Ep9 In The Shadw Of he Mountain C.L.Knox stories

The speaker talks about his experience of taking LSD for the first time when he was 11 years old. He also mentions fixing up an old bus and turning it into a camper with the help of college-age friends. They painted the bus white and wrote "Yin Yang Bus Line" on it. The speaker then describes a trip they took with the bus to Alberta, Vancouver Island, California, and back home. He also mentions his mother and stepfather's plan to move to Canada and their time spent on a ranch in Alberta. They eventually settled in Qualicum and Victoria in British Columbia. The speaker recalls some memories from these places, including his discovery about his step-grandmother's occupation and the pollution in the water in Victoria. They then drove down the coast to California and stayed in San Francisco. Overall, the speaker reminisces about his experiences during this time. Hey y'all! Episode 9. The last couple of episodes have been kind of on the heavier side. So I'm going to try to lighten it up a little bit. I haven't told the story of how I came to take LSD the first time when I was 11. It's... Oh, do you like the background better? I'm a bit of a... I'm a bit of an aesthetic type of a person. And I find as I get older I'm even becoming anal about certain things. So I look at those videos that I've done and I think, Gosh, you know, first of all I should do something with my hair. So today I'm wearing a hat. The days that I wore a hat look better than the other days. And also the background, you know, this is a nice background I think. It's in our living room and some pictures in the back. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. It's kind of a long story because there's a lot involved in it. So I don't know how much of it I'll get to. First thing I need to do is set my clock. I always forget to set a clock so I know roughly what I'm doing. That'll be our warning. A 15 minute warning. Okay, so when I was 11... It started when I was 10. No, I think I was 11 probably. Mother and Bryce bought an old bus. They bought a... What was a Ford? 50 something Ford school bus. 58. I can't remember. I've got some pictures of it. And actually there was a... My stepfather kept a journal. He called it the lob for the bus and the trips that the bus took. My sister got in a bad way and ripped it up. Most of it is torn up which is unfortunate. She took some of the pictures out of it and I guess she kept them. She destroyed a lot of the pictures and some of the writing when she was in one of her altered states. Let's just put it that way. Which is unfortunate. But there's still some information in there so I could... Like if I was writing a book I'd look up what year it was and how big the mover was and all that stuff. But in my memory, I have all of these memories of stripping the seats out of the bus and putting in a plywood floor and paneling and then building the bus into a camper. And we had lots of help. We had lots of help from friends. Like 90% of them were these college age friends again. And a lot of them were moving themselves. They were leaving Alabama. Alabama wasn't the place to be for a hippie. So Tom, I remember very clearly Tom. I can't remember his last name. I think it was Cox. And a guy named John who was a musician friend of Bryce's. He was an older... I don't think he was college age. Actually Tom might have been slightly older too. He might have been like LaDonna's age. I think he was actually. And that might have been how we connected with LaDonna. I can't remember. But we'd do days of work. Bryce worked on it continuously. But people would come and help. When it got to painting the bus, we painted it white. And then in pink lettering, we wrote Yin Yang bus line on it. So it was a white bus with this pink lettering Yin Yang bus line. And inside, the upholstery we used was purple and pink with big flowers. Like typical 60s... Kind of schmaltzy 60s stuff really. Although the Yin Yang bus line, that was pretty cool. I do have some pictures of the bus in there. It's pretty cool to see them. I can't remember what happened to the bus. I know it was there before I moved into the cabin by myself. But regardless. The first journey we took with the bus when it was finished... There's other stories about the bus. Again, if writing a book... That is my intention to eventually compose a book. Although it might just be an audiobook. I'll include pictures and more stories about the fixing up of the bus. The first trip was to go to Alberta. So from Birmingham to Alberta. And then from Alberta out to Vancouver Island. And then from Vancouver Island down to California. And then back across through Utah. And home again. The journey was... Again, I didn't know it at the time. But I found out later as a child. When we got back from the trip. That my mom and Bryce were planning to move to Canada. It was a secret. Not everybody was supposed to know about it. So we went to Alberta. Because Bryce's family had a farm where he had grown up. Or spent a lot of his childhood on that farm. On the border of Alberta and... What is it? Montana? I can't even remember. Idaho? Whatever. I think it was Montana. My geography could be all screwed up. Whatever. It was right on the border. There was a national park across called... Indian Chief Mountain? Or Chief's Head Mountain? Or something like that. I could look it all up. I didn't. I'm on the fly here. So anyway, we went to that ranch. For the first few weeks of the summer. We drove across the states to Salt Lake City. Picked up Joe and his two sisters. Which... Julie and Jill. So my stepsisters. This was not... I think we had met them before. I think they had come to Alabama once before. I don't think it was the first time meeting them. My memory is cloudy on that. I could ask Joe. I'm sure he'll let me know. After he sees this episode. And from there we went up to Alberta. And spent the summer. We went through St. Louis. There was an old family friend of Bryce's. A man and his wife. And he had two daughters. There's stories around them too. Anyway, he was a plastic surgeon. And he had like a... What would now be like a half a million. Or three quarters of a million dollar mobile home. You know, one of the buses converted to a mobile home. They were coming up to the farm too. They were good friends with Bryce's dad. Actually, I think the woman was good friends with Bryce's dad. And that's... There's some... Yeah, there's some... Interesting stuff there too. Anyway, let that one go. So we got up to Alberta. We spent the summer there. Fantastic memories. Great memories. Getting to know Joe, Julie, and Jill. And spending time on the ranch. And other members of Bryce's family were there. His dad... I think his mom was there too. I can't remember. They were selling the ranch. And my understanding is that with the proceeds from the sale of the ranch... Paul and Joy... Paul, my step-grandfather. And Joy, my step-grandmother. I never called them step. I just considered them grandparents. They were going to split up. Not divorce. Just split up. Joy wanted to live in the city. And Paul wanted to live in the country or urban areas. So they took the sale of the ranch, the proceeds, and split it. That's my understanding. May be wrong. I'd have to confirm that if I was, again, writing a book. So it was kind of a last hurrah for the ranch. So it seems like during that time, virtually all of Bryce's siblings were there. That's my memory. Sometimes those memories get foggy, cloudy. Great time. And lots of stories just in that few weeks on the ranch. From the ranch, we went to Vancouver Island where Paul had already purchased some land. And Joy had already purchased a house. So I guess the ranch had already sold when we were there. It was just before possession exchange, I guess. I don't know. I was pretty young to have that kind of knowledge. But we went to Qualicum first where Paul had bought some land. We visited with him. Had a good time in Qualicum. Got to look around and see what it was about. Pretty small place at the time. I don't think there was more than maybe 1,200 people in Qualicum at that time. 1969? 1969? Maybe 2000, but I kind of doubt it. Everybody knew everybody. So when we came to town, it was big news, I'm sure, with our big pink bus. In Alberta, we picked up a horse's skull and a set of moose antlers. And they were mounted over top of the windows. So up on the top, it was like this creature, this moose. Moose horns. It was pretty bizarre. I'm sure people were freaking out as we drove through town. Look at that! Whatever. That was then. So then from Qualicum, we went down to Victoria and spent a little bit of time with Joy down at her house. And she lived, I think it's called Oak Bay. I mean, I kind of know Victoria pretty well. I think it's part of Oak Bay. And there's a graveyard down there right on the water. The graveyard has an ocean view. It's fantastic. And she lived maybe not even a full block away from that graveyard. So we spent time in the graveyard. And down on the beach, there's a seawall there. And we went down on the beach and the seawall. And there were signs up about pollution in the water. Don't swim in the water. Because at that time, and actually right up until just recently, Victoria just dumped all of their raw sewage right into the ocean. And it just washed back up on the beach. Kind of disgusting. But that was what they did. And that's what everybody did at one point, at one time. After the Victoria trip, we went down to California. Like there's stuff to talk about about Victoria too. Nothing really dramatic happened. I discovered that Joy was a masseuse, quote unquote. She was making a living by entertaining men. And I don't think on her part it was sexual. I think she was just being company for lonely men. And it certainly doesn't fit, as I got to know her, it doesn't fit her persona that I got to know. It's one of the things that's always kind of troubled me about my memories. But anyway, I mean, I'm sure I could talk to some. Paula, Bryce's sister, still lived with Joy at that time. So I'm sure I could talk to her. She's moved to Greece. So I don't see her much. But I can still message her. I probably will at some point. Anyway, off to California. We drove down the coast. My memory is that we took the coastal highway. And in a bus it was kind of nauseating. Maybe we only took it for part of the way and then took the I-5 for part of the way because that would have been very difficult to traverse that whole coastal highway in that bus. Once we got to San Francisco, we knew a fair number of people in the San Francisco area. Tom had already moved there, I believe, from Alabama. I can't remember. I think even at that time, he ended up with an apartment right on Haight Street, which was just a few blocks, not even, like yeah, a block and a half to two blocks. I don't think it was even three blocks down from Golden Gate Park. So now that became an infamous hippie area. And he lived there. And I know we went and saw him there later when I was 12. So this is all 69. I was 11. Anyway, then a bunch of us that we met up and new people that we met in San Francisco, we went out to Mill Valley Dam. Now I did look it up. And the Mill Valley Dam has been filled in. They filled it in because from what I read, there was so many hippies going out there that it disrupted the local community to such a degree that they filled the dam in. It wasn't being used for anything that was critical. I think they might have been using it for a water source or something. But even then, whatever, all the hippies swimming in it naked wasn't going to be appealing or appetizing for people drinking the water. So anyway, there are pictures of it now all filled in. And if you look hard enough, you can find pictures of hippies hanging around and swimming in the dam. And I was talking to one person. I said, oh, the Mill Valley Dam. And they said, there's no dam in Mill Valley. And I'm like, oh, that's why I looked it up. Because there is a dam in Mill Valley. Or there was a dam in the valley. And it is no longer. So that was interesting. But we went out there. And it was a great place. I remember trees shading the dam, shading the area around. It was a park-like setting. And there was quite a few people, like 99% hippie types. And again, like I mentioned, swimming nude in the river and just having a good time being hippie community. Right? At that time, the whole thing was pretty much flower children, flower child stuff. So as we were there, it's going to be a long one again. As we were there, I might edit something out. A bunch of the people, I assume it was planned. We went there. They were planning on taking LSD. My memory is it was earlier in the day, like 10 o'clock, maybe 11 o'clock before lunch. And they were going to take acid and have a trip out there. And Joe and I, I remember me specifically pleading with my mother to allow Joe and I to partake of the LSD. And she was reluctant. But to her credit, question mark, I don't know, to adhere to her worldview about letting kids do whatever they want, she acquiesced. And Joe and I split half a tab of Orange Sunshine again. This was the first time. And this is phenomenal acid. Like you can't trust. That was pretty much the only acid you could trust. For sure. Like other stuff you would have questions about. But if it came from that source, the Sunshine Barrel, Orange Sunshine Barrel, then you are guaranteed a good trip. I don't remember a lot. I think I mentioned it before. I don't remember a lot of the specifics of that trip. But the overall feeling or memory was one of calmness, peace. It's like I was, I feel like something changed in me from that time. And I'm sure it did. I guarantee it did. And where you go from there, I don't know. In one of the other posts, podcasts I did, I sang a song and there's a line at the end of the song where it says everybody's living in their own head and walking in their own shoes. And that's, I mean, most of us understand that. But if you think about it, like spend a few seconds and just think about all the conversations that happen in your own head and then the decisions that you make walking in your own shoes. And then the consequences of those decisions sweeping in your own bed. We all have that. So I feel like at that time there was protection on me and I suspect on Joe too. And then from there, how we internalize and live out that experience are those three things of talking in your own head. And another thing is like, you know, I talk a lot about God. I mean, the whole thing to me is about God. It's about Jesus. I mean, it's, and the Bible, we make a mistake. We read, I mentioned this before too. I run out of time. I don't get to say everything, but we read the Bible chopped up, segmented, and we extract scripture and we formulate what we want it to mean. And I think there's a mistake. I know there's a mistake in that. It is different books written by different authors, but it's one story. And the story, believe me, if you really look at it, the story is all about Jesus. It's all about like, it's all about the story of Christ coming to Israel 2,000 years ago and his life there. Now I'm not talking about a religion. You know, that's, I'm not saying religion's bad. Religion can be bad or good. I'm just not talking about a religion. I'm talking about a relationship. And in a relationship, there needs to be dialogue. And one of the things we do is we pray. We pray when we're in trouble and we pray to God for certain things or God do this. We try to make deals with God, and that's fine. I mean, even that's okay. But we don't listen. We don't spend a few seconds, a few minutes to listen because there's something for us to hear. And another time I mentioned in one of the other podcasts, like do I think I'm bigger than God, that I can tell him he's right or wrong? I mean, who made who? He made me. I didn't make him. Can the pottery tell the potter what to do with it? No. So we're getting into some deeper theological and philosophical questions here. There is one thing I was thinking about, and that is there's a fellow who is a Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer. He was raised in a non-Christian home. He had no understanding of the Bible at all. And he read the Bible. Like he went on to, I think, somewhere in Texas, University of Dallas. I thought it was a technical school. I thought he was going to be an engineer, but I can't remember. And he decided to read the Bible, and he just picked it up and he read it. And he had such a sharp mind. He was able to very quickly understand that it was more than just a bunch of stories put together, that there was something in it. There was a thread in it. Francis Schaeffer became a very unique individual in the Christian community, Christian history. You can look him up, too, or ask me. I'll send you some information. He wrote a number of excellent books, a lot of excellent books. They're thinking books. They're not stories necessarily. They're books to cause you to question and think and begin a dialogue with God, the God of the Bible. And I guess what I'm saying is, out of that LSD trip, I learned the value and the importance of being alone, being aware that I was alone, having conversations in my head, either with myself or with God, and the fruit of that. I encourage you, get alone, seek God. I'm not talking religion. Just seek God. Seek the truth. And I say you're not going to find it unless you're looking in the Bible. People would argue that, and that's why I didn't finish my train of thought last time when I talked about Buddhism and Indian religions, but that's the way it is. Hey, really, if you have any questions, send me a text, comment. You can comment on the YouTube page. I don't know if you can comment on the podcasting pages or not, or you can send me a message, Facebook Messenger. Sorry, this one's a little long, and I don't know what song I'm going to sing yet, but there will be a song. See you next time. So this is a tune I, or a song I wrote after drinking a bit back in, I can't even remember exactly, sometime in the 2000s, maybe 2010 era. And it has a similarity to Whiter Shade of Pale, but it's not Whiter Shade of Pale. And also, just for the record, Whiter Shade of Pale was inspired by Bach. Air on a G string, and what was the other one? It was Sleeper Awake, but it wasn't Bach. So, I mean, we have some similarities, but it's not the same. Ooh Give me love, give me peace Give me justice and mercy too All of these things I have I come to understand that it's more than love It's written on your soul All of these things I do All of these things you are Ooh Give me long-suffering Ooh Give me charity, give me peace Give me peace, give me love And every time I know that I have fallen, take me up It's not that there is anything outside of you It's not that there is anything that is you All these things that I'm looking for They're written in the sky They're written on the hearts of men They're written in the minds Ooh Help me to see Help me to understand Help me to feel Everything I need to feel Help me to see Help me to understand Help me to feel Give me a humble heart of humility It's not something that comes naturally to my soul But I must understand I know, I know I'm just a poor old man Give me love, give me peace Give me joy Give me patience and humility Oh Give me justice and mercy too Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you Help me to be just like you