The Best of Times...

[Jake420]

Alright, I've started to loosen up here a bit so I think I'll post a bit about a great time I had with a few friends as a teen.

At the time, we were all still in highschool (well, except Chango, he went infrequently.) The four of us (Willie, E, Chango and I) were free for the weekend. Willie and E's family were out of town (they are brothers) and we decided to get drunk at their place. The first night, Friday, we had someone buy all kinds of hard liquers for us. Great night. First time I tried Jungle Juice. Never heard of Wild Turkey until then... Jack and Vodka were the highlights. Mixed drinks all around. I had learned a bit of spanish in school and when I get drunk, at least around mexicans, I like to practice. Let me tell you, drunken spanish is great for laughs. Chango kept laughing, which would make me laugh. Trying to hold a conversation in spanish when drunk is interesting to say the least. Argh, it's been too long and I can't remember everything that happened that night. Maybe mixing the light and dark alcohols helped with that a lot. Not saying I didn't remember all of it the next morning, I did, but... Anyway.

The next night Willie and I scrounged together enough money to get a few cases of beer. All told I had 17 of them. Ever notice how after the first five or so they go down as smooth as water? With the music cranking and three friends all jumping around having fun, you tend to lose track of time. At some point we all got it in our heads to take off our shoes, it was more comfortable that way of course. Around 2am everyone decided to go visit the hole.

Now, the hole was a big ten foot by twenty foot hole, about six foot deep, that was across the creek in a field behind Willie and E's. We had all contributed to making it. It was covered with plywood and the roof was supported by beams. We covered it with dirt, sticks, bushes, and camoflagued it really well. When it was done and made, you couldn't tell it was there.

That was, of course, where we kept all the illicit things that weren't kosher to keep at home. You know the type, MJ pipes, bongs, grow guides, our respective stashes , nudie mags , candles and such for light, a bit of art and a cd-player to liven the place up. Instead of skirting the field along the creek to come at the hole from our usual route, we went through the field. What's so bad about that you say? Did the farmer like to run out and shoot at trespassers? Was it prowled by wildlife? No. It was a field about a half mile wide, completely full of goatheads.

Oh, well that's not so bad you say? Think again. If you remember right, we had left our shoes back at the house and each step brought up about twenty of the things. So here we were in the field, drunk but somehow keeping our balance long enough to wipe the damned goatheads off the bottom of our feet after each step and laughing the whole way. About halfway through I realized something. "Hey guys, why are we going through this field?" They responded, "We're going to the hole, don't you remember?" To which I replied, "Yeah, but why didn't we go through the creek?" They pretty much did the, "I dunno" thing. Laughing, I lifted my foot to scrape off more goatheads and said, "Well, if we were going to come this way, why didn't we grab our shoes?" Pretty much the same reply.

After the first fifty feet or so, our feet got numb to that mild poison goatheads have in them, so after half the field we just kept going rather than turn around and have to walk just as far back and all the way along the creek to the hole. Finally reaching the hole, we chilled and listened to some music and whatnot. Willie passed out with his face in the dirt, and after about an hour the rest of us left him there and went back to the house. Well, when Willie finally woke and got back to the house, the fake sunrise was starting to come into the sky. I just happened to make an offhand comment to Willie that half his face was covered in dirt. He grinned a bit , wiped his face, and the party continued. That was the first time I lasted until well after the sun was up before crashing.

Those were the days. Willie is off in the military, Chango became a drifter bum and I haven't seen him in years. E still lives around here, I see him every so often... Yep, Good times!

[Jake420]

Hmm, maybe an invitation is in order... Everyone whom has an interesting party story to tell can post them here. Or if you want to reminisce about some good times, go ahead! Don't be shy.

[Hippie3]

goatheads ?
WTF ?
Tribulus terrestris

[Jake420]

Yeah, if you want to go by their latin name. Everybody around here calls them goatheads, and I figured those reading this would know them better by their common name.

[Hippie3]

not native to my part of the planet, never heard of nor seen one.

[Jake420]

Well, goatheads are hardened seeds from the Tribulus terrestris plant that resemble caltrops. If you don't know what a caltrop is, they are medieval weapons that were smeared with poison and launched by catapult or left in the way of approaching armies to the detriment of opposing forces. Four spikes jutt out in opposite directions so that, no matter what side they landed on, one point always stuck up. So the resemblance to such weapons gives the nasty little seeds the means to get stuck in the foot or fur of passing creatures so it can spread to other areas. The fact they are rock hard when dry and contain a mild itching/stinging/numbing poison helps a bit in that respect too. Everyone from the party were miserable because of how much their feet hurt for the next couple days.

[Hippie3]

our local equivalent might be the cockleburr

[Jake420]

Well, we have cackleburrs too. They like to tag along in socks, shoelaces, etc. Hmm, interesting idea... Has anybody ever hydrated, sterilized and innoculated such things? They might need a bit more nutritional substitutes added, but... This would be an interesting experiment nonetheless.

[Beastmaster]

According to wikipedia, goatheads are a pretty wide spread species. I grew up in so cal, and those things were all over the place... I'd always end up with a few of them in my bicycle tires, what a pain.

I recently started taking a supplement to help out with my weightlifting, I have a tendency to overtrain, and the guy at the nutrition store suggested the stuff. It might just be placebo like wikipedia says, but I've been wondering about the aphrodesiac qualities as well, the stuff generally gives me a rather robust feeling.. And it turns out the supplement is tribulus terrestris. How about that.

[Jake420]

Well, anyway. You are all welcome to post about the good times you've had.

[jt007m]

Sounds like stuff we did when I was in high school... Good times! Cool idea... I'll post a story soon..

[Jake420]

Originally Posted by jt007m

Cool idea... I'll post a story soon..

Sounds good, can't wait to hear about it. Tossing around whether to relate another good time with Willie and E at a hotsprings we used to vacation to. We'll see.