December 29 Friday Holiday

Went to Gillian's, Bridget there. Sat by the fire, cut lino. Got a drive home with Gillian as they were taking Bridget to the train. [At 12:30 I left home and walked to Dave's. Dave was cleaning dog shit off the carpet [in the living room]. Just after I arrived Sue's friends started coming. Everybody got incredibly drunk except me [Louise Tremblay was the ringleader in all of this. She was the most experienced in making "jungle juice"- the 1st time I'd ever heard the expression- which consisted of filling an empty bottle with a little of everything in the liquor cabinet. The Essiambres had a well-stocked liquor cabinet. The result tasted awful, but was enough to thoroughly intoxicate four 13-14 year old girls]. Heather collapsed in the hall. Alan had gone to Gillian's and called to see what we would do tonite. I didn't know so he said he'd call back. In the meantime a cousin of the Osbournes' came and he had some smoke [these were neighbours of the Essiambres- Joan Osbourne was a sometime friend of Dave's with whom he apparently made his first forays into the downtown gay club scene in late '73 (?)]. He and Sue went into the can to smoke it and Heather [who had wanted some too, but was locked out] was lying on the floor [outside the bathroom] screaming "I'm gonna kill you!" etc. [addressed to Sue]. I tried to throw water in her face but it did no good, just made her make-up run [I had no experience in dealing with drunken hysterical girls, but Heather was in bad shape, completely out of control. My recollection of this afternoon is one of ineffectually running from one crisis to the next, all afternoon long]. Around this time Ruth + Linda arrived [this is my only recollection of seeing Ruth outside of school] and Dave + Linda went right upstairs to his bedroom. Around this time another kid [Louise Tremblay] started screaming "I can't see!" [it was like some weird vocal fugue- screams of "I'm gonna kill you", "I hate you" and "I can't see" alternating, overlapping, blending, separating, and harmonizing in cacophonic crescendos- it was all rather surreal. I had a moment of panic- I had heard of a connection between alcohol abuse and blindness- but I decided Louise was mostly competing for attention]. I called Gillian's twice more and talked to her [moments of sober sanity in the midst of the maelstrom]. I left at around 3:30]. nite-Gillian came over, sat in the basement. Ralph came, smoked up, went up to see the new fish [my father had got a fishtank for the kitchen].[I walked to Alan's that night at around 7. Gillian was there. Alan brought down his new stereo clock-radio. Most of the night he worked on his lino-cuts [the cover of that Uriah Heep album?]. We had coke + chips before Danielle came at around 8:15. Nothing much else happened. Got picked up at 11:30. Drove Gillian home] They left at 11.

 

December 30 Saturday

Gillian, then Ralph came over, sat in the basement. Not exciting. They ate pizza for dinner. At 7:30 got picked up by Gillian's father and went to Gillian's, sat in the study. Andy came for 45 minutes, watched TV and talked [Listened to "Tommy". Andy came at around 8pm. Watched "Mary Tyler More" at 8:30 and Andy left again at around 9. We listened to more records and at 10 we watched Carol Burnette. We waited in the kitchen until the parents came at around 11:30. By this time it was raining]. Got a ride with Ralph at 11:30

 

December 31 Sunday

Ralph and Danielle came over, sat in the basement. We cleaned it up, vacuum etc, then talked. They left at 5:30. nite-I smoked up and Ralph came at 7:30 [I had my winesack [purchased in Spain the previous summer- it would eventually get mouldy and be thrown out] but it was only about half filled], we walked to Gillian's. On the way we smoked up in the golf course [Alan had a tiny bit of hash which he was trying to smoke in his room when I called. We stopped at a little shack on the golf course and he smoked it there-- gave me a toke. I drank a little of the wine and we went on to Gillian's].. Debbie Darcey and Paul Church were at Gillian's. Two guys came Rosy and Dave Morris (all these people were from Gillian's Human Relations class at BHS). Andy came and he, Ralph and I went out and smoked up [we didn't smoke much but it got us quite off]. [By this time Alan, Andy + myself had moved toward the fireplace away from the others] tried to start a fire. About 10:30 Jennifer, a girl [Louise Doyle] and Trever (Nov 18) came [with a bottle of champagne].. Danielle came. [Andy left at 11:30 to see Casino Royale [on TV]]. At 12 made peanut butter sandwiches. [We turned on the radio when we thought it was 12 but we missed it [which pretty much sums up the whole evening]. From 12 to 1 Gillian & co. talked about the HR [Human Relations] weekend. Just as I was leaving Dave called [he had been forced to babysit-- probably had a better time than we did]. I just handed the phone to Jennifer and left. Danielle, Alan + I stood outside for a while till the parents came. Dropped off Alan]. [Gillian made a punch with strange fruit floating around in it, the stuff of legend. This was also the worst New Year's of the era, as we and Gillian's friend's didn't mix well...]. (82)

 

 

 

82. Gillian did have a group of friends from her high school [Beaconsfield High School]. Beaconsfield had at this time a reputation for being slightly snobby, more upper class then any other city on the West Island. That, and high school 'loyalty' prevented people from different schools getting along. This is of course a generalization.