Posts by Richard

“Hey Doug,” I say proud with my clever new idea, “Look what I came up with. This is an ingenious way to hide our stash of drugs… What I did is hollow out the bottom half of a deck of cards and then glue them together.” I turn the deck over and show him, “Then…

In the fall of 1968 I start high school. I am bored with all my classes except for two. I have an affinity for art and drama. Unfortunately, from a moral standpoint, these classes attract other non-conformists, outcasts, and druggies. What draws me to them is they don’t taunt or tease me about my vision…

After the LSD is out of my system, I feel somehow physically and subtly altered. Where I imagine my soul should be, instead there lives a feeling of emptiness, where fear slithers, coils and strikes like an evil serpent.  There is also another strange reaction from the acid, and that is something that is taking…

I took the Purple Haze and I’m nervously waiting. The powerful tab of LSD starts to take effect over the next hour. It is really bad! I’m lost! What vision I have is all twisted around with objects and colors flying everywhere, and everything sounds like a record playing faster and then slower. Nothing is…

“At my table, we have Lamb’s Players Actor Lynn Hansen and Richard’s sidekick since high school Jim Blowers. I’d like you both to open with your initial reminiscences when first meeting Richard.” Well, Jon,” Lynn says, “What I thought about Rick was mostly sad or dramatic. He would tell us that one of his friends…

I buy the acid. The Purple Haze feels so small and incidental. I hold it between my fingers, feeling how small it is, as I try to get up the courage to try some. I break off about a third of the tablet and swallow it with a gulp of water. I wait about ten…

“Hey Dad,” I ask casually, “will you give me a dollar for every word that I exceed my previous typing score? Right now I’m up to forty-two words per minute and could use a little motivation to see if I can improve my numbers.”  “Sure, son,” he says pleased thinking that I want to excel.…

Out of the corner of my right eye, following the edge of the road, I pedal my bicycle to the station and ask, “Hey Art, can you get me some acid?” “Yeah, sure,” he says coolly. “Right now, I’m dealing in two-man tabs of Purple Haze and its three bucks a tab.” I had no…

During my eighth grade year we are shown films on the dangers of LSD, and of course we know it is a ploy to scare us into staying straight.  After school I want to see if I can get any reaction or signs of caring from my Mother. I say testing, “Mom, I think I’ll…

I’m feeling sorry for myself, when I recall one of my teacher’s warnings: “Never look directly at the sun!” So, I take my large magnifying glass, climb up the stairs out of my damp mold-soaked bedroom, head outside, hold the magnifying glass skyward, and stare through the lens at the blazing sun, trying to burn…

The specter of death is back. My paternal grandmother remarried after my grandfather was crushed to death. Her new husband is sharpening a roofing knife when she comes home to fix him lunch. First he tries to shoot her with a shotgun, but she wrestles it away from him and starts running out the door.…

As I struggle with coming to terms with my Mother and immediate visual challenges, other events have horrible impacts that send shivers down my spine. A fire breaks out in my aunt’s home, and my Uncle Bud, along with four cousins, burn to death. I try to turn off my brain and try to flush…