Mines Alumni
Those in the know, know …
A post from HJB – inspired by “Oh Wow Man The Colors!”
Nope – not too long for a post.
Your piece today on the ‘newly-discovered’ controlled substances reminds me of a short story from the years at Mines –
I had driven up to Boulder very early one Saturday morning to attend a geology lecture. On the way back down Hwy 93 to Golden, mid-morning, on the dead-straight and flat section about half-way I found myself catching up to a slow-moving Volkswagen Beetle.
When I was about 100 yards behind, the Bug suddenly made a 90° right turn, ran through the roadside ditch and came to rest impaled on the barbed-wire fence along the adjacent pasture. I pulled over quickly and jumped out to render aid if needed. As I got to the car a long-haired, bearded flower child of the late 1960s Boulder / CU variety emerged with a wide-eyed look on his face …..
“Did you see that?? Did you see that??? Oh my God, did you see that??” …..
“See what, I hollered” …..
“That giant purple chicken in the middle of the road …. there was a giant purple chicken!!” ……
Seeing that he was not visibly injured, I returned to my car and made my way back to Mines, thanking my stars for having not chosen CU.
A man is driving down the road, smoking marijuana, and is stopped by a police officer. The officer asks, “How fast were you going?”The man replies, “Gee officer, I don’t know, how fast was I speeding?”The officer says, “You were going 3 miles an hour.”
Man o man. I love these kinds of memories. 🙂
I musta been the only wannabe hippy who only smoked straight pot,
no additives. Well, alcohol helped.
**Wherein azlib raises his hand sheepishly and
admitsconfesses that he is a CU graduate.**We have always seen people gather and protest [The Current Thing]. Today, it is the “No Kings” people. Not too long ago, it was Black Lives Matter. Before that, Occupy Wall Street. Way back it was Save The Whales. Same people; different things.
Anyhoo, back in my days at CU, along that Highway 93, the Department of Energy ran a place called Rocky Flats, where they built the triggers for all of our nuclear weapons. As you might imagine, this drew the attention of the parents and grandparents of today’s “No Kings” knuckleheads, and they put on an annual protest at the place. They’d shout “No Nukes”.
I had a Navy ROTC buddy* at CU who saw the protests at Rocky Flats as a great opportunity for a little mischief. He joined the protest after having wrapped himself in aluminum foil and while wearing one of those RadioShack Fireman’s Helmets. This thing was obnoxiously loud, and I have a faint memory that there was a PA function to it, but maybe not. Today we would call this “trolling”, but that term didn’t come until we had the internet, which was decades in the future.
* My ROTC buddy was bipartisan in his trolling. In his Junior year, he pierced his left ear, which was then something that was done only in the gay community. But he wore a small Navy anchor as an earring, and the Navy tied itself in knots trying to decide how to deal with him. He wasn’t (to my knowledge) gay….he was just out for the troll. I sometimes wonder how he did in the Navy.
Pearl St in Mork&Mindyville
Day before our wedding in 1984 I stopped at a “friends” house and bought a $40 1 oz bag (4 fat fingers) of red bud (very little shake), stashed it under the car seat and headed for the house.
On the way I came upon a car wash and figured, “Why not?”. It was one of them self serve types. Thought I’d vacuum first then wash. Do you see where this is going?
I got to vacuuming and suddenly something got lodged in the end of the hose – for a split second I seen it – then BLOOP down the pipe.
MY BAG OF REEFER WAS GONE!!! OMFG!!!
Just like that and I never even got to sample it.
Course, no employees were on duty so that was it.
I almost started crying right then and there.
$40 was good money in 1984.
So I headed back to my “friends” house…..
(I have never vacuumed my rides since! j/k)