Michael Drolet and I decided that we needed to runaway.
We both felt that we could no longer endure the "harshness" of our lives under our oppressive parents, so we made a quick and hasty plan to runaway to a better life.
I don't know who first came up with the idea to runaway, but since I had prior experience, it might have been me.
My prior experience was back in 1972 when I walked east on Diamond Hill Road towards Cumberland and kept going, thinking I might make it to New York, eventually.
My parents called the cops and the police found me near the Woonsocket-Cumberland border and brought me home.
When asked why I did it, I said it was because my family was not like the Brady Bunch.
Michael Drolet and I became friends during the very short period of time during my junior high school years that I held a bit of popularity among my peers.
During study periods, I had used the time to create and diseminate hand-drawn comics, done in typical comic-strip fashion.
My comics were recieved as not only well-drawn, but unique in content and creativity.
"Goofy Gus" was one of my early efforts about a weird looking guy in a bowler hat who got into various escapades.
But my biggest hits were:
"The Ziploc Family", a nuclear family of Ziploc plastic bags, living in space, and experiencing the trials and tribulations of their existance.
and, most popular of all:
"The Adventures of Super Mouth", a superhero who could open his mouth to half his body size in order to emit a crippling scream stopping criminals and other bad guys in their paths.
In one comic that was passed around during Ms. Marrah's history class, the teacher intercepted the comic and later came to me and stated that the depiction of the Super Mouth character, simultaneously puking and shitting was physically impossible. She said this so clinicallly, to this day I don't know if she was kidding or thought it was true? (Unfortuntaly, years later, I found out first hand that indeed, you can do both at the same time!)
Mike Drolet seemed most interested in my twisted sense of humor and we fast became friends.
But Mike lived on the dark side, for the most part...
He had to fend for himself a lot since he lived with his older sister and her boyfriend...I don't remember what happened to his parents.
He had a buddy who knew about weed, but when we smoked a joint Mike had gotten from him, it had no affect on me whatsoever...(other than make me crave Italian food with Orgeano..i.e., I think he got a fully Oregano joint!)
Mike and I stole a pack of Newport cigarrettes with the intent on seeing what was so great about smoking. I smoked two cigarrettes, turned a shade of green, and never smoked another cigarrette (tobacco) again.
Mike and I were also into pushing the limits in other ways...we went to "Bonanza" a Ponderosa-style cafeteria buffet steak house, at 3:00 pm on a Saturday, and since it was so dead (we were the only customers in the restaurant), the staff went to the kitchen and left the dining area vacant. We went up to the beer dispensing taps and using our cups we got for our soft drinks, filled them up not once, but about three times before we left the restaurant as two drunk 13-year olds.
By Spring of 1977, we were best friends and the idea to runaway had arose. It wasn't thought out, we both had undergone a minor rift in our respective homes, but, like so many "snap decisions", it "sounded good at the time".
We walked to Lincoln Mall, and there was onset by both fatigue and cold. So we sought out shelter in a small copse of bushes and trees near the mall. This was too cold. We checked out all the remaining cars in the parking lot at that late hour, and finally found one unlocked.
We got in, and Mike in the backseat, I in the front, fell asleep...
I was awoken a few hours later by a loud rapping with a plastic flashlight on the car window. It was the police.
After waking Mike, we were then brought to the Lincoln Police Station and questioned why we were in the car.
When I divulged that we were planning to run away, had found the car unlocked and used it as shelter, they called our parents and we were taken home.
I'm not sure what kinda punishment Mike got, but mine was fairly mild.
As that year progressed, I grew more infatuated with Mike and after writing what amounted to a love letter to him, he broke off relations with me and I never heard from him since.
He later dropped out during junior high, so I never knew what became of him since then.
I kept up my study class drawings and that would eventually find me befriending my first true love John Noviello and his good friend Camille St. Onge.
We both felt that we could no longer endure the "harshness" of our lives under our oppressive parents, so we made a quick and hasty plan to runaway to a better life.
I don't know who first came up with the idea to runaway, but since I had prior experience, it might have been me.
My prior experience was back in 1972 when I walked east on Diamond Hill Road towards Cumberland and kept going, thinking I might make it to New York, eventually.
My parents called the cops and the police found me near the Woonsocket-Cumberland border and brought me home.
When asked why I did it, I said it was because my family was not like the Brady Bunch.
Michael Drolet and I became friends during the very short period of time during my junior high school years that I held a bit of popularity among my peers.
During study periods, I had used the time to create and diseminate hand-drawn comics, done in typical comic-strip fashion.
My comics were recieved as not only well-drawn, but unique in content and creativity.
"Goofy Gus" was one of my early efforts about a weird looking guy in a bowler hat who got into various escapades.
But my biggest hits were:
"The Ziploc Family", a nuclear family of Ziploc plastic bags, living in space, and experiencing the trials and tribulations of their existance.
and, most popular of all:
"The Adventures of Super Mouth", a superhero who could open his mouth to half his body size in order to emit a crippling scream stopping criminals and other bad guys in their paths.
In one comic that was passed around during Ms. Marrah's history class, the teacher intercepted the comic and later came to me and stated that the depiction of the Super Mouth character, simultaneously puking and shitting was physically impossible. She said this so clinicallly, to this day I don't know if she was kidding or thought it was true? (Unfortuntaly, years later, I found out first hand that indeed, you can do both at the same time!)
Mike Drolet seemed most interested in my twisted sense of humor and we fast became friends.
But Mike lived on the dark side, for the most part...
He had to fend for himself a lot since he lived with his older sister and her boyfriend...I don't remember what happened to his parents.
He had a buddy who knew about weed, but when we smoked a joint Mike had gotten from him, it had no affect on me whatsoever...(other than make me crave Italian food with Orgeano..i.e., I think he got a fully Oregano joint!)
Mike and I stole a pack of Newport cigarrettes with the intent on seeing what was so great about smoking. I smoked two cigarrettes, turned a shade of green, and never smoked another cigarrette (tobacco) again.
Mike and I were also into pushing the limits in other ways...we went to "Bonanza" a Ponderosa-style cafeteria buffet steak house, at 3:00 pm on a Saturday, and since it was so dead (we were the only customers in the restaurant), the staff went to the kitchen and left the dining area vacant. We went up to the beer dispensing taps and using our cups we got for our soft drinks, filled them up not once, but about three times before we left the restaurant as two drunk 13-year olds.
By Spring of 1977, we were best friends and the idea to runaway had arose. It wasn't thought out, we both had undergone a minor rift in our respective homes, but, like so many "snap decisions", it "sounded good at the time".
We walked to Lincoln Mall, and there was onset by both fatigue and cold. So we sought out shelter in a small copse of bushes and trees near the mall. This was too cold. We checked out all the remaining cars in the parking lot at that late hour, and finally found one unlocked.
We got in, and Mike in the backseat, I in the front, fell asleep...
I was awoken a few hours later by a loud rapping with a plastic flashlight on the car window. It was the police.
After waking Mike, we were then brought to the Lincoln Police Station and questioned why we were in the car.
When I divulged that we were planning to run away, had found the car unlocked and used it as shelter, they called our parents and we were taken home.
I'm not sure what kinda punishment Mike got, but mine was fairly mild.
As that year progressed, I grew more infatuated with Mike and after writing what amounted to a love letter to him, he broke off relations with me and I never heard from him since.
He later dropped out during junior high, so I never knew what became of him since then.
I kept up my study class drawings and that would eventually find me befriending my first true love John Noviello and his good friend Camille St. Onge.