Job 5

January 1973 - August 1973

M&W Sheet Metal - Sheet Metal Worker

By about November of 1972 I was flunking half of my subjects in Grade 13 at Hamilton Collegiate Institute. My father had had enough of my powerful work ethic and tossed me out of the house. I managed to get a good deal on room and board ($10 per week) at the home of a friend of mine who had a more senior position at Mohawk Ford.... full-time Car Wash Guy at a lofty $1.65 per hour.

I decided to drop out of school at that time. Even though I knew I had to come up with a modest $10 per week for room and board it was not long after that I decided quitting my part-time job at Mohawk Ford would be a good idea. I must have had at least fourty dollars in the bank so (I must have believed at the time) I could easily coast along for an indefinite period of time without a job.

By the time January rolled around I had reconciled with my father. He had sold his business to another guy citing my lack of interest in the business as one of his main reasons. He managed to persuade the new owner of the business to hire me.

I started back into the sheet metal trade in a frigid January of 1973. A short while later I was invited to move back home.

This time I worked in the aparment buildings under construction instead of in the fabrication shop. This job was more to my liking because it involved going to different locations. I especially liked the out of town jobs like Guelph, Kitchener and Niagara Falls because they involved sitting in the pickup truck en route to the job smoking cigarettes and being paid travel time.

Backround

By the time I reached Grade Ten in high school I had lost all interest in schooling. Though my marks had not yet started to suffer too much I had definitely established a downward trajectory.

Then the oddest thing happened. Some time in December of 1969 (Actually, I think it was the 23rd) I took my first dose of LSD. Having already experienced the effects of alcohol, I expected the LSD experience to be similar but enhanced by cute little hallucinations of Blue Meanies and Strawberry Fields and Penny Lanes. Instead I went on a Magical Mystery Tour of unimaginable terror.

The trip lasted a good twelve hours and I would have never, ever, returned to the substance if the second half of the experience had been as terrifying as the first (Today, I would advise anyone considering the use of this substance to steer clear, especially if you value your mind. It is very dangerous). Instead, what happened was I became totally relaxed and had the most wondrous experience of my life ... it was truly mind blowing.

Thereafter, I had a strong desire to understand what had happened. I started reading books on philosophy and psychology and mysticism. My interest was strong enough that my peers got sick of me raving about it and gave me the derogatory nickname, "Socrates."

This interest in reading led to other books, like Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock," and stuff by Marshall McLuhan.

Finally, sometime during my employment as a sheet metal installer I picked up a book on the Universe by Isaac Asimov. As I read through it I realized that if not for the tenuous grasp of some phyisical concepts I had picked up through osmosis while sleeping through my Grade 11 physics classes, I would have had great difficulty understanding this book.

Knowing that I did not wish to spend my life installing kitchen and bathroom exhaust systems I decided to go back and finish Grade 13.

I had another falling out with my father in the spring of 1973 and he tossed me out of the house again. I ended up renting a room off an aspring rock star I knew... for fifty bucks a month. He had rented a house where all of the band members and roadies lived. This house ended up being host to a never ending procession of booze, pot and dope parties. The number of residents was never quite clear. Some people, like myself, actually paid rent... others would just show up from time to time and end up staying indefinitely.

Despite the never ending parties, "knives" sessions at the kitchen stove, loud music and monthly police visits I managed somehow to complete my Grade 13 and get the diploma.

It was 1974.

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last modified:Monday,June 9, 2008 at 04:21