March 10 Saturday

Walked to Dave's, I think Ralph and Donna [were there]. Ralph left and came back with Andy about 7. We all walked across the field (smoking up on the way) to St Charles [I was welcomed back to the group by Andy. We walked towards the water tower near St Charles. It seemed to be the hub of a great wheel, with the spokes being the ridges of frozen earth mixed with sheets of ice...1973 was a visual year, this image, the upcoming dream, then beauty of trees in the summer, or standing on the balcony of Donna's apt looking towards the city and Mont Royal, imagining the lines of perspective...]. Went to Bob Kerr's [Donna's brother, about the same age as her] house (new one, no one in). 2 girls and 2 guys (one Dave Wells) there. We talked and smoked, had some cider. Waited at Dominion for Ralph's father.

 

Saturday, 10 March

Went to Dave's in the afternoon; Donna and Alan came later. Got picked up at 5:30. Called Andy cause we were going to Bob's (Donna's brother) house. They have two houses, one of which is under construction. We were to have a party in the empty house [I'm not sure now, but I think the family had moved into the new house- which was in sight of the old one- and the party was to be in the house they had more or less vacated]. Andy decided to come and his father gave us a lift to Dave's, from where we walked through strange parts of Dollard and through all sorts of fields. In the fields we all smoked up. Finally got to Bob's around 8:30. There were all sorts of people I didn't know there. As soon as we got there Andy and a few other people went to get beer and cider. Donna got very drunk, her and Dave making out all over the place. We had to stay in the basement because he [Bob] was afraid his mother would see the lights. We walked around upstairs a few times [exploring a half empty house in the dark; the thrill of being where we weren't supposed to be]. Left at 11:00 but had trouble getting out of the house because there was an old lady walking her dog. We walked to a Dominion store on St Charles and called to get picked up.

 

It was about this time that I had a dream. I was riding a horse across a field lightly covered with snow. In the sky before me was the sun, and on either side in the distance low hills and above them crescent moons. I told the dream to Dave the next day while out at the back of the school having a smoke. I phoned a radio talk show on which a dream interpreter was on. He listened to me, asked how old I was and said "You read the same book I did" and hung up...

 

March 11 Sunday

Nothing.

 

Sunday, 11 March

Went to Dave's in the afternoon. A bunch of Sue's friends were there- Brian, Pete, a girl who's name I didn't get (91), and Larry Habel who came later. Sat listening to records. Everyone except Larry left at around 4. Dave showed Larry all his pants. Got picked up around 6. Dropped off Larry on the corner of St Johns and Westminster.

 

 

 

91. Ralph's note: If I remember correctly, the girl whose name I didn't get was Jackie Ranger. I can't recall Bryan's last name, but he was a fixture in the Peter Mckinstry (sp?) crowd. This would have been the first time I'd met any of these people, and I sure wish (once again) that I was less concerned with unadorned events and places and times and more descriptive and opinionated where people were concerned. I wish I could remember more exactly how I felt about the people I met and would later spend a good deal of my time with. Larry Habel [pictured] going through David's wardrobe is the closest thing to an opinion here: David's collection of pants still persists in my memory as representing tangible evidence of my early feelings of Dave's "difference" and a frequent source of my embarrassment at being seen with him. That I connect Larry with Dave's pants points to a similar discomfort about Larry, with his gold chains and and undone shirts. Somehow I have always been suspicious of sartorial extremes. Anyway, I was suspicious of Larry. He wasn't like us, he was older than me and yet hung around with people I considered to be too young for me (that would soon change), and I wondered why Larry didn't hang around with people of his own age. Quibbles to be sure, but of some gravity when you are sixteen. The arrival of the likes of Larry and Pete and the rest of the Southwest One/Somervale/Fairview pits crowd signalled the onset of the final disintegration of the core group. The cohesiveness of the Lesley axis was now beginning to be supplanted by a much wider and more disparate crowd of people who were, apart from Larry, younger than us- Pat, Maggie, Sue, Heather, Louise Tremblay, Jackie, Danny Hinves, Pete, the Wilkensons, Richard and so on. Andrew's outside acquaintances- Scott Forsythe, Murray Robinson, Brad and Bob Hyland would also revolve around the periphery. Anyway, I was never comfortable with Larry, never really liked him. The last time I saw him would have been in the early '80s when I met him on the bus to Ottawa. I was off to visit Cherise who was studying Law at University of Ottawa, and Larry turned around in his seat and started talking to me- as luck would have it I had taken the seat just behind him without having noticed or recognized him. He said he was working as some sort of Youth counsellor in association with the YMCA. He was wearing a suit.