The first time was not long before I was inducted into the US Army. It was either late January or early February '69. Stan and I drove to Key West in his new Triumph GT6+.
The drive down was strange enough. I think we drove straight through to St. Augustine because I remember visiting the fort there. I do remember that it was almost a blizzard on the New Jersey Turnpike. And I think we both hallucinated from lack of sleep through the Okefenokee Swamp (I have no idea why were so far inland at that point).
But it was Key West that was weird, or rather the people and situation we found ourselves in. I do remember that we did some sight seeing because I remember Hemingway's house and a bar he used to frequent. I know we ate conch chowder at a restaurant near a marina. And it was in that marina that our lives almost changed.
I'm pretty sure it was Stan (he was more outgoing than I am) who struck up a conversation with a bunch of people on a boat. They were all a bit older than us (I was 19), maybe early twenties and a mixed group. They invited us on board to smoke some weed. We hadn't carried any with us and it sounded like a good idea at the time.
They said they were plying the Caribbean looking for sunken treasure, doing odd jobs at different ports of call to buy food, fuel, and drugs. We spent the better part of the afternoon toking up and listening to their tales. One guy, the leader I guess, talked about being chased out of Costa Rican waters by a gun boat. Visions of pirates were in my head.
Then they decided we should join their merry little party. Who doesn't want to be a treasure hunter and pirate? Especially when you're so high. They didn't care that I had been drafted, in fact they thought it would be the perfect way to avoid induction. But the kicker was they wanted us to sell whatever we owned and buy our way in.
Who knows, maybe it was paranoia creeping in from all the pot we smoked in the hot Caribbean sun but for some reason both Stan and I started to freak out and wonder if they weren't going to Shanghai us. It was getting close to dinner time so Stan and I begged off. They said they'd be leaving around 9 a.m. the next morning and they wouldn't wait for us. We didn't make it.
The weirdest time though was after I went to Canada. Tony, my brother Hotch and I drove to somewhere outside of Toronto, someplace in Mississauga, Ontario, and decided to camp in a public park near the lake.
Around five in the morning we were woken by the local cops and told we could camp there. We promised to pack up and leave and they left us alone (Canadian cops were so nice back then). As we were trying to decide what to do a car drove up and four guys our age got out. We chatted and they said we could follow them back to their farm and crash there for a bit.
We followed them for what seemed forever through some southern Ontario farmland until we got to this remote Victorian farmhouse. We all went inside into an interior room - windows hung with heavy drapes, maybe blankets and two doors. They produced copious amounts of pot and hash, put on some records, and we all got wasted.
Then one by one they left the room. The stereo was in a different room and they put on side one of Winds of Change by the Animals. Cool LP right? Yeah right up until "Paint It Black" and then "The Black Plague" came on:
ohohohohoh
the bell tolls
the black plague has struck
diseased eyes roll upward
as if knowing which direction their souls will travel
(bring out your dead)
a woman in black cries
as the deathly procession passes by
and monks moan en masse
ohohohohoh
the yet clean pleasant pounds upon the castle door
for it is safer inside the walls
their knocking pounds a dull tone across
the quiet, deserted courtyard
the bodies of unfortunates bloat in the hot
sun outside the castle walls
and ones ignorant of all facts
plunder the diseased corpses for
remaining riches
(bring out your dead)
and the bell tolls on
a man walks around the castle walls on the outside
the light from his lamp dancing shadows as he moves
he tends the sick
gives comfort to all he can for
dying woman and crying man
but he feels it most for the children
(unlcean)
tears glisten on his cheek
did man ever deserve this death?
and not all will die, just the poor
for the rich are inside the castle walls
and he knows he could be with them
and they laugh at this fool of a man
through the stone fortress windows
and the bell tolls on
(unclean)
and many deaths and many days later
many tears have been cried but in vain
for tears can never erase the pain of death
only time has that talent
his hands are now blistered but this man walks on
the only element of sanity that the
people look to him for answers and
he answers all
and the bell tolls on inside the castle wall
(bring out your dead)
the dead are now buried and the plague is at its end
life for the people flowers again
they breathe fresh air like they did once before
and there is not a sound from beyond the castle walls
the bell has stopped
and only silence is heard
ant the peasants outside wonder what happened within
in their bones they feel something is wrong
the bell has been silent much too long
for many days not one soul has
stirred from the stone fortress
where the rich people live
no one came and no one went
fear can do many strange things
and even though the water ran low
their mouths burnt and bellys caked dry
not one person put a foot outside
no had that much courage
for they feared the peasants and their world outside
so they played it safe and didn't move
but one by one they perished and they died
Still no one came back into the room. The three of us were completely freaked out. We cautiously opened one of the doors and found our way to the kitchen. No one was there. We went out the back door to where both cars had been parked. My Mustang was there but their car was gone.
We were high as a kite, in a strange land with no idea where we were but somehow we found our way back to civilization. We were all sure we had stumbled into some cult that was going to make human sacrifices of us.
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