September 6 Friday
Bought text books. nite- went to the Campsite, Ralph back.

September 8 Sunday
[earlier this year Foster, Fred etc had planted marijuana up north. They wished to see if it had grown, so...] Foster, Fred, Bob, Ernie, Maggie and I went up north [in the Lincoln. the place was around Lachute. We parked the car up this road, and walked through a field filled with stumps. Foster stood on one, and he spotted the plants. There were quite a few, we grabbed them all. They were brought back in the trunk of the car.

That night I took some to Dave's. Ralph was there too. Dried some in Dave's kitchen, it wasn't bad].

Abbott was strange. At the heart of the campus, in front of the main building, was a oval shaped lawn called (wait for it) 'The Oval'. At this time you were not supposed to walk across it (at least not new students). I remember the first time we did, we were yelled at by some guys in Brittan Hall (the boy's residence).

I found I liked Calculus and Philosophy (I had taken a scientific course because I had done well in these subjects in Grade 11 and thought that would be the direction of my life. In my graduation yearbook, the only one I don't have a copy of, I said my goal was " to become a great scientist" and my probable destination was " discovering grass kills".

My father suggested I take Philosophy. At this time I had never read any, and wasn't even sure what the word meant. That class opened my eyes (the teacher was Jerry Lavallee, a slightly Timothy Leary type (who told us about LSD philosophy experiments) but a great teacher. Before that I had always seen the world one way, and never considered there were any other ways of seeing it.

The first idea that stuck me was the Forms of Plato and the story of the Cave. Objects as they really are...
A guy in the class, Dale, said that if I passed the course (which he doubted, I guess I didn't look the type) he'd name a religion after me. Dale was a tall thin guy with longish brown hair and glasses. He had an inflated view of his own intelligence. I met Gilles and Michelle (a couple and nice people) in this class also.

Gilles and Michelle Calculus was great. I loved it (the teacher was Miss Clarke). Though 1974-75 I would do it for fun and to relax (so much so, that notebook after notebook were filled with calculations and graphs. I would get ahead of the course. The period 1974-76 saw me turning inwards to a great extent, with the results that my technical skill in drawing increased dramaticly. I'm sure now that the mastering of mathematics had something to do with it). Both these courses have effected my later art, in control of line and in the attempt to convey ideas in my drawings. This was my father's last gift to me while he lived... I disliked Pre-Cal, or rather the teacher Mr Bozel (you can imagine his nickname), who told the lamest of jokes. Andy was in my class (also a guy little boy, Dave Harward, who I had a crush on) . Foster was in my Chem class, a difficult one. (It was at this time (and into 1975) that the documentary series from England; 'The Ascent of Man' by Jacob Bronowski, were being aired on PBS.. This show had a great influence on me for many years to come. A sideline: I would drink coffee at Abbott in the morning (and for the first time liked it), That fall sugar was more expensive, and they would charge for packets of it... Andy, Ralph and I were sitting in the Oval (the coffee house on campus) one afternoon when we learned bubblegum had gone to 2¢ for the first time. Western Civilization was finished...

High up on the suspention brigde that connected Ste Anne's to Ile Perrot, some John Abbott grads had painted "The Wanderers '74" and on the other side was "AGR '73" (Agriculture graduates, as John Abbott was housed in buildings leased from McDonald College. At one time all the campus was part of McDonald College, which was run by McGill University. This is why our philosophy course was held in the Poultry Building...)

September 13 Friday
[I needed to make up my French mark from Grade 11] went to John Rennie to see about it. nite- watched Mash and smoked oil.