THE JOURNALS OF ALAN RHODES

part II 1971-1977

          1975

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Rob and Ralph worked also painting Mich's house, a job they didn't do all that well... (129)

 

July 18-20 Friday-Sunday

Went to Long Sault with Maggie, Guy, Heather and a friend of Guy's, Daniel and four others, who we let park there. Too many on campsite 30, but the guards left us alone.

 

Did acid on the Saturday night [as did many others. They walked to the store, I didn't want to drive. Spaceships circled the stars (or at least I thought so). Wasps would jump into our drinks. A lost tape on a lost handheld tape recorder did exist. 'I'm not in Love' by Ten C.C. was the song of the hour].

 

July 23 Wednesday

LSD [The last until September 13, 1980, and the last of the classic LSD.

 

This is contradicted by an entry on December 11, 1975, but no matter].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

129. Ralph's note: Summer 75 Rob & Michelle

 I'll have you know that Rob and I did a fine job on Michelle's mother's house. Even tho Rob fell off the ladder while holding a can of paint (creating a nice decorative pattern on the grass in the backyard), and in spite of nearly burning up the garage door with a blow torch while trying to blister and scrape the previous coat, the final product was satisfactory. Mrs. Jordan's only real complaint was that it took us so long- most of the summer I think, tho we only worked weekends. I remember having great fun. Taking long breaks to pick up beer, playing guitars, Rob and I working on the harmonies to the Beatles' "I've Just Seen a Face" (...Falling, yes I am falling/But she keeps calling/Me back again...also Paul McCartney's "Venus and Mars" was on the radio- "there's a rockshow at the Concertgebouw/They got long hair at the Madison Square...), and bombing around in the Volvo, Michelle wearing a half unbuttoned sleeveless jean vest with nothing underneath. I think I began to fall in love with her around this time. Though perhaps love had little to do with it. Certainly both Rob and Michelle noticed this. Later, whenever it was that Rob, Michelle, Mike Flahault and I went to Mt Marcie (August '75 I think), I was surreptitiously invited into Rob and Michelle's tent in the middle of the night (Mike and I were sleeping in the lean-to). I'm not exactly sure what was supposed to go one between the three of us, but vague arrangements had been made out of Mike's earshot. I had understood that I was to sleep with Michelle, but I had not given any thought to where Rob would be during this time. I hadn't counted on him being in there with Michelle and me- which he was. I vaguely remember a bit of uncomfortable groping with Michelle before the absurdity of the situation struck me. We all fell asleep and I woke up while it was still dark and went back to the lean-to. I can't remember what was said- we were all pretty drunk and stoned and the details are rather blurred. None of us ever said a word about this night afterwards.

 

I did finally spend a night with Michelle when she was living in the Pardo Apartments in the summer of '77. Not a particularly memorable occasion. I had the distinct feeling that she took me to bed to get rid of me (I had become rather a nuisance). A few nights later we went to see "Star Wars" downtown. We hitched back and at St John's she insisted on hitching alone to her mother's place in Dollard (Pierrefonds?). The next morning she took off out west where I ran into her in August in Banff. (But before this I had got into quite a panic about Michelle's disappearance. I had made it a point to memorize the licence plate of the car she had gotten into, and when I could not trace her in the next few days Nicolette passed the number to the police. The driver was questioned before Paula- was that Michelle's sister's name?- finally admitted that Michelle had taken off out west- Michelle had gone to her mother's just to pick up a few things- the morning after "Star Wars". Paula had been sworn to secrecy.) I was in a cafe with David Rollin Webb (my future brother-in-law) when we saw Michelle walk by with her laundry. She invited us to a party that night. We went, she ignored us, we left early. Never saw her again. She had taken my guitar out west and claimed to have lost it. Supposedly she had met some people in Vancouver who had invited her to come with them to Hawaii. With her luggage already checked through- including my guitar- immigration officials prevented her from boarding the plane because she lacked sufficient funds to cover her stay.

 

By the way...Andrew also worked at Pascal's Warehouse this summer. He was fired or forced to resign because of drugs.

 

At the end of the summer of '75 Mike Flahault moved to Toronto. He got an attic apartment above the Donway Drive-In Pizzaria on the corner of Dundas and King (this is a guess) and worked at a furrier's on Spadina (?). I visited him there in September (I have pictures) and remember going to The Gasworks where we saw a band that had some sort of significance for me, but I can't remember why. (Did it include ex-Ten Years After members?)

 

130. This is a copy of the design that appeared on the blotter acid at this time. It is this design that is on the cover page of the printed version of this journal from 1995.