksilver smile cross His face as I handed Him the shaking bottle.))

Ya know ,now after 4 decades , looking back on the events of that night? I REALLY think that that ugly son of a bitch was having FUN with us as he played His mind games on us !

He kept talking to his men in a rapid dialect of Spanish that neither Joel or I could understand.

Every now and then his men would laugh and look over at us , (the whole time I'm thinking that scene from "DELIVERANCE " , " LETS' HEAR YA SQUEAL , BOYS ! SQUEAL LIKE A CUPPLA PIGS NAWH !").

EDITORS NOTE :

IN THE ARMY THIS IS WHAT'S CALLED A "PUCKER FACTOR #1 " which equates to your SPHINCTER mussel getting SO TIGHT due to fear of ANY given situation that a molecule of HELIUM couldn't get Thur !

As the rabbits finished cooking , He started passing OUR bottle of Tequila to his men and now I'm thinking , (" why haven't they searched our packs yet ? and if He does he'll find the rest of our Tequila to ! The least He could do is allow us to get shitfaced if we're gonna be SODOMISED and KILLED !"

( INJECT HERE A "BONN MOTE" OF PHILOSOPHIC CONTEMPLATION )

- GAWD HAS A PERVERTED SENSE OF HUMOR ! -

Here his men do a MIRACULOUS TRANS CONFIGURATION OF CHANGING SAND INTO at least 6 or 8 bottles of home distilled Tequila of their own ! OUT OF NOWHERE!!!! GO FIGURE !!!!!!

Here He asks us if we'd like to join Him and his men in His rabbits ? Joel and I both declined , saying that we both ate already and would be more then happy to show him all that we ate on the desert sand ! (We were both THAT scared!!!!!!!!!!!!! remember " PUCKER FACTOR #1 ? "

That statement seemed to break the ice , because after He translated it to his men , they ALL started to laugh so hard that they appeared to cry with mirth as they rolled on the ground .

ZAPATA now tells his men to give us a bottle of Tequila , (Oh , rite . I forgot to mention that we found out that He chose to call Himself , ZAPATA , as in "THE LIBERATOR OF MEXICO"?.....................rite...................well after all He did steal from the rich.................

actually He stole from everyone , if the truth be known ! .............. and He did share a BIT of His gains with his men............................and He WAS big , ugly , mean looking , smelly , dumber then a bag of hammers and probably had a brain pan the size of a chick pea and as it seemed , only a bit smarter then his gaggle of inbred ,mentally challenged bandalleros . but as it turned out , He had a heart the size of MONTANA ! (WHICH WE WERE ABOUT TO FIND OUT LATER THAT NIGHT !)

E S D

A Life In The Day (25)

INSTANT KARMA and the MOUNTAIN of the BANDIT KING.....................(not)

After we gathered our wits and courage, and made sure that our bikes were operable .

We decided to head off to the nearest village or town for basic supplies, gas , food

and a shitload of Tequila , ( for medicinal purposes , .... of course.)

We came first to a road side cafe along the road on our way south of CHIHUAHUA ,

basically to by-pass Mexico City south on to the Panama Canal.

The cafe that we came upon was the type that one doesn't see in travel TV shows , it was a true "locals" cafe , eatery type road house.

As we drove up and parked our bikes we noticed that our stomachs were screaming for what smelled to be wonderful local foods emanating from the cafe inside. The place wasn't overly populated so we went to a table and ordered what tasted to us as "food of the GODS".

As we sat at our tables , having finished our repast and enjoying our thick , delicious local coffee, I noticed what looked to be a "scruffy" local kid who the other patrons seemed to be leaving a space clear of him. The kid looked to be our age or there abouts , and seemed to be sad , dejected and skinny!

Joel didn't seem to pay too much attention to the kid but for some reason I couldn't seem to look away......His t-shirt was ripped, his pants had holes , he looked hungrier then a vegetarian at a pig roast , and all he was eating was tortillas de arena , ( Flower tortillas, yummy when FRESH AND HOT !), but I digress. Even though he looked like something the cat drug in and the dog threw out , he still managed to have an air of dignity about himself .

We were in the lot and ready to mount up , when " something" stopped me in my tracks.........

I turned back to the cafe and walked up to his table and asked , " por favor , si se puede o si se quede. ben con migo afueda ? Quedo habalar con tigo." = ( if you can or if you will come outside with me ? i wish to speak with you.) . I think he read in my face a lack of hostility , but friendship there . As we walked to the bikes , I asked him why he seemed so forlorn and dejected? and why so impoverished? At 17 and in those days it didn't seem to be an aggressive query for one kid to ask another when asked in all innocents and compassion.

His answer was that his uncle wanted him to follow in his footsteps and basically take over the business. I didn't push for answers, that would have been transgressing Latin Civility, so he left his Uncle's "HOME", to find his own way Thur life but things were tough for a number of reasons , one being his appearance. namely the disrepair of his clothing.

For a few seconds I stood there looking in his eyes ..........its hard to say what I felt/saw there , but I had made up my mind . Without another word I opened the pack on the back of my bike and proceeded to give him a pair of jeans , 3 pairs of sox , 2 t-shirts , a bar of soap.

We stood there looking at each other and all I could say was, "I don't have much that I can share , but please take what I can and make your way Thur life better armed".

We stood there looking at each other and tears came to our eyes then smiles. He gave a slight nod , I did the same and we turned away from each other and walked , he to what ever future he sought , me to my horse, (bike), and saddled up . Joel looked at me and said, "NU? so ? what are you trying to do , get INSTANT KARMA? " , I looked at him and told him to , "fuck off! " . We then started up our bikes and rode to the South and the "MOUNTAINS".

MOUNTAIN of The BANDIT KING...........................(not)

After having resupplied our packs , we preceded to head South and being "dumb" kids we just sluffed off the warnings of the talk about THE MOUNTAINS (and the supposed reports of the bandit king , hey , remember we were 17? ha ha ha , and God protects Mad Dogs and English Men AND Dumb Teenagers ! that was us!!!! )

As we drove Thur the desert I managed to get perty damned good with my "WHAMO" slingshot, to the point where we never went hungry . That's not to say that we had steak everyday , but Gila monster does taste like chicken if cooked right. and rattle snake tastes alot like chicken to , and prairie hen and big lizards and jackrabbits and turtle........................

hell man , everything tastes alot like chicken in the desert for that matter! ha ha ha ha

At least we didn't have to do any of that reality TV survival crap with bugs and shit like that..........yuck!

A couple of days later we saw what looked like an oasis in the distance at the foot of the mountain range so we decided to head that way and relax for a couple of days .

( INJECT HEAVY DRAMATIC MUSIC HERE! .......................)

We came to this site that looked like 29 PALMS in Calif. with a little stream ambling thur, so we decided to camp for the night , this was about 3 days after the encounter at the cafe and by that time it was all forgotten . As it was, Joel set up camp , I went out to get food.

I bagged 1 snake , 2 Gila's and 1/2 doz. cactus pears , not a bad haul....... ( I REALLY have to put it in here that what I am about to say does have pertinence to a future event! ha ha ha ha ha ha ........... so when we get to the jungles of Southern Mexico trust me!!!!!!!! go pee before you read THAT entry or you will wet yourself laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as I did SEEING it ! :) ).

OK , Joel is now getting a bit pissed at me because I was the food gatherer, and kept rubbing it in ........... R O T F ...

(couldn't help it . a guy thing........... :) L M A O - H M S - R O T F :) )

((READ THE REST OF THE STORY -PAGE 2 )( thanks PAUL HARVEY ))

As we are sitting at the camp fire eating lizards and drinking tequila ( FOCAL POINT ! the sun has set !), up meanders about 9 NASTY looking guys WITH RIFFLES AND PISTOLS AND KNIVES and everything but a fucking NUKE !

Now Enters THE BANDIT KING !!!!!!!!!

HE WAS NOT A HANDSOME GUY !

We were too scared to puke !

He asks us who we are and what we're doing in his turf! (basically). so I said we were travelers going thur his country on our ways to S.A. He then looks at us both and asks , " did you both stop at "La Plata Cantina " "? . " si senor, we did . porque?"

At this point he hesitated and thought ...............

Joel and I are about ready to evacuate our bowels and shoot to the moon!!!!!!!!!!!! WITH A SHITLOAD OF FUEL !!!! (NO PUN ! )

We were SCARED !!!!!

As we sat there contemplating our fate as TOAST ,The JEFFE , (THE BOSS ), just stood there looking at us . I'm thinking , "he's thinking the best way to have fun with us BEFORE or AS we die.............." . Our future seemed perty dismal..........................Joel and I are both saying KADDISH for each other.( a YIDDISH word = PRAYERS for the DEAD.).

For some reason not apparent to us at the time He tells his men to bring more food!

.....................(THE LAST SUPPER? )..................

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A Life In The Day (24)

THE VALLEY OF THE DEADLY TARANTULAS

/ or/ THE TWO SCREAMING GIRLY MEN !!!

....................................................................

................................................

Lets see..........how to start?..................

After Joel and I woke up around noon , (He with a BIG GRIN on his face , me with a hang over.) ,We ate enough to feed a J V High School Football Team, and fitted out our Bikes , We decided to hit the road again , (seeing as how we were $500 richer, doesn't sound much by today's standards , but hey! it was 1964 ! )

At first, it seemed reasonable to stay to the main roads , be those as they were......(ha ha ha ha ha ha ................. the biggest jokes of modern times!!!!!!!!!!!)

Because we had Dirt Bikes it was easy for us to go off road , the reason being because we had heard in various Cantinas along the way , that there were Bandits on certain roads and mountains . We stayed north of Sonora and Hermosillo and went perty much thru the deserts , food and our survival skills not being much of a problem , ( being as how we were both Eagle Scouts when we were kids and all that shit . ) .

OK , so we are driving thru the desert at around 60MPH , at around noon or there abouts and off in the distance , ( a long distance, remember at 17 we have the eyes of hawks . ), we see LITERALLY(!) , A Field of Black about the size of a football field with ...........well let me put it this way. It looked like what you might see if you had an open frying pan of ORVILLE REDENBACKER POPCORN WITHOUT THE LID ! Things were just going everywhere! BLACK THINGS!!!!!!!! In a nano second going thru my mind is that this is an optical illusion ...........or just an optical illusion.......!

(EDITORS NOTE: for some reason in 1964 , the going fashion rage for teen guys in southern California was/ were / was, what ever, PENDELTON , LONG SLEEVE , FLANNEL SHIRTS! worn outside of your pants . Go figure! KEY WORD-FLANNEL! ) .

OK , so here we are driving down the path and as yet we are not sure what THEY were.

( REMEMBER! WE ARE DOING 60 MPH! ) At about 30 yards we can at least see that they are spiders. (REMEMBER THAT ALL THIS IS GOING THRU OUR MINDS AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT in a TIME sense!)

At 20 yards we can now see that they are NOT little spiders......

At 10 yards we can see that they are REALLY BIG spiders!.......................

As we drove INTO THEM , we now see that they are REALLY BIG FUCKING TARANTULAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the time we are 10 yards INTO them we both simultaneously hit the skids , (breaks) , and laid down our bikes and preceded to slide for about 20 or 30 more yards. At this point Joel and I

immediately scrambled out from under our bikes as quick as we could SCREAMING the whole time like little 7 yr. old girls ! Jumping up and down and SCREAMING like little girly men !

The whole time beating at ourselves and trying to get THESE GOD DAMNED TARANTULAS OFF OF OUR BODIES AND SCREAMING LIKE LITTLE GIRLY MEN !!!!!

( now picture a 1960's Mr. Wizard type TV program with some avuncular scientist explaining the how's and why's of an ATOMIC BOMB Explosion by way of show and tell . Remember this is STILL the era of THE RED THREAT , the WALL is still up . the IRON CURTAIN still surrounds a big portion of the world , AND KRUSCHEV STILL WANTS TO BURY US. and the CUBAN crisis is still in the future waiting to happen . So this fat fart with thick glasses standing in front of a 10'x10'x10' clear plastic cube and the bottom of the floor is filled with SET mouse traps with ping-pong balls sitting where the cheese would be and 1 small hole at the top .

He looks at the camera and says with a smug shit eating grin on his face , " This is what would happen if 1 HYDROGEN ATOM were excited by a simple "little" explosion , say the size of a stick of dynamite." , whereupon he drops the first ping-pong ball into the little hole. and the next sequence is done IN REALLY SLOW MOTION photography . The first ball hits the first trap! it trips! those 2 go off and you have 4 more , they go off and you have 16 , they go off and you have 32 , then 64 , then 128 until the whole clear plastic box is filled with ping-pong balls .

My point? ..............WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THESE FUCKING TARANTULAS JUMPING AROUND LIKE THOSE STUPID PING-PONG BALLS AND WE ARE SCREAMING LIKE LITTLE GIRLS PUSHED INTO A ROOM FULL OF WHITE MICE AND WETTING OUR PANTS! ! AND WE ARE JUMPING AND FLAPPING OUR ARMS AND TRYING TO GET RID OF THEIS HORRIFYING ARACHNIDS OFF OUR BODIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND MORE KEEP CLINGING TO US!!!!!!!!!! )

Editors Note :

One of the reasons why we had such a hard time getting rid of these
Tarantulas .
Tarantulas have tiny hairs on the back of their abdomen and back legs that will stick to an enemy if disturbed and ITCH.
Tarantulas have re-tractable claws, just like cats!
Some tarantulas can get as big as DINNER PLATES !
Tarantulas’ bite is actually not that dangerous; no more worse than a bee sting (unless you’re allergic, of coarse or scared shitless and SCREAMING LIKE LITTLE GIRLS!!!).

Remember the key words? We were wearing FLANNEL SHIRTS!!!!

Now try to picture this: 2 guys with kinda longish hair full of TARANTULAS!

FLANNEL SHIRTS from neck to wrists COVERED in TARANTULAS!

Jeans pretty much covered in the GOO and ENTRAILS of TARANTULAS from rolling around on the ground while trying to get our feet under us so we could RUN LIKE BATS OUTTA HELL to get to the free space from where we first encountered the TARANTULAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We ran for what seemed an eternity , about 50 yards before exhaustion and being O D'ed by adrenalin , overcame us and we collapsed !

We were so exhausted that all we could do was lay there panting and watch the migrating horde go on its merry way hopping off to the north east . That took about 1-1/2 hours. Before sunset we managed to raise ourselves enough to stagger to our bikes and push them beyond the perimeter of the killing fields. We then managed to gather enough dried tinder and cactus to build a fire big enough to be seen by a satellite for GOOGLE EARTH , FROM SPACE!

We both held large STICKS AND STONES just ready to defend ourselves , JUST IN CASE...........( Imagine a guy in a room with a pump shotgun just waiting for a mosquito to come in the room!) We didn't sleep much that night............

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A Life In The Day (23)

THE LONGEST TRIP BEGINS WITH THE FIRST STEP

OK,

So now you are about to be told some VERY strange things that we encountered on our road trip south thru Mexico to South America and the discovery of "OUR" "RIO DEL ORO" which in a short time (relatively speaking) , financed OUR DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!! . Whether or not you chose to believe them is up to you , but we LIVED thur them ! As RIPLEY once said ," BELIEVE IT OR NOT!", so fuck you, :) , There were times that if I gave a shit I would have checked out the facts with NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for validation , but hey! to us it was REAL! and we survived it all ! And some of it was pretty damned funny!!!!!!!!! :) , and other encounters were REALLY SCARY ! AS YOU WILL SEE! (insert the LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA , kettle drums , oboes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the back round.)

Our first travail was to get thru the boarder crossing at TIJUANA , Mexico .

TIJUANA connotes , (more Philharmonic Orchestra here and a shitload of kettle drums! , please?)

" THE BLUE FOX BAR"

remember folks and guys of this era , ITS THE MID 60's ha ha ha ha ha ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,{remember , "Peace , Love , Dove? Turn on , Tune in , and Drop out? YEAH BABY! :)- } ,

THE BLUE FOX,......................

ah the memories...................................

Joel and I did what any HEALTHY young American kid of 17 with RAGGING HORMONES would do upon entering any boarder town , (where it was legal for U.S. kids to drink !) , We went to the HOTTEST bar in this NASTY boarder town ! ha ha ha ha ha ha ...........We went to ........................................................................

THE BLUE FOX !!!!!

(insert GIGANTIC GRINS!!!!!!! :) and hard-ons the size of the Washington Monument with the strength of blue twisted steel ! ), HEY ! WE WERE 17 !! OK ? ..... :)

Now here goes a query to those of us GUYS who grew up in the 60's .

Did any of you ever hear or see the XXX video of the lady on a stage with Talcum powder and Hard Boiled eggs and REALLY STRONG THIGH mussels? ?

We were there before it was taped! LOL , R O T F - H M S - L M A O

(REMEMBER , that early in this narrative I had said that I would not hold back descriptions or vernacular of any event, so if you are of a Victorian bent or of Protestant ennui? Buzz off!

This is MY life ! and besides , WHO'S' GONNA READ THIS MISSIVE? R O T F - H M S -

L M A O ! All I know is that this encyclical is rather purging for me , and that feels good !

Has anyone of you out there ever seen both a woman and a Donkey on a stage at the same time? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ................................

This is why "THE BLUE FOX " , was shut down in 68' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

L M A O - H M S !

WOLFMAN JACK used to broadcast from Tijuana from a 100,000 Watt transmitter there which was prohibited and restricted in the U.S. ( P.S. I had the pleasure of meeting WOLFMAN in San Luis Obispo , California, where I had my business before my wife died, and just before he died............... I have no idea why I said that.................

if I thought there was anyone out there reading this missive I would blush , as it is I'm just a little weepy at the encounters of my /some bitter sweet memories.................. forgive me, self...........

.........................................................................................................................................................

ALRITY NOW . LETS STOP BEING MAUDLIN!

..........................................................................................................................................................

OK , so Joel and I stayed in T J for about 2 weeks , and being both enterprising young American JEWS , ( Did I mention that Joel was also a put down JEWISH kid like myself? lol ), we actually made more money for our future adventures by selling REEFER in TJ to American kids on day trips ? ! lol lol (RITE , THAT'S LIKE SAYING ONE CAN SELL SIN to GOD!) , lol . , BUT WE DID !

We bought low and sold HIGH ! lol (Did I mention that I spoke only 5 languages at the time , and Joel spoke 3? ).

So we bought from the Mexicans who we spoke to and sold to the American guys who trusted us because we spoke English. Do the math ! lol

Joel loses his cherry in TJ !!

It's a little hard to go into this without giving a little background into Joel's' past.

From what he shared with me , he came from an overbearing mother and father , which in itself for a male in a Jewish family is kinda hard to accept, but there you have it . The basic reason why Joel ranaway.

To add insult to injury they made him question his masculinity because of his perchant to the ARTS. His parents wanted him to be ONLY a Lawyer or Medical Doctor. I never understood that aspect of his parents will? Granted that his parents came from Russia during WW2 as immigrants seeking political and religious asylum., but why would they have insisted on any other field other then the ARTS?

I respected Joel's trepidation on speaking about it and never pushed for answers.

Be that as it may , one night after having seen the show at the "BLUE FOX" , and being perty shitfaced , as we staggered back to our hotel room , Joel ask ME if I was still a virgin ? I felt the embarrassment in his voice and attempted to gauge my response to his feelings and moods .

The look of pain and anguish in his eyes was heart rendering , and with all the compassion and understanding camaraderie of a FRIEND, I replied,

"YOUR STILL A VIRGIN? L M A O - H M S - R O T F " I was laughing so hard with tears in my eyes that as I leaned on a post that wasn't there , I fell to the ground Holding My Sides. Joel seeing the ridiculousness of the question in my posture , started laughing as hard as I was and started kicking me in the ass ! (remember we were both shitfaced!). After what seemed an eternity (but not long enough!) , we stopped laughing , wiped our eyes , looked at each other and started cracking up again!

So I did what any good buddy would do in a situation like this.....

I took him to , "ROSA'S' CANTINA" , (YEAH , YOU HEARD IT RIGHT, Rosa's Cantina ! )

One of the last things I did , and I thought with HONEST compassion , I asked him if he REALLY wanted to lose his virginity at a whore house in some ratty boarder town like , TIA JUANNA?

His reply was from the heart and very sincere,

"HELL YEAH!"

E S D

A Life In The Day (22)

"ON THE ROAD AGAIN."

So after we had breakfast, (I went out and shot a GILA MONSTER with my WHAM-O slingshot, it impressed the hell out of Joel as well as myself! I only used 1 Bering! lol , and it was a head shot! It tasted good! AND IT TASTED LIKE CHICKEN! ) . We then saddled up and rode............. this was the FIRST TIME EVER IN MY LIFE THAT I DID NOT HAVE A SINGLE WORRY !!!!!!! bar none!!!!!!!!!......................

.............................................

Its' difficult to say what was going thur both our minds at that time , but you can bet it wasn't about body bags or NAM.

As we drove on , I dare say that Joel was thinking about his future in the art world and how he'd get there . (You see his dream was to go to ART School in Paris and become an artist of worth . But he was put down by his family and peers for dreaming of a "useless career".),and besides , how would he get there now?

I on the other hand wasn't really thinking of anything other then "how can I write of my experiences like "PAPA HEMMING WAY" one of my Hero's! (I knew that I couldn't hold a "match stick " to the one of the Last GREAT POETS OF THE CLASSICAL ERA -OVID, so I picked my next Hero. that's why I had brought a ream of paper with me in my backpack . I'd read ALL His books and figured "if He can do it , then why oh why can't I ?"

Guess what? ALL OUR DREAMS CAME TRUE !!!!!!!

How THAT happened , you will find out a few months down the road.

.....................................

ESD

A Life in the Day (21)

THE ENCOUNTER................

Great segway , what? lol lol .

OK, so there I was after the pee and freezing my tits off , shaking with cold from being on THE ROAD, and as I tried to lay out my quilt to get some sleep, along comes this "guy" who sees me shaking and flapping my arms to get some circulation going , and offers me the warmth of his heater in his car . Little did I know what his "true" intentions were!

Granted that I had survived P. A. , but that was in a cloistered world of a military academy. I didn't think that "Dreck" like that could seep into the outside "real world".

OK , so the guy asks me to have a seat IN HIS CAR as he turns on the heater,what a dummy I was! Now understand that I have NO idea what's on his mind , YET !

OK , now I'm starting to see the light as he say," Have you ever seen pictures like theis?" , I take one look and say,"see ya!" , and get my skinny Jewish ass out of the car as quick as I can and run for my bedroll and bike even FASTER! In the 60's there was a saying..........."color me GONE!". I was !

I managed to jump on my "horse" and ride as fast as she could for about 2 hours until the cold got to me again and I HAD to stop from lack of sleep and the cold that was eating into me ! , so it happened that I saw a roadside pull-over site (you know , those that look like a concrete picnic table with a hood?).

I was too tired to resist, so I looked and saw cacti behind the area and drove into them to find Suaro Catie and COVER................

The morning came bright , sunny and hot . As I woke up to make coffee on a back-pack Sterno grill , I heard the cursing of a kindred spirit over by the concrete picnic table.

Now enters Joel Lake , who turns out to become my buddy ,fellow explorer and traveling companion in America , South America and England. He to was a runaway and the same age as me , 17, AND with a lame "horse!"(Kawasaki 250 CC. motorcycle with bad plugs),and a runaway as well ! (go figure! )

( Sorry for the delay in notes, but I just got a third job , and working 106 hours per week kinda puts the skids to time at the type writer ! The DREAM that I am working for is THAT important! More on THAT later!!!!!!!!! ).

OK , So I walk over slowly and check him out at a distance , and figure its OK , so I say, "Hi, sup? ".

Scared the shit outta him! ha ha ha ha ......He thought He was alone , like I did me.

So I ask him to go to my camp and get coffee for the both of us and I'd check out his bike.

He returns and I'd already checked and replaced the "plugs", (did I say that I was a good "JEWISH " BOYSCOUT?) that I saw were fouled.

As we sat there talking and getting the measure of each other , it comes to pass that we both thought the other guy is cool if not a little "odd", ha ha ha ...

Above all things , it came to pass that we seemed to agree on ALL things such as ,1) mortality , 2)education , 3)politics , 4)authority , 5)drugs , 6)girls and 7)sex................ :)

answers? ...read the book! ha ha ha .

1) too short. 2) NOT ENOUGH! 3) BITE ME ! 4) ALWAYS CHALLENGE AUTHORITY! (thanks ABBY HOFFMAN! :) ) 5) REEFER RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;) 6 & 7) YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

After a bit more of small talk , I asked him where he was going. His reply was , "beats the fuck outta me." , whereupon I said, " lets flip a stick! ", So I reached over and picked up a twig, made one end different from the other and threw it up in the air!!!!!!!!!!! (picture 2001- the movie, where the ape throws up the thigh bone of a vanquished food source! ) ........................

DON'T YOU GET IT YET?

AT THAT MOMENT , WE JUST BOTH CREATED OUR DESTINES!!!

ESD

A Life in the Day (20)

....................THE ROAD....................

GOOD MORNING STAR SHINE , THE EARTH SAYS HELLO............YOU TWINKLE OUT FURTHER .........WE TWINKLE BELOW.........(tra la -tra la...... ).....GOOD MORNING STAR SHINE ,YOU LEAD US ALONG..............AS WE SING OUR EARLY MORNING SINGING SONG............................SCHOOBIE DO DOWA , SHOOBIE DO DOWA , lala , ho.h....................

I'm singing this at probably 1am ,(remember , it circa. 1964, going 60 MPH, south on highway 101 on my way to Mexico and scared shitless! (WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING ? ).......I really have NO idea! All that keeps going Thur my mind are pictures of "body bags", on C B S , N B C , A B C , AND INVITATIONS TO ATTEND THE FUNERALS OF MY DEAD CLASSMATES! ........................

Here I'm 17 years old with the only ability to survive resting in the upbringing of my Father and His desire that I read ALL subjects in as MANY varied genre !

Well let's get along with the rest of the story..................

OK , It's about 3 am and I'm cold , REALLY COLD!, and I gotta pee ! (that's' funny now, then I had a bladder the size of Montana ! and when I pee-d , it was with the force of "old faithful" , now I have a bladder the size of a golf ball and when I pee , I'm lucky if I can put out a match with a dribble! ha ha ha ha! ..........) I know! too much information! lol

Well I picked one of those rest stops on the highway even there then. so I pulled over to , 1)PEE and 2) TO GET SOME SHUTEYE. Little did I know that I was about to get one of my first LIFE LESSONS on this road of LIFE! (ergo , the title- A Life in the Day)...............

OK , so after my pit stop I encounter a........

ESD

A Life in the Day (19)

THE ROAD...........

Its' taken me 4 days to deal , mentate, sift, Judge, with what's about to be forth coming.....

4 days my ass! It's not easy to bear ones soul !

You , (the world) , has no idea what is about to happen now!

At this point I am about to let you chose the path of your desire or proclivity in standards.

HERE IS WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR CHOICES !

TO BELIEVE ? OR NOT TO BELIEVE !

:)

ESD

A Life in the Day (18)

HIGH SCHOOL HIGH-JINKS?

or just

HELL ON WHEELS ?

read the book...

Now this part tells of MANY TYPICAL occurrences in the life of a teenager.

Like loosing ones virginity with a girl named, "Stinky box wholfiler"(THATS THE TRUTH! lol ), and here I had a cast on my right foot from a break in SCRIMMAGE! in JV football PRACTICE of all things,and as I was "mounting"her,I swung my "casted" foot up and over only to come crashing down to BREAK HER TOE! lol lol (romantic ,yes?), and having the condom break at our climax! and here I had walked 1 mile to a local "ZODY'S" store (back then like a TARGET store today) ON CRUTCHES!!!!!!!!just to be safe for my FIRST SEXUAL ENCOUNTER! lol lol .......

Feeding BBQ RAT meat to my science teachers, and be complimented on it taste! (they didn't know what they ate! I had told them "rabbits", from our Lab Specimens, only my favorite Biology teacher "MR. KLIKINECK", knew! and He didn't tell them! He thought it was too funny! He knew rite off from the bone structures!

---Getting forced into sex with a septuagenarian.---

Almost getting caught having sex with a neighbors wife, and meanwhile standing in the shower stall as he took a piss with his back to me after coming home drunk only to stagger off to bed and pass out before I could escape! (think "The Pink Panther"), with Robert Wagner in the shower stall as Inspector Clouseau putzed around in the bathroom.(lol) ( remember I'm 14 yrs. old now and now I'm big.(growth hormones kicked into OVERDRIVE. so did my SEX DRIVE!)) .

Having sex on, and falling off of a Honda 250cc.scrambler motorcycle down a 50' gully in the mountains as a car came around the turn.

Making out in the back seat of my 56' push-button drive Plymouth as my date and I were at a drive-in playing "Birdman of Alcatraz"and have her Dentures pop-out!

Or running away from home for the first time.

As a runaway from Home for the first time , hearing AND seeing, "The RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS" and their NEW RELEASE, "LITTLE LATIN LOUPYLOU". or "DICK DALE and the DEL TONES"at the RONDEVU BALLROOM in Balboa Beach,Calif.

Meeting SHELLY FABRE, while working on a harbor tug as She was filming for, "The DONNA REED SHOW"

As a runaway , registering myself into CORONA DELMAR HIGH SCHOOL so as to still acquire my education AND get 2 part-time jobs to support myself as I attended school, AND RENT(!)an APARTMENT!!!!!!!!

Being caught as a juvenile runaway by an Officer Gomez, and as I had to wait for my parents to come retrieve me , He ACTUALLY APOLOGISED TO ME for having to bring me in!!!!!!!

He told me that I was the ONLY juvenile EVER, that He had EVER had encountered that installed himself back in High School, maintained good grades, gotten 2 part time jobs, and rented an apartment AND stayed out of trouble, to boot! (He met my parents and understood why I ran away!).

Meeting my First NYMPHOMANIAC(!) on Balboa Island in a record store, (for a JEWISH kid at the age of 16 who had the opportunity to DIDDLE a blond haired,blue eyed, shickza, who just LOVED to SCREW(!), this was a gift of MANNA from on high!!!!!!!!!), albeit, I was ALMOST caught by her father when he came into her room because he heard noises. (she was in bed under the covers , I was in the closet behind a pile of clothes until he left!), whereupon I left at the crack of dawn leaving Thur the window having to "CRAWL" and stagger 3 blocks to the ferry to get across the channel to my apt., to REST! (HEY! even at 16, SUPERMAN had his limits! ).

Or meeting THE REAL "LONE RANGER" from the old TV Series at the channel mouth one day as I pondered my future, and we talked......WOW, what a guy!

Or meeting ANDY DEVINE from the TV series "THE WILD BILL HITCHCOCK " TV show!

Or meeting BUDDY EPSON from "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLYS", what a sweet man!

Or graduating 2 yrs. early from high school, (did I mention that I was considered intelligent?) and getting a parental consent form signed to move out of the house, and move into a room the size 15'x5', and happy as a clam at high tide!

Or hearing about the ASSINATION of PRESIDENT KENNEDY as I was running stock at my after school job at "KINNEY'S SHOE STORE" and seeing my jerk-off, hard-assed boss cry like a baby as he heard the news on the radio news bulletin.

Or going to college and pledging the Fraternity "OMICRON DELTA NU" ,WE WERE THE "ORIGINAL"BAD BOYS ON or OFF CAMPUS! lol. We were kicked off-campus 2 times. Long before the movie "ANIMAL HOUSE", and for ALL the same reasons! (GOD BLESS ALL MY " O-D-N" BROTHERS OUT THERE!).

Or watching the "WATTS RIOTS" on TV and having 2 of my buddies who had bikes as well,(motorcycles), ask if I wanted to go down to WATTS and "check it out!", I declined, Harvey was arrested for being at the WRONG place AT the WRONG time, Billy was hospitalized for being a dumb-assed white boy in a black city of turmoil!

Or working 56 hrs. at an all-nite gas station and taking a full scholastic load at college and still not having enough money for a Biology Text. and after asking my mother for some assistance in its purchase, turning me down and saying she would not help!, saying that she didn't have the money to spare. (CRAP! the woman was f--king RICH! what with the portfolio that my Father had left her and with the various settlements from 2 previous divorces and this third and current "SCHLEP", who had his own meat packing company! (no pun!) remember that I had said that she went "MACHUGANA" after Fathers death! And turned into a really twisted woman!).

Or wondering , "What is this thing called VIET NAM"?", that we keep seeing on TV?

"What's a POLICE ACTION?"

Why did 5 of my classmates "knock-up" their girlfriends and get married SO fast?

What's a "DEFERMENT"?

What's the "DRAFT"?

Why were 7 of my classmates Killed In Action?

Why did 3 of my "FRAT BROTHERS",suddenly have a REALLY small goodbye party and leave for Canada so fast?

Why did 3 of who I thought to be my "best-est friends" come over late one night to bring me my mail? and when I opened it , it started with the words,"GREETINGS, FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ..................."....................AND WHY DID I THINK IT WAS REAL?????? hell I was only 17 ! (6 years later I found out that they meant it as a joke and really didn't think it would elicit such actions on my part!

Or why, after they left that night, were my hands shaking as I packed my backpack with underwear, jeans, Homer, Hemingway, a ream of note paper, a packing quilt from a moving van and $200.

Or why, after midnight , as I sat on my Honda 250c.c. scrambler and a full tank of gas, was I crying?

THE ROAD.................

E S D