• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • News
  • Lifestyle
  • Wellness
  • Cuisine
  • Product Reviews
  • Subscribe
Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine

Emerald Media News Subscription
  • Print Magazines
  • 100+ Minority-Owned Companies to Support
  • No Pipe, No Problem
  • Blunt vs. Joint
  • The Cost of Cannabis in Each State
  • Calculating Your Edibles Dosage
  • Flintts Mouthwatering Mints

High Art 1967-Style

August 14, 2017 by Molly Cate Leave a Comment

How a Lifelong Love of Cannabis Began with Two Record Albums and Nature’s Artistry

This month marks my 50th anniversary enjoying cannabis. To celebrate these landmarks, I’ve gone back in time, hoping to give readers some sense of how far we have come since 1967. Of course, my memories are specific to one place and social group, privileged white kids in New England. In San Francisco, 1967 brought the Summer of Love. But lots of us were still struggling to join the party.

I recall first hearing about cannabis in 1966, the year I graduated from high school in suburban Rhode Island. Those in the know surely had sampled much good cannabis over the years, but, most of us had no idea until the summer of ’66, when a few got access.

In July 1966, my parents rented a house next to a golden beach on the Atlantic coast of R.I., in a little town called Jerusalem, just across the Salt Pond channel from the fishing port of Galilee. There I found a thriving beach culture with lots of kids my age. We’d lounge on the sand each day like seals, snug next to the breakwater, slathered in suntan lotion, transistor radios blaring. Nights, we would drink whatever alcohol we could scrounge (being underage) and listen to records. We heard hints of a new way to get high. But, getting a chance to try it proved elusive.

The kids who had found cannabis were excited about it but extremely reluctant to share. They weren’t being greedy; they were scared. Everybody heard stories of the “friend” who turned out to be a narc, an undercover cop trying to entrap tokers. Everyone I asked about trying some said no. I ran out of time that year when my family left the beach rental house at the end of July.

I was delighted when my parents decided to rent the same house the following summer. Quite a bit had changed in that one-year span. 1967 would be the year that cannabis first became available to most of us, and our beach culture was irrevocably changed. My group of friends divided into two separate camps, the drinkers and the tokers. I wanted to change sides!

It took until sometime in August for me to find kids who would let me join them in lighting up. We drove right into the 7-foot tall bulrushes lining Salt Pond, just behind the beach. The car was completely hidden. After sharing my first joint with the others in the car, we drove back to the beach and I walked down to the shore to sit near the surf. Waves about 10 inches tall were breaking in front of me. I let my senses open to the sights and sounds before me. Suddenly, the sound of the breakers expanded and I could hear dozens of distinct, mesmerizing tones in each wave. I sat for I don’t know how long listening to the music in the breakers, the artistry of nature. In those moments, I began a lifelong love of cannabis.

In 1967, photographer Diane Arbus was teaching nearby at the Rhode Island School of Design, and in the wider world, British painter David Hockney exhibited his latest canvas titled “A Bigger Splash,” but the major art form recognized by kids my age was music. Beginning that fall in college, cannabis would fuel marathon listening sessions everywhere I went. But they say the first is always special and so it was for me. The first record I got to appreciate stoned was The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” an experience way beyond words.

It seems safe to say that the heightened sensory power of cannabis had something to do with the musical creativity of those years. In the late 60s, I gravitated toward bands crafting the very stony San Francisco Sound, such as Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. But one somewhat odd album from 1967 deserves special mention for courage, if not brilliant artistry. On the quirky, self-named debut album of the band Spanky and Our Gang, I found a funny ditty that championed cannabis use in a way that nobody else dared. It’s a short, fake advertisement called “Commercial.” Yes, you can find it on YouTube. This gem, credited to one M. Smith, tells the story of a glum garbage collector who finds new happiness in his job after he’s gifted with the kind smoke. “The first one’s free!”

In one minute and twenty seconds, his mood shifts dramatically from “Life is such a terrible bore” to “I didn’t care; was riding high…” Quite the endorsement. And now, finding myself at the surprising age of 69, I find new joy in the song’s ending jingle, “Pot’s too good to be just for the young.”

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Wellness Tagged With: Art Culture, cannabis, education, entertainment

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe to Emerald's Newsletter

loader

Advertise Here

Categories

Sustainability

seaweed naturals

SeaWeed Naturals Combines the Power of Seaweed with Cannabis to Further Ocean Restoration

April 3, 2022 By Maggie Horton

fungi climate change

Research Finds Fungi Help Ease Climate Change and Benefit the Environment

March 30, 2022 By Julia Meyer

climate crisis and the pandemic

“We Can Act:” What Bending the COVID-19 Curve Teaches Us About the Climate Crisis

April 21, 2020 By Melissa Hutsell

Footer

  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Press

Recent

  • Are Pre-Rolls the Future of Cannabis Retail?
  • Oxalis Integrative Support Services
  • Unlocking the Future of Cannabis Consumption: Amedicanna’s Nano Emulsified Beverages
  • From Veterans to Entrepreneurs: How Emanuel Ledezma, Rudy Rendon, and Erwin Sibal Became Leaders in the Cannabis Industry 
  • Cannifest 2023

Search

Copyright © 2023 · The Emerald™ · News & Lifestyle Magazine

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Cannabis News and Culture Magazine
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.