First stop the Liquor store and buy all the Vino Duva we could just to be prepared. We drink some wine and smoke some Weed to decide who is going to face Mr. Ranger at the office to rent the three lean twos we need. Turns out it doesn't matter anyway since nobody is home. So we just set up at lean twos 10,11 and12 and figure we can just take care of all the legal crap in the morning, besides it’s time to chill out since the drugs we took leaving the city are really starting to take hold.
So who are we? We are a group of Flushing Queens drug crazed maniacs with knives, hatchets, axes, saws and machetes since we are camping in the country. These are things we need to get a good interface with nature it was almost a battle as if we were at war with the trees and brush.
How did this somewhat bizarre possibly dangerous group of like-minded young people arrive by vans, cars, trains even hitchhike for a weekend in the woods? A better description would be stone cold East coast Commie freaks. We were not Hippies Yippies Flower or Love children we read The East Village Other not The Village Voice.
Another good question would be where did we come from, well for most of these Queens tales it’s that truly community land called the neighborhood park, for us it was Bowne Park it became the axis, home base and safety zone for the ones who didn’t fit in to the Great Society and Soaring Sixties.
We quietly took over the Park by osmosis only one force was potent enough to hold such a strange and diverse group together we loved to get stoned. We were Potheads, Acid heads, Glue heads, Speed freaks, Junkies, Down faces, Drunks. We were truly equal opportunity Dopers.
Our origins were from the poorest in College Point to the most upscale in Whitestone and Malba. Why such a large and strange group of freaks would occupy a four square block park is unknown. However it was definitely our space and would be defended viciously if threatened.
This was not a gang we had no leaders it was Anarchy you did what you did and became part of the whole. There was a hierarchy of sorts based on experience with the most experienced users at the top, the type of substance was not relevant, glue and Carbona was taken as seriously as LSD or Heroin. Therefore the Guru of Glue received the same respect as the Oldest standing Junkie or Wisest Acid head.
The physical layout of the park had a great deal to do with interactions between the different groups of users, the 155 street side had the pond and the hill, while the 159 street side had the brick park house the Half court a working fountain for the Junkies even bathrooms. This was also the drive in one stop drug store with assorted dealers on duty 24-7 to tend to all your needs and wants.
Now when the Parkers went upstate to commune with nature once again a hierarchy of sorts would form again, acidheads Lean to # 3 farthest away, Lean to # 6 Down freaks (not far enough) The rest would take 10 11 and12 grouped in a semicircle on a nice hill, with extra picnic tables at the bottom, now the Junkies didn’t use a Lean to they brought tents and got the farthest away of all, although at night they were easy to spot since they kept a huge fire going in order to see, don’t want to be poking away blind.
I must admit it was fun being such a tremendous thorn in the side of the State Police and we truly loved every minute it was 1969 a very good year!
