"Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand..."
Rio - Duran Duran
My first plane ride ever and I get a cold the day of the flight. Little did I know, having a cold and flying can cause your ears to block up due to air pressure. Because my sinuses were blocked, it took a longer-than-usual amount of time for my inner ear pressure to regulate once we landed. So, I was pretty much deaf for the first day of our Southern California adventure.
We were quite the motley crew. My best friend Michael, his good friend Jerry Cote and Jerry's straight friend John Sutherland. Michael and I weren't too keen on having a "breeder" join us on our trip, but to make it affordable we needed a fourth, and John was available. How good Jerry and John's friendship was escapes reasoning since they were nothing alike. Jerry was a sneery, queeny fag and John was a typical BMOC jock. I'm sure Jerry wanted "some 'o that" but to my knowledge he didn't get it since John was obviously straight as an arrow. (Even though they "slept together" in the same queen-sized bed in the hotel since we all four shared a double room, to my knowledge, they, like Michael and I in the other bed, just simply and literally SLEPT together, that's it.)
John turned out to be kinda cool though, and as we cruised down the streets of Orange County (eh, we stayed in Anaheim...hella of a lot cheaper than Hollywood) and gawked and occassionally cat-called at the shirtless surfer dudes (for us New Englanders the thrill of sunny and warm beach-going weather in March was mind-blowing...that trip hooked me on warmer-climated places, thus bringing me to eventually act on those urges to enjoy eternal sunshine 14 years later when I moved here to Florida), John would not grimace or freak, he just did likewise for the bikini-clad chicks with big boobs. To each his own. We accepted his odd breeder ways.
Since we were staying at a hotel literally across the street from Disneyland, guess what our first destination was! By evening, my ears were getting better and I was able to relax more and after dinner, we got some beers and made our way back to the hotel room to prepare for our Disneyland experience. (Thinking about the beers...I think that might have been another reason John was along 'cause I think he was 21 and "of age", so he could buy our booze. Or, maybe the drinking age, like it was in Rhode Island back then, was 18...not sure, but I know I was only 18 (1 month shy of 19), Michael and Jerry I think were 19 or 20 maybe? I don't remember...but surely we were all young enough to be consistently carded each time we purchased alcohol)
Our preparation for our theme park experience included a little something one of us had brought along...a couple of pre-rolled joints and 4 tabs of microdot mescaline (really it's acid). Mind you, drugs were not a part of our everyday thing, but since we were on vacation, we decided to "live it up" a little. I had tried pot a few times before, especially during the many "choir practices" we staff of HoJo's had after work out back behind the restaurant, and knew not to take too much of it cause it made me spacey and disconnected and I wouldn't enjoy myself. I was a little nervous about the mescaline since I knew it was a hallucinogenic but didn't know how I would react to it.
After we all dropped, we kinda sat around a while to see what effect it would have. The first effects were just a mild sence of euphoria and, for me, light becoming a little more orange hued. Once we determined we weren't gonna have an "Afterschool Special" freaky bad trip and jump through plate glass windows screaming, we headed for the park.
Things were pretty much normal up until we all got on the "It's A Small World" ride. No, don't worry...our trippin' didn't turn sour...just the opposite. Floating down the lazy river among all those gleeful, cheery singing puppets, we just started cracking up. I mean we were full-out rolling on the floor (of the boat) laughing our heads off. I'm sure other guests were staring and confused by our bizarre reaction, but we didn't take notice. The rest of the night was one giggle-fest after another. Everything, and I do mean everything, was just SOOOO funny! The Main Street Electrical Lights Parade at the end of the evening was the cherry on the icing. You have never heard or seen something so fascinating until you have experienced this on acid!
The next day we went to the beach as we were all kinda tuckered out from the night before and I don't think any of us got to bed until about 4 am. On the way back from the beach, Jerry was driving our brand new 1983 Ford Mustang rental and hit a little dog running across the street. The dog was okay but the owners were kinda bitchy and we were all like..um, sorry about your mutt but we are on vacation...oh well.
Over the next few days we went to Universal Studios and did the studio tour. Back then, that's about all they had, the Hollywood theme park had not been created and, the Florida one probably wasn't even planned yet. But it was cool none the less. We saw the "Leave It To Beaver" set (now the set for Desperate Housewives), saw a rudimentary Jaws and walked thru the Battlestar Galactica exhibit. Later we went to Beverly Hills and shopped on Rodeo Drive. As we were walking out of one store, John noticed an "older" guy getting out of his red Cadillac convertable with his two teenaged sons. We didn't know who he was but John went up to him and told him that he was a big fan, and, that by coincidence, his name was also Sutherland. The guy turned out to be Donald Sutherland and his two sons, Keifer and Roeg.
That evening we attended a taping of a then popular TV show that we all enjoyed "Solid Gold".
Talk about boring, sitting through the non-stop takes and tinny music (since the good sounding music would be edited in later for broadcast) it was not what I expected. And, they made you sit through it all, since I guess it would look bad if the show started with a full audience and half the seats were empty by the end of the show. I think the shoot took hours too...we were all very disappointed about that waste of time. Didn't even see anyone famous since it was a taping of mainly the dancer scenes without the hosts or guest stars! Now I know why you occassionally see a bored looking audience member or two when they show the audience during "live studio audience" TV shows...what you see on TV is about one third of the "real" show...the other two thirds are actor placing, camera setups, mic calibration, retakes and crap like that.
On our next to last day we drove down to San Diego and went to the famous San Diego Zoo and Cabrillo Monument Park. On the way back, we stopped in La Jolla for more foo-foo fag yuppie shopping.
So my cold turned out to be mild and didn't prevent me from having a wonderful trip. It turned out that this would be one of the last really fun things that Michael and I would ever do. As that year wore on, I went out less and less with Michael. My little fling with his 16 year old brother didn't sit too well with him once I told him about it months after the fact and I think he felt a bit betrayed.
I'll always remember this trip though, and listening to "Rio" by Duran Duran, cruising in our convertible down the palm tree lined sunny freeways of Southern California.
Rio - Duran Duran
My first plane ride ever and I get a cold the day of the flight. Little did I know, having a cold and flying can cause your ears to block up due to air pressure. Because my sinuses were blocked, it took a longer-than-usual amount of time for my inner ear pressure to regulate once we landed. So, I was pretty much deaf for the first day of our Southern California adventure.
We were quite the motley crew. My best friend Michael, his good friend Jerry Cote and Jerry's straight friend John Sutherland. Michael and I weren't too keen on having a "breeder" join us on our trip, but to make it affordable we needed a fourth, and John was available. How good Jerry and John's friendship was escapes reasoning since they were nothing alike. Jerry was a sneery, queeny fag and John was a typical BMOC jock. I'm sure Jerry wanted "some 'o that" but to my knowledge he didn't get it since John was obviously straight as an arrow. (Even though they "slept together" in the same queen-sized bed in the hotel since we all four shared a double room, to my knowledge, they, like Michael and I in the other bed, just simply and literally SLEPT together, that's it.)
John turned out to be kinda cool though, and as we cruised down the streets of Orange County (eh, we stayed in Anaheim...hella of a lot cheaper than Hollywood) and gawked and occassionally cat-called at the shirtless surfer dudes (for us New Englanders the thrill of sunny and warm beach-going weather in March was mind-blowing...that trip hooked me on warmer-climated places, thus bringing me to eventually act on those urges to enjoy eternal sunshine 14 years later when I moved here to Florida), John would not grimace or freak, he just did likewise for the bikini-clad chicks with big boobs. To each his own. We accepted his odd breeder ways.
Since we were staying at a hotel literally across the street from Disneyland, guess what our first destination was! By evening, my ears were getting better and I was able to relax more and after dinner, we got some beers and made our way back to the hotel room to prepare for our Disneyland experience. (Thinking about the beers...I think that might have been another reason John was along 'cause I think he was 21 and "of age", so he could buy our booze. Or, maybe the drinking age, like it was in Rhode Island back then, was 18...not sure, but I know I was only 18 (1 month shy of 19), Michael and Jerry I think were 19 or 20 maybe? I don't remember...but surely we were all young enough to be consistently carded each time we purchased alcohol)
Our preparation for our theme park experience included a little something one of us had brought along...a couple of pre-rolled joints and 4 tabs of microdot mescaline (really it's acid). Mind you, drugs were not a part of our everyday thing, but since we were on vacation, we decided to "live it up" a little. I had tried pot a few times before, especially during the many "choir practices" we staff of HoJo's had after work out back behind the restaurant, and knew not to take too much of it cause it made me spacey and disconnected and I wouldn't enjoy myself. I was a little nervous about the mescaline since I knew it was a hallucinogenic but didn't know how I would react to it.
After we all dropped, we kinda sat around a while to see what effect it would have. The first effects were just a mild sence of euphoria and, for me, light becoming a little more orange hued. Once we determined we weren't gonna have an "Afterschool Special" freaky bad trip and jump through plate glass windows screaming, we headed for the park.
Things were pretty much normal up until we all got on the "It's A Small World" ride. No, don't worry...our trippin' didn't turn sour...just the opposite. Floating down the lazy river among all those gleeful, cheery singing puppets, we just started cracking up. I mean we were full-out rolling on the floor (of the boat) laughing our heads off. I'm sure other guests were staring and confused by our bizarre reaction, but we didn't take notice. The rest of the night was one giggle-fest after another. Everything, and I do mean everything, was just SOOOO funny! The Main Street Electrical Lights Parade at the end of the evening was the cherry on the icing. You have never heard or seen something so fascinating until you have experienced this on acid!
The next day we went to the beach as we were all kinda tuckered out from the night before and I don't think any of us got to bed until about 4 am. On the way back from the beach, Jerry was driving our brand new 1983 Ford Mustang rental and hit a little dog running across the street. The dog was okay but the owners were kinda bitchy and we were all like..um, sorry about your mutt but we are on vacation...oh well.
Over the next few days we went to Universal Studios and did the studio tour. Back then, that's about all they had, the Hollywood theme park had not been created and, the Florida one probably wasn't even planned yet. But it was cool none the less. We saw the "Leave It To Beaver" set (now the set for Desperate Housewives), saw a rudimentary Jaws and walked thru the Battlestar Galactica exhibit. Later we went to Beverly Hills and shopped on Rodeo Drive. As we were walking out of one store, John noticed an "older" guy getting out of his red Cadillac convertable with his two teenaged sons. We didn't know who he was but John went up to him and told him that he was a big fan, and, that by coincidence, his name was also Sutherland. The guy turned out to be Donald Sutherland and his two sons, Keifer and Roeg.
That evening we attended a taping of a then popular TV show that we all enjoyed "Solid Gold".
Talk about boring, sitting through the non-stop takes and tinny music (since the good sounding music would be edited in later for broadcast) it was not what I expected. And, they made you sit through it all, since I guess it would look bad if the show started with a full audience and half the seats were empty by the end of the show. I think the shoot took hours too...we were all very disappointed about that waste of time. Didn't even see anyone famous since it was a taping of mainly the dancer scenes without the hosts or guest stars! Now I know why you occassionally see a bored looking audience member or two when they show the audience during "live studio audience" TV shows...what you see on TV is about one third of the "real" show...the other two thirds are actor placing, camera setups, mic calibration, retakes and crap like that.
On our next to last day we drove down to San Diego and went to the famous San Diego Zoo and Cabrillo Monument Park. On the way back, we stopped in La Jolla for more foo-foo fag yuppie shopping.
So my cold turned out to be mild and didn't prevent me from having a wonderful trip. It turned out that this would be one of the last really fun things that Michael and I would ever do. As that year wore on, I went out less and less with Michael. My little fling with his 16 year old brother didn't sit too well with him once I told him about it months after the fact and I think he felt a bit betrayed.
I'll always remember this trip though, and listening to "Rio" by Duran Duran, cruising in our convertible down the palm tree lined sunny freeways of Southern California.