Chronicles Of A Teenage 90's Misfit

Mario Brothers

It was the summer of '94. Not much to do at the edge of 13 in the suburbs of Virginia Beach, especially being at least 20 miles from the actual beach. So, Lizzie and I did what we always did, walk through our lame neighborhood and see what kind of trouble we could get into.

Our neighborhood had a mixture of one and two story houses, some brick and some with neutral colored vinyl. Pretty much every house except a few here and there, had an it's own look, so it was far from cookie cutter. It wasn't a low class or a middle class neighborhood, it fell somewhere in-between. And like most neighborhoods, it had a neighborhood park. It was far from anything fancy. It had a metal slide, two swings and a large spinning metal circle with grip bars. Hands down, the the best park equipment was the spinning circle. It probably spun faster than it was designed to do. If it wasn't spinning, most the neighbor kids would use it as a resting place to relax and shoot the shit. The spinning circle can be either most thrilling or the most relaxing experience at the neighborhood park, a park that didn't offer much of a park experience, but more of teenage social experience.

So, as always Lizzie and I headed towards the park with the hopes of seeing someone we knew. After conversations that were probably about our freshman class and who we thought was cute, we arrived at the park. The park was lead to from a sidewalk between two houses. The sidewalk was so hidden that if you weren't aware of it, you would walk right past it. Once you are at the park, the park itself is sort of hidden behind several houses, connected to grass alleyways with fences on each side.

Lizzie and I settled ourselves on the spinning circle but choose to relax after that fifteen minute walk in the early fall heat. It didn't take long before a boy named Ray, I knew since the fifth grade, came up with two other guys I didn't recognize. But one thing I did recognize was how happy these three were. Ray made his way to us, and the other two guys made their way to the two vacant swings. Ray appeared to be happier than usual self and his eyes were squinting like it hurt to keep them open. Then he pulled out a rolled up joint out of his overly baggy denim pants pocket. I never smoked pot before but I knew plenty of how it looked like from D.A.R.E class, an anti-drug program pushed on the young in the 90's, and from watching movies I probably shouldn't been watching at that age.

With one flick of the lighter, Ray inhaled the joint all in one action. After two puffs, he passed the joint to me. I was already accustomed to smoking cigarettes since middle school, like most of my friends, but I had never smoked marijuana. With no hesitation but with all curiosity, I took a drag but with caution. I was surprise that the inhale didn't make me cough. So, following the puff puff pass rule I've only heard about, I puffed the joint again but took more in thinking I could handle it like a pro. I was wrong, not only did I cough, I choked on my cough and it took a few agonizing minutes for me stop. When I was able to finally stop coughing I looked up, and I saw everyone staring at me. Looks of concern, Ray asked me if I had ever smoked pot before. And of course to embarrassed to admit I hadn't, I lied and said yes, but it's been awhile. The entire situation made me uneasy so I told Lizzie when should he back to her house and she had no interest of smoking something like that for the first time after seeing how I nearly choked to death of embarrassment.

About halfway through our walk towards her house, I started to feel weird. Each step I took felt as though I was walking in slow motion. My steps felt heavier and it felt as though I was stepping over clouds. I told my friend I think I'm high.

Walking while high continued to be fascinating to me, so much so that's all kept talking about to the point of making Lizzie annoyed. At one point I remember telling her I felt like I was in a video game like Mario World.

A walk that seemed to take longer than anything in my life, we finally arrived at Lizzie's house. Her parents weren't home so there was no need to warn me to just act natural, so I continued to embrace my first high.

We headed straight for her room and suddenly everything, and I mean everything, was funny to me. I spent an entire hour laughing at Lizzie, even though she wasn't doing anything purposely funny and laughing at myself. Even my voice when I spoke sounded funny. My uncontrollable laughter finally wore off and I knew it was time to head home for dinner. Then the harsh reality had set in that at home I had to act normal, because my wholesome Christian parents would freak out if they knew I was high.