From Friends, Winter Quarter 1965, and Third year is the charm

When I came back up for my second year, after a year back at home, during winter quarter I rented a house off campus with Tom Harrell and Mike Morris. I had been admiring a small group of very colorful bohemians, mostly grad students from the University of Chicago. I hung around them and invited one to a small party we had at our house. After the party, Norman Linke invited me up to his house near Homer Lane, behind campus. I smoked marijuana for the first time. Alone in his living room, he put earphones on my head and played vinyl LPs by Muddy Waters, Ravi Shankar, Karleinz Stockhausen, and Africa Brass by John Coltrane. I was totally blown away by the multidimensional depth and vivid all-enveloping living quality of the music. It felt like I had entered another world, a world I very much wanted to inhabit.

#2.3 of SA2. Stanford -2A. Experiences

I was looking for a magical quality to experience, and finally here it was, the door opened. One way it shaped my life was I became a marijuana smoker from March 1965 until December 1982, over 17 years. Another way it shaped my life was the only way I earned money from 1965 to 1972 was as a musician. Another way it shaped my life is I remained a committed Puer Aeternus until I read the book of that name in 1976. I continue to identify as an ex-hippie. I think I became more tolerant of deviant and odd behavior. I gained insight into and empathy for a lot of behaviors I couldn’t deal with before.

#2.3 of SA2. Stanford – 2B. Analysis of effects of experiences