The Last Day of My Life as I Knew It

November 1971

I loved life. It could not have been better. I broke away from church and the shackles it placed around me in 7th Grade, I got out of the prison they called school after 12th grade, and I finally got out from under my parents' rule. I was free! I felt great.

I arrived in the Jacksonville, FL airport late in the afternoon and took a taxi to a hotel downtown where I spent my first evening in Jacksonville. When I had settled in I sat out on the balcony of my room and pulled out my pipe. It was a small pocket sized pipe with a load of resin inside from months of smoking pot or hash. I sat in a chair looking out over the city of Jacksonville while I smoked some hash and then went to bed. Little did I know that I would never again take drugs, smoke dope or get drunk.