#1:  the Awakening

Back in the 70's, I lived in West Texas. Talk about a boring existence; could you guess what we did for excitement? Well, let's see now: first of all, during the day, we might go to the local Park/Swimming pool and kick it with the other kids. My preference was girls only. There were also many ponds and watering holes which we used for cooling off.  We also drove around and around the same old roads, over and over again, in search of...

What? I have no idea, because we never found it (still searching).  Hunting was a favorite.  There were so many snakes and quail out in the desert, even rabbits and coyotes.  Smoking herb was a nice past time. The atmosphere was ideal for smoking.

I had a friend who's father was a truck driver. Every summer, he'd drive a load of Huge watermelons through town on his way to the east. Of course, we'd be allowed to snake a few. Late night, we'd usually get together (3-7 of us) and head on out to the outskirts and pop our doors open, blast our tunes of Fog Hat, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Emerson Lake and Palmer, etc. We'd bust out with the weed (Mexican quality herb). You could smoke a few large joints and get wasted; unlike the stuff nowadays where you take a couple tokes and can't move for the next 5 hours. We'd have a blast bullshitting about practically everything. One friend had a family market. He'd take us into town, unlock the door, and let us snag some candy or drinks. We already had the brew. I am allergic, so I couldn't drink much. We always had something to munch on: watermelon, candy, whatever we felt like eating.

Some times, we'd invite some girls out with us and we'd all smoke that herb and get high, giggle about something and eventually leave the site, and cruise into town. There was a spot on the main drag that we would hang out at. I remember one night one of my school teachers was driving by; I shot her the moon. I wonder what she was thinking back then.

Another form of entertainment was to go out hunting. Yeah, hunting was fun. There were millions of rabbits, hoards of tarantulas, grasshoppers, and of course, snakes. Why, I would catch or shoot a good ten-fifteen snakes a night. I mean, there were too many snakes for most people, but for the hunter? There never could be enough. The days were reserved for catching, and the nights were for shooting. I did not think it wise to attempt to catch a slithering snake at night. It's hard enough to catch one in the daylight.

We would drive around town and the outskirts for literally hours just to have something to do. Unfortunately for me, I got into drug use. I was a wrestler, track star, football player and I loved swimming. As far as other activities, I worked in the oil fields. I worked derricks on one of the best rigs in Texas, for one of the better companies, known as Sharp 57. That's rig number 57 for Sharp Drilling Company.

One night (I worked morning tour) I was up in the derrick pulling pipe and I closed my eyes and pictured myself there at the tender age of 40...

I moved to California about two weeks later. Yep, needless to say, I lost it. I could not see myself at 40 pulling pipe. The oil fields is a dirty business. Hard work also. Imagine getting paid for pumping iron 8 hours a day? My oldest brother called me Popeye because of my humongous forearms. They were kind of ripped. Talk about grip strength; pulling pipe consisted of using a rope large enough to hold an elephant (inch and a half) and moving 90" lengths of this shit 8 hours at a time. If the replacement doesn't show, guess who stays? You guessed it, me, the derrick man. Most others either don't know how to work derricks or swore it off to never go up there again.

We're usually at least 120 feet up. Imaging standing on a 2X3 platform? The only thing keeping you up is a belly rope (a rope, tied at one end, wrapped around your waist, then latched on the other end). Of course, you have to have enough sense not to fall out of the derrick, which, I suppose, the State of Texas doesn't have too many of (intelligent derrick men). Most don't make it, but there are those few miracles. I never fell, or even came close to falling, but while up there, I could imagine why many roughnecks were afraid of going up. Hell, I would go all the way up to the very top, just to feel the temperature. Early morning, just before dawn, you could actually feel the layers, the difference in temperature as you ascend to the crown (top).