I’d say one time in college I was into this girl, she made (what I mistakenly believed to be pot brownies) but was actually mushroom brownies. I took one hell of a trip that ended up accidentally bumping into a policeman in a Kroger while trying to buy Pecan Sandies. I somehow had enough composure to play it off and get out with my cookies intact.

Lol this is good, and I find this post on here just as I’m reading about the Stooges album I picked up today and how it was put together by Ben, very cool set, and the first Stooges album I’ve listened to since high school, which is the block of my memory where I will pull from to participate in this one lol.

I don’t smoke weed either, I have a security clearance for my job out on the most nuclear piece of land in the Western Hemisphere saving salmon from extinction so it’s not possible and plus just not appealing as a new dad who’s almost 30 and for several other reasons, all pretty funny and come from a time when I could and did partake in Cannabis and such. In high school I hung out with a group of kids that we’re into music. In my small town in eastern WA state the small group of young musicians are usually grouped together with the kids who smoke weed as they liked to listen to music as well and sometimes we’re the only ones that would listen to our original music (was in a band back then that was essentially a Stooges rip off with a little Pacifier Northwest Sub pop influenced charm) anyway, they all smoked quite a bit whenever we would get together to practice or record etc in this one kids garage and it rubbed off on my friends and I around age 17 wholly. But every time I would try it I would have what you’d call a ”bad trip”, I would either end up like melting into the music we’d be playing and/or fall asleep somewhere, eat ramen noodles dry with the seasoning packet just dumped on top lol or I would get so focused on the songs and sounds all broken up into their own identity (if that makes any sense) that my heartbeat would start to match the tempo of the drums.. well on some of the songs we would cover, Stooges, MC5, early grunge, wipers, etc had quite the tempo so as you can imagine if I even got second hand “hot boxed” this would usually end up in a “I am going to die of a heart explosion” so I was the guy that party fouled and got people all “tripped out” so I tried to stay away most of the time but you all probably know how that works out at that age.. ha.

After high school I was less interested in even attempting to use marijuana but I tried to give it one more shot as it was in the form of brownies some girl had made, I was older (20) lol, and just hungry for brownies. This was about 9 years ago and will continue to grow in length of time as the last time I tried THC based anything when I am asked. So it turns out these innocent looking brownies in a calm setting were adulterated with “Hashish butter” or something, maybe someone here knows how that compares to regular weed, I don’t know, all I know is that I ate several of those normal looking decent tasting brownies while the others were in the other room talking and within an hour or so I was GONE. I really don’t remember what happened other than waking up nearly 24 hours later at someone else’s house (before I owned a sell phone). This is when I was informed that I had panicked again, this time curled up into a fetal position and started humming some children’s nursery rhyme songs while the others just watched some movie in the other room (there’s a reason I no longer have these people as friends lol).

These experiences along with others that would take too long to write about from my cross country Woody Guthrieesque by way of Dylan hitchhiking experience at the age of 18 trying to make it out of WA as a corner performer folk singer (I got from Seattle to Chicago so I did alright looking back lol) that not only scared my parents half to death, but after I ran out of steam on the shore of Lake Michigan and called my saint of a mother and told her I wanted to come home to the desert I grew up in afte having been gone for 4 months (wanted to get to NYC) I felt like Kerouac or Neal Cassidy with a guitar and harmonica covering “Apple blossom” got girls attention so I thought I was doing alright as well lol. But I was doing it wrong and I had grown and realized that I had been boxed up in a small town my whole life living music that was inaccessible and having some talent in making my own, been introduced to marijuana and such at too young an age and went on this “Rumspringa” type adventure that ended up kind of giving me a very new and unique outlook on people, life, and everything really.

When I got home I sold all my guitars, my records, everything that reminded me of this semi traumatic experience. And for about 8 years I just went to college and worked. Pretty boring, but you don’t need weed to fuel the fire that burns inside a music lover as I have come to know now as a 30 year old new father and this trip was essential to my growing inti an adult, weed or no weed, other stuff too, I had to be shown that love for family and music, not the superficial image and associated cliches was most important.

Well here I am now, a decade or so later, married, fisheries biologist, no weed, a dad and a new (lifetime ;)) vault member that has been rebuying guitars and vinyl since having this revelation when my son was born and after someone at TMR *cough sent me my first album of my new collection and I realized that I can look back at my past and laugh, and share my story with others (my wife didn’t even know I could play guitar) there was no reason to get rid of my talents and try to suppress them like I did because I made the choice to mix perfectly good music with my intolerance for drugs lol. And right about that time I see that the one musician that never really advocated or spoke about drug use just raw talent and music, Jack White, was touring again. Perfect timing! I bought tickets for my brother and I to see him in Portland as I owe it to myself and my little brother who missed out on learning about good music to go see a great show.

So yeah, I totally support it’s use for medicine and am I am all about others doing what makes them happy so I’m indifferent on the use of marijuana, it’s just a plant that has a lot of sometimes cool (like this album) cultural connections if handled properly lol. But as for me, I’m sticking to the natural high I get from playing and listening to music, vinyl, and drinking good beer, being a dad and role model to my younger brother (same age I was when I lit off for glory) and I’m taking him to see Jack in Portland this August. For sure this trip, both of our first time seeing Jack (I kick myself everyday now for all the shows and stuff I missed in my period of music coma), of all people, an artist that just makes great music without using any sort of aid, will close the book on my past musical loss and open the door to my new musical rebirth and start a clear path for my younger brother who thinks the above stories are funny as hell, hope you all do as well, lol. I enjoy spilling stuff about myself in these conversations, Ben is super cool and kind to all of us, and the vault is brilliant and I plan on sticking around as long as possible lol.

Thanks for reading my weed story, I’m up late working from home so I needed a break like this haha,

J
(TrickyRaven)

The following anecdote may be a little on the nose, but I swear to all things holy, it is completely true. And after all, most of us are here because we’re fans of Mr. White, so how far-fetched is this really? I digress…

The very first time I got high, I tripped over the sounds of Lazaretto. I smoked, put on the recently-attained record, relaxed on my bed, and awaited the effects. Now to remind you all, this is the listing to side A: Three Women, Lazaretto, Temporary Ground, Would You Fight For My Love?, and High Ball Stepper. So I got through the first three songs and all was well, I was feeling pretty great and the music still sounded like what I knew and loved. Then WYFFML? started, and things began to go south… and north… and east… and west. I was losing my mind. It was during the chorus when Ruby Amanfu’s backing vocals started to take control of my brain. It sounded magical, like I had never known what music was before. Then, High Ball Stepper happened. It didn’t just start to play, it ‘happened’. I say this because I was so out of it, that I began to hear something speaking to me in the song- and not metaphorically. I was, in every literal sense, having a conversation with the hypnotic fiddling and sporadic piano playing. I don’t know what was exchanged, but it was both haunting and reassuring. The song lasts for four minutes, but that night it lasted for forty. And then another actual ten minutes after that because I guess I let the loop play over for a long, long time. For those that don’t recall, one of the cool tricks from the vinyl is that the first side ends on a loop of an odd guitar lick. So yeah, I listened to an odd guitar lick for ten minutes straight if the experience wasn’t trippy enough. I fell asleep right after I finally stopped the track, and felt quite satisfied by the communications I thought I was sharing with the voice coming through that song.

I don’t know if my story serves as a warning against or a recommendation for listening to High Ball Stepper while high- take it as you see fit. Story over.

One more before I call it a night. I’m stoned as a box of rocks right now jamming sleep – the sciences on spotify while I’m flooding this comment area with my tales of past pot productivity and HIGH hopes of possibly scoring one of those albums. Ill be here all week, thank you very much everybody, good night Detroit!

If nothing else thanks for helping me recollect some of my marijuana memoirs

And theres the first time any adult figure smoked pot with me. My step dad. I was 15 and he rolled a big fat fatty like only he can to this day. He told me to walk with him,I thought i was in trouble. We sat down in the yard on a couple chairs, he pulls out this hog leg and fires it up, takes a few hits and passes it to me, my mind is blown. I’m not sure if its a test or is it a legitimate pow-wow. I take it, hit it couple times and I’ll never forget he says, “you’ve smoked pot before”. So maybe it was a test and a pow-wow. Either we had a great time got stoned and shot the shit. Guy still rolls the most magnificent joints ive ever seen or smoked, and ive smoked my fair share of joints all over the place

I’m really racking the brain here. I want one of those albums lol

Ok ok ive got at least one more. Getting ripped trying to jumpstart the ol memory banks.
I’m 16 or 17 riding around with a few of the boys getting stoned about to go grab another sack. Get pulled over in the weed man’s yard. Ive got a bowl on me that I just slide under the passenger seat real quick, open handle of vodka in the back seat, throw a hoodie over it real fast. Cop pulls all three of us out, mind you in the weed dealer’s yard, searches all of us, searches the car. I’m border line shutting myself, I know we’re about to go to jail. The Cop looks at us and asks us what high school we go to. I went to a different school so immediately I’m like, sweet off the hook, the cops proceeds to ask us where the meth is bc the high school the other 2 guys attend apparently had a bit of a meth problem. We all busted out laughing and told the cop we dont know anything about any meth, he lets us go, we proceed to go through with the afformentioned plan of buying more pot from the guy whose yard we just got pulled over in and went on to get stoned and laugh the night away about what a close call that was and how adamant that cop was about finding the meth. One of the good ones there, more concerned about the hard stuff.

My wife just reminded me of one time I was too stoned, ready to leave house, shoes on, I’m asking her whats taking her so long to get ready and apparently I’m about to leave the house in just my robe and sneakers. Ahhhh the wonders of pot!

Can i borrow a story from my brother?…
I once sold a guy weed after having my ginger friend put his pubes in it. And when we sold it to him we told him this was some good shit look at the orange hairs, of course he smoked it