The Beginning

The summer of 1971 my best friend Janice and I would hitch hike into New Haven; down Whitney Avenue from Hamden to hang out on the green with all the other hippie kids. It was my first taste of freedom as I was just 14 and thrilled to be somewhat independent. Janice and I would spend the days walking around the New Haven mall, playing doorman. Opening doors for people at Malleys, at Number 9 house (a shelter for all the homeless hippie kids flooding New Haven that year), hanging on the green   and just generally being stupid kids. It was also the summer I started smoking. Not because I had any money but because the Marlboro company placed middle-aged women wearing big yellow aprons on the four corners surrounding the green. They were there for approximately two weeks at the beginning of that summer. Their aprons contained little 5 pack boxes of Marlboros which they handed out to the kids for free, four at a time. Everyone started smoking. I remember my girlfriend Janice goading me into trying one, telling me "don't be a baby, have a cigarette." She had a lot of influence over me as she was a year older and I didn't want to appear uncool as she haranged me in front of our friends. My first one made me dizzy and sick but I continued to smoke and I continued to get those free cigarettes for those two weeks. Those women disappeared after 2 weeks but by then I was hooked. So Janice and I found another way to get cigarettes because we could not afford them, we didn't have any money. Cigarettes were about 50 cents a pack then maybe less; so about 20 minutes of panhandling would get us 2 packs of cigarettes and lunch. We hang out on the green   with all the other kids smoking cigarettes, smoking a little pot and checking out all the cute boys.