Looking at these two photos brings back the late '60s. The carpet you can't quite see was two inch long shag. My mother bought a garden rake to keep it in shape. I remember the sensation of combing my fingers through it when talking on my princess phone. I spoke a lot to Ben, my high school boyfriend, who played guitar in a rock band. I remember the conversation we had when he dumped me, just after I got back from the cross-country teen tour on which I got busted in Grand Canyon National Park. It was a weird summer. I wasn't using drugs much really but two girlfriends and I were hanging out with a couple of pre med. students, also on summer vacation in the park, when we got set up by a narcotics agent. Remember narcs? The narc supplied the pot and later some hallucinogens. Then after smoking and hanging out with us under some trees he excused himself, ostensibly to pee in the woods. When he returned, it was with a bunch of other narcs, we were ambushed and handcuffed. It was a nightmare. Our mug shots were taken and we were strip searched. It ended better for me than I expected though. My friend Rose and I got off; the narc said one of us didn't smoke but he couldn't remember which one (we both had dark curly hair). But the other girl and the med. students got booked and had a trial date set. The guy's medical careers may have been screwed up. The girl got sent home. My parents were pretty cool about it and were more worried about the effect of the arrest experience. They seemed to know I was just experimenting and was not much of a real pot head anyway. It could have been worse.

submitted by Ellen Kozak
New York, New York
April 2000