wandering hillbilly

life of buddy don, chaptur 34:
trippin with virgil n myra jane

ye mite could wunder whut wuz happenin with virgil, n thars at lease one thang ye oughta know. it probly cums as no surprise that he stayed sweet on darlene till long after he had gone to san francisco. fack is, he went in part on a counta he couldnt stand seein me be with her when he wuz hopin twood be him.

that n the fack that he wonted to try thangs, mainly sex, but also thangs lack bein on his own, havin adventchurs up in hate ashbury, n usin drugs. he could see thay wuznt much chants of tryin innythang with darlene, speshly when i wuz a marrn her, so myra jane wuz a good comprumise. she wuz ackshully a purty smart gurl with a backbone to admire, a sexy way of walkin, n as down to earth a manner as ye could hope fer. fack is, she coulda been the mother of all earth mothers.

lease thats the way it seemed to me whenever i went to visit. witch that happened jes after i had dun tride killin myself. i wonted to see em, n by then he had dun gut out of the army n wuz a'livin in sunnyvale, witch sunnyvale n the hole area twuz about to take off with the computer industry. so whenever i gut some time off frum wurk, in a dishun to the time they made me take, i drove out to californy to visit him.

i had dun seen him once on a counta he cum to visit us durin one of his furloughs. as ye mite recall, he had dun been drafted on a counta havin a low number. he tride protestin it, but thay wuznt no way out, n he wuz lucky they sent him to germuny ruther than viet nam. he wuz as good a mechanick as ever thar lived, so they tuck advantidge of that n had him reparin tanks n jeeps n such.

innywho, he cum thru oak ridge bout two years into our marrg n long befor we had moved to knoxvul. i could see rite away that he wuz jes as sweet on darlene as he had ever been, n thang wuz, seemed lack she wuz innerested rite back. it so happened that i wuz a'takin classes 4 nites a week n she had em only two, so thar wuz two nites at the house that they had alone. this wernt all that long after i had cunfessed bout magda n i wuz feelin guilty bout that so whenever i could see they wuz thankin with thar glands, i dint discurge it a tall but reminded em that we dun had us a open marrg n all that, n shure a nuff, they dun the deed one evenin while i wuz at class.

ye mite could thank that wood make me mad at my frien, but twernt thataway a tall. seemed to me lack he dun did me a favor on a counta now darlene wuz even with me n i knew twuz with sumbidy that woodnt be stayin round to make it a long lastin affair. the tit fer tat wuz dun. n far as i wuz concerned, i dint need much more of the marrg bein open. twuz a lot more truble than it seemed to be wurth.

or mayhap thats jes me talkin now that i dun had too much experients in that regard. at the time, i kep thankin i wuz missin sumthin by not havin more sex with more women. but that's off the track.

thang bout my visit to virgil n myra jane that i member mos of all wuz trippin in big sur. twuz also the furst time i met thar lil gurl jill, witch she wuz jes bout two years old at the time.

thats rite, i sed trippin. one of the bad thangs bout drugs bein illegal and thar bein a war on sum of em is that ye git to a point purty quick whar ye know ye cant take the wurd of the gummint on em. fer instunts, they started in to tellin lies bout pot bout as quick as they discovered white peeple mite lack to use it. they ignore how twuz once widely prescribed by docters n all. in sted, they cum up with lies lack that it makes ye crazy n makes ye go into mad, murderous rages, n loose cuntrol n all. taint a bit of it true. if innythang, it makes ye lazy n willin to sit around doin nuthin all day cept listn to musick n eat snacks.

but thang is, whenever ye tride it n figgered out they wernt a'tellin the truth bout it, twuz a temptayshun to thank they wernt tellin the truth bout nun of them drugs, n thats mostly the case. so after i had dun tride pot n found that nun of the awful thangs happend to me that i wuz led to bleev wuz spozed to happen, then i dint bleev em bout much of innythang they sed bout drugs. lies is awful thangs.

n durin the 70s, i tride ever sangle one of em i could git my hands on. i know that aint sumthin to be proud of, but in them daze, that seemed the main way to go on a adventchur, n dint nun of em seem as dangerus as we wuz tole.

fack is, likker n tubacka is bof em more dangerus than most of the drugs i ever cum acrost n tuck. n plane fack is, they kill more folks n ruin more lives than all them other drugs put tugether.

so whenever myra jane ast did i wonta trip, i sed i mite lack to. n virgil starts into splainin how tiz a one way street, n that once ye go down it, ye woodnt never be the same agin. n i tole him that wuz a thang to cunsidder, only wuz thay innythang that wuznt thataway? n he wundered whut i mint, n i sed that purty much everthang i had dun in my life wuz kindly one way streets that oncet i had gone down em i wuznt never the same no more. n that made him laff, so we decided we wood doot.

corse, that mint a'gettin us sum, n that mint a trip to san francisco whar myra jane had this friend, witch he wuz a gay man who lacked hangin out with myra jane on a counta she wuz a no nonsense kinda purson. whenever we cum by his apartmint, he had us in n we all talked n at one point he ast wuz i gay n i sed i wuznt n he sed wuz i shure n i sed i wuz purty shure. n he sed sumthin lack the differents tween a strate n a gay man wuz a bottle of vodka. i thanked him fer the warnin n splained how i could bleev it on a counta i wuz a lergick to hard likker in the furst place, n he laffed at that n tole me i wuz all rite.

corse he woodnt take money fer the three hits of acid he had. we thanked him n i tole him ifn i wuz ever back round, we could test his theory bout vodka, n he sed he wood keep a bottle on hand jes in case. his name wuz hank n he dint live to see 1984 on a counta aids.

we lef san francisco n drove to big sur n picked us out a campin place n hiked up to a bald of grass n tuck the acid n smoked sum pot n drunk a lil wine, lease virgil drunk the wine or most of it. twuz a purty day n frum whar we wuz, ye could look out over the woods n see the ocean. n we stayed thar the hole trip jes about, n seemed lack we dint do much but laff n play. jill wuz thar, n she wuz havin fun a'crawlin all over us. i wuz sprized mainly by how i twernt sumthin that made ye crazy n fergit whar ye wuz nor nuthin lack that. ye could see the beauty in everthang n i member clearly a layin out in the sun on that grass n realizin that i wuz happy, lease at that momint, with jill a crawlin all over me, witch i wuz always her favert till long time later when i moved away frum the farm, n the sun a shinin down on us n the good friends n the grapes n oranges n kiwi fruits that myra jane had brung fer us to eat.

at one point, i thought i could see whut the hole mystery of life wuz about, n i speck manys the purson trippin that has dun seen that. problem is, ye cant hardly splain it n ifn ye aint ever felt it, how kin ye git it?

we had us a real good time n camped out n seem lack we dint git sleepy till twuz near dawn the nex day, n then when mornin cum we wuz up early n whenever we tuck the nex toke frum a joint, we wuz reminded of the trip n it felt grate.

we went n gut us sum brakefuss n virgil cummenced to splainin the inventchuns he wuz inventin in his hed. that wuz the main thang ye had to keep strate with virgil, his inventchuns. he had dun invented mos everthang that cum along only sumbidy else beat him to ever punch whenever it cum to makin money frum em. he had the idee fer flat tvs, fer instunts, n splained how twood wurk. n he had idees fer cars n computers. fack is, ye could name mos innythang, n chantses are, he had dun invented it sum kinda way.

corse, they never gut frum his hed to a ackshul prototype nor nuthin, so ye had to kindly take his wurd fer whut he had invented.

whenever i wuz a leevin, virgil cum out to see me off. twuz too early fer myra jane or jill to be up. he sed he wonted to tell me sumthin, n we talked, n as usual, it tuck us way too long on a counta he had sum refinemints to one of his inventchuns he wonted to splain. but mainly, he jes wonted to thank me, n whenever i ast him whut fer, he sed fer not gittin even with him by havin sex with myra jane. twuz hard not to laff on a counta he had dun gut me even with darlene, n ye kin see how once ye git to openin up marrgs, ye could git to whar nuthin wood ever be even agin. i dint tell him that, but i tole him he dint have nuthin to wurry bout.

n he hugged me n tole me he bleeved thangs wuz a fixin to change n that the worl wuz a gone be enlightened n he wuz a gone show the worl new ways of bein n all. n i sed he should move to tennessee sumday on a counta ye could git land thar n mayhap we could start the new ways of livin on that land. n he laffed n sed he reckoned we could but ye could see twuz lack one of them inventchuns n mite never be the case that the idee wood git out of his hed long a nuff to be real.

by then myra jane wuz up n wontin to know whut we wuz a'talkin bout. n i tole her i wuz regrettin not gittin to make luv to her, n she laffed n sed maybe nex time, n ye could see twuz a eatin at virgil till she slapped his arm n sed to litin up. so i mentchuned the idee of gittin land in tennessee, n when myra jane promissed they wood doot, i knew they wood.

she sed maybe we wood trip agin, n i sed maybe so. n she laffed n ast me bout our trip n did i see god? n i wonted to say i dint know fer sartin, n she laffed bout that n sed i should keep lookin.

n it seemed to me, as i wuz a drivin back to tennessee after the visit, that i had dun found the path to enlightenmint, that ye could git to god by takin the rite medicine, as twere, n acid seemed lack twuz it. n thar wuznt much i woodnt try to see ifn i wood git ansers bout whut life is all bout. n i kep thankin i wood git it frum a experients of sum kind.

but whut i gut wuz really no differnt frum whut virgil wuz a'gittin frum his inventchuns, n that wuz jes one more thang in my hed that i couldnt splain to nobidy.