Next to the old synanon building was vacant dirt lot. It was the full length of Bay Street from Ocean Way to Ocean Front Walk along the beach. Bay Street was a semi steep hill that went from the top at Ocean Way down to sea level. But the lot was level with the brick synanon building. The lot sat fallow for many years.
Then somebody put up a chainlink fence and started to build on the lot. It looked like a bunch of scaffolding high at the East and low at the west And it pretty much covered the lot from north to south. It turned out to be a Giant steel slide with two sort of level out humps so you didn't slide straight down. So when you slid down you hit the first hump and leveled out for a few feet then it sloped down again to the next hump then down to the bottom. It had steep stairs on the Bay Street side. The stairs started at beach level to the top of the slide. It was free standing and did not connect with Ocean Way on the East
Well we just about owned that beach at the end of Bay Street we hung out, surfed, ran, exercised, and dominated it. Total locals.
There were a good many of us there, rain or shine, summer, winter, spring, or fall. So we watched with interest as the slide took shape. It took them all spring and almost half the summer to complete the thing.
Then one Sunday they opened the gate in the fence at the bottom of the thing and started charging fifty cents to slide down the thing. People would climb the long steel stairs give their ticket they had purchased at the gate to a guy at the top. He would hand them a burlap bag and instruct them to sit on it, push off and slide slowly to the bottom. If they wanted to go again they would have to pay another fifty cents.
We watched it for a while and to a person we were totally unimpressed. We laughed and went back to surfing or just hanging out or catching rays.
The slide was attracting little kids and their moms so doing a good business. It was a little tame and boring for us. Not even the girls who hung out there were interested. Besides fifty cents a slide was a bit pricy.
Then one day...
It was a Saturday I believe. Someone, who shall remain nameless (to protect the guilty) showed up with a hand full of Orange Sunshine acid tabs (Approximately 250 milligrams of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25)).
A word about LSD.
If you have taken acid you can skip this part.
LSD was my drug of choice for many moons. I feel I can speak with authority on the matter. I don't really know haw many times I have taken LSD save to say it was a lot over a period of maybe two years.
It is always interesting to talk with folks who have never experienced LSD. The first question is, "What is it like," That is really hard to put into words because no two trips are exactly the same. I try to explain by asking if they have ever smoked pot. If yes I say remember the highest you have ever been on pot and multiply it exponentially to the tenth power. You have NEVER been that high and enjoyed it as much.
If you notice I don't refer to it as a drug, it's not. Well technically if you define a drug by saying that you ingest it your consciousnesses is altered then yes, I suppose, that is true. Of course eating dinner or urinating would have the same effect. Simply a matter of degree. I find this definition lacking not only with LSD but with many so called drugs. To me for something to be classified as a drug it needs to first of all be addicting. Second it should have long lasting detrimental effects on the body and mind of the user and society as a whole. There are very many drugs like that both legal and illegal. I am splitting hairs here.
There have been studies done on LSD that show that by the time you are coming on to LSD it has already left your system. Unlike other drugs that they wear off as the body expels them. LSD stimulates your brain and goes away. So your "trip" is generated in your own brain. In some cases that is a scary thing.
Another myth about LSD is that when you are tripping you are in a vegetative state. While I suppose you could do that if you wanted to you have a choice not to. The first time I took LSD I went surfing, it was awesome. Doing something I have been doing all my life and extremely comfortable with. I have hiked, ran worked out, rode my bike, made love, drove long distances stoned out of my gord on LSD I even had a root canal done on acid one time. Believe me that wasn't planned, wasn't bad though.
Back to the story
It was a hot summer day with the usual slight on shore breeze cooling things off just right. The perfect day for an acid trip. So of course a bunch of us swallowed a hit, as a dose was called. All of us had tripped before so no issue there.
It wasn't long when things started to get a bit different. The usual test was you wipe your hand in front of your face, if you see your hand and forearm making trails behind them you are starting to come on. This happens gradually, not quickly, you sort of ease into it. Which is kind of cool.
So we were all starting to come on about the same time. The was a lot of laughing and joking going on. Then we all just started to groove on being high on an awesome sunny day. Then the inevitable boredom set in. Surf was small and blown out, lifeguards wouldn't let us go out anyway. You couldn't board surf in the afternoons. Afraid we would collide with some fat lady from Des Moines or somewhere. Somebody said "Hey why don't we try the slide. Someone said yeah cool others said 50 cents was too steep. I reached in my pocket and I had some money, "Hey I got some bread, I'll buy let's give it a try." I said. Then My friend Gilbert said, "I some bread too let's go.
So about seven or eight of us headed across the Bay Street parking lot, destination... "The Slide."
When we arrived there weren't many people sliding. So I pay the guy at the gate and pass out the tickets to us stoned idiots with funny grins on our faces. We were really stoned but we looked like we always did. So we knew we were stoned but nobody else could tell.
I grabbed my ticket and bounded up the stairs to the top. The guy at the top who was probably my age or younger took my ticket, grabbed a rectangular burlap bag and spread it out at the start of the slide and explained how to sit on it and push off. I thanked him then picked up the burlap held it up to my chest and flopped on it like I was flopping on a sled on ice. He yelled. "Hey!" Too late I went down the slide considerably faster than his way. As soon as the rest of the gang saw me there was no more sitting. We were flying down the slide.
Now you have to realize that we were in our mid twenties in really good physical condition and agile as only a surfer can be.
Then the fun began. I don't remember which one but one of us spread the burlap down on the top of the slide then jumped on it and rode to the bottom standing up, just like riding a surfboard or a skateboard. Then all of us were sliding standing up. All yelling and hooting and sliding fast down the slide.
The guys running the slide were trying to stop us but we were bigger stronger and yes badder than they were and we outnumbered them.
Meanwhile a crowd had gathered where previously no one paid any attention and cheering us on.
This time as I jumped on the burlap I turned it sidewise and rode diagnally across the slide like I was turning on a wave then I cutback in the other direction. Well that started a new way of sliding.
Evidently one of the guys running the slide got to a pay phone and called his boss describing chaos and anarchy. When the owner got there he saw more people gathered around his slide the ever. We were tearing it up people were linning up for tickets. He came up to my friend Gilbert with a big smile and said you guys don't pay for sliding any more the slide is yours. Gil told the rest of us and we really went at it.
We kept at it for a while and we were really sweating and our sweat dripped on the hot steel of the slide so the burlap would catch and stop dead. And we would tumble down or off the slide.
It finally ended when Gil stood up at the bottom of the slide, face, shoulders, and knees dinged and bleeding and said, "Ok thats enough fun for me... I don't think I can live though any more fun." That cracked everyone up.
So we all went down to the ocean and jumped in. In those days ocean water was good for wounds.
Anytime we wanted to slide after that it was free.