Ferris State College

Summer of 1977

I was so relieved when I graduated from Flint Central. That had to be the longest year of my life when I was going through it. Getting the job at the car wash made a huge difference. That job is what spearheaded me into hooking up with some like-minded people. Like-minded in that they wanted to smoke pot, drink beer, and chase women like I did. 🤣

The owner of the car wash also owned a gas station that was up the road a few miles. I ended up getting transferred from the car wash to the gas station. My dad was winding his business down and I was doing some cleanup for him on some of the last houses he built. I had a little “clean-up route” that I did a few times a week.

I pretty much got high all day while I was cleaning his houses. I became good friends with one of the guys at the gas station and his cousin. We had a blast that summer. I smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day back then and probably smoked 3-4 joints on a daily basis. I stayed high for a good part of the day. I was definitely a stoner back in the day. 🤣

Purple Microdot

I never got much out of snorting Coke. I did it a few times but never really got anything out of it. Smoking pot was a much better buzz and a lot less expensive. Then I was introduced to this drug called “Purple Microdot” which was acid. I was a little reluctant to try it, but my buddy said I’d love it. He said, “You’ll definitely get a buzz off this. It’s nothing like Coke.” The pill was the size of a pinhead (no exaggeration).

I’m like, “This little pill gonna get me high,” I asked my buddy. He was like, “Oh, yeah. Check it out.” So I did. I think I was looking for something to happen like right away. I told my buddy after a few minutes, “You sure this stuff works? I don’t feel a thing.” He said, “It kinda creeps up on ya. You’ll feel it.”

I’m thinking we probably smoked a joint to wash it down. 🤣 And then…it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like smoking pot times 10. After about 25 minutes we were laughing uncontrollably. I mean seriously…everything and anything was hysterical.

I never laughed so hard in my life. And it lasted for hours unlike smoking a joint that maybe lasted a couple of hours. The next day when I woke up my solar plexus were tight as a drum. I’m thinkin, “What the heck. Why does my gut feel like I just did 100 sit ups?” Then it hit me. I laughed so hard that my stomach felt like I was in the gym doing abs for several hours. 

I was like, “We need to do this again, soon.” My buddy was like, “Yeah, I’ll get some more.” A week or two later we did it again. The second time was good but it wasn’t as good as the first. Nothing bad, but it just didn’t have the same kick as the first time. We did it again for a third time a few weeks later. The third time wasn’t as good as the second or the first. I was starting to see a trend. Each time I did it, the high deteriorated. I did a fourth time and it was starting to feel more like work and less fun.  

Cramer Hall

In the fall of 1977, I went to Ferris State College in Big Rapids Michigan. I didn’t want to go to college. Getting through high school was a major accomplishment and I was fired from school. My parents said, “If you don’t go now, you’ll never go.” So I went. All I wanted to do was party. Cramer Hall was the name of the dorm I stayed in.

It was 11 stories tall which for a college dorm was pretty big. My room was on the Penthouse floor (the 11th floor,🤣). College was tough as nails. I was out of my league and since I was partying as much as possible my grades were in the tank. I met some really cool peeps though. That part was neat because when I was at Central I didn’t meet anyone I wanted to hang out with. I’m not sure whose idea it was (it could have been mine), but talked about doing some “Microdot.”

It was a Friday night and we met in one of my buddies’ rooms on like the 5th floor. We smoked a joint, popped the Microdot, polished off some Budweiser, and started playing Euchre. About 20 minutes in everyone was feelin’ it. They were all laughing and carrying on. I was not feelin’ it. The previous times I did the Microdot it wasn’t an Acid trip high. This time was different. I was starting to see things and feel things I’d never experienced before.

I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good. I was hoping things would change but they didn’t. Things got more intense. I told my friends I wasn’t feeling good and I was going to lie down in my room. I managed to make it back up to my room. All my roommates were gone so I was there all by myself. I was tripping out of my mind.

I was seeing things that I knew weren’t there, but in reality, I didn’t know what to believe. The room was dark and the only light that was coming in was from the windows in the room. There was a TV against the back wall and a chair that was about seven feet in front of the TV. I sat down in the chair and started staring at the TV. The TV was off, but since I was tripping so bad it was like it was on in full color.

This was a bad trip and that much I knew. I got up from the chair and went over to the window and gazed out at the dark night. As I looked at the sidewalk 10 stories down I had this fleeting thought to jump out the window and end this horrible trip I was on. That seemed like my only option at the time. And then…Mr. Atheist cried out to God. “God, please help my. I’m in such a bad place. I can’t take this. Please bring me down, God. I promise if you get me out of this, I’ll never do it again.” I don’t remember how long it was after I cried out to God that I started to level out, but I came back down to earth.

Conclusion

You would think that experience made me turn the tide to start believing in God. Not a chance. It was a coincidence. Prayers like that don’t really get answered I reasoned. I wanted to die that night in that I was sooooo messed up and couldn’t handle it. To be frank, I didn’t connect the dots then. God was like, “You’ll have one heck of a story to tell one day. I got you!” 

photos of Ferris State and Cramer Hall are compliments of Ferris State.