Useless Junk of the Day

When Chickens Come Home to Roost (part 1)

The Bio

Many who have known me on the net over the last few years know that I am fairly successful middle class family man and Democrat extraordinaire who is nuts about Mustangs. Those who really followed my threads also know I grew up in the inner city (read mixed ghetto) in pretty bleak poverty with my mother in a one bedroom flat on the bus line. They also know I was about the only white kid in a violent all black school system just after forced integration began here in the south.

I played in a popular punk band in the early 80s that toured with bands like Black Flag, and was pretty much half cocked, anti-social party boy back in the days before Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no”. After one intense life threatening situation too many (Shoot out with crack head friend) I decided to pull myself up by my boot straps (with some Fed grants ) and go to college where I pulled a 3.67 GPA) But enough about me.

Blast from the Past

Once I cleaned up my act 10+ years ago, I had to turn my back on all my old acquaintances, neighborhood and lifestyle to move forward. I promised to do this WITHOUT forgetting where I came from. (Hence my strong demographic ties despite my income)

Recently, I ran into an old childhood friend who was a life long drug user who lives in a $75 a week flop house in the hood. (MMMMM, love the smell of urine) He is a heavy user by ANY standards but is the gentle type of guy who would NEVER miss a day of work and would litterally give you the shirt off his back in a snow storm.

He told me he wanted to get clean and have a nice family like me. This guy was a complete waste case who never would admit he had a problem. I started taking him down to NA meetings (interesting stuff too) and I bought him bags of groceries and gave him clothes, blankets and old furniture. I am VERY happy to say that he just hit 30 days clean for the first time in over 20 years and he loves it!!!!

Brutal Reality

I decided to take this guy on as a pet project this winter and in doing so he began to reacquaint me with many lost friends (including my old best friend who was like my brother growing up) I was shocked and saddened to see where these people are in life I was blown away by the number of people I knew who were dead from ODing, AIDs, suicide and other crap. I met one old friend who I later found out had AIDS from shooting up whom I saw eating out of a dumpster yesterday downtown. This guy was allways as nice as could be too I actually wondered if a higher power didnt put these visions in my path as a reminder to my blessings and humility.

Two of my old friends JUST got picked up for dealing coke and are looking at STIFF mandatory Federal sentences. (I had no idea what these guys had been up too BTW). Generally speaking, almost everyone I knew from my past was either dead, dying, addicted, in jail or just poor and unhappy. It was VERY sad and is/has been quite an eye opener to see just how far I have come since I changed my path (not to toot my horn by any means) and just how low the path of drugs can take a person once they have been on it a while.

Testimonial

Of course it’s easy to say “Drugs=bad, College=good” and so forth, but when you see it first hand in all its ugliness through the eyes of a seasoned adult, it’s a different story. When your 15-25 it’s a message that is easily ignored, even funny. But if you’re still doing the same things in your mid 30s+ as you were at 19, the reality and consequences of that lifestyle are devastating.

The Moral

The moral of the story? If you are a young hard headed, hard drinking/smoking/dosing live for today type, and you ever get the notion to stop — DO IT!!!!! If you think you are too smart to go down, think again. THE CHICKENS WILL COME HOME TO ROOST! It ¡s inescapable, like the grim reaper himself.

(stay tuned for finer grittier details, it gets MUCH worse)

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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 Filed under drugs, story |