I made it through my teenage years and my 20's without trying a single illegal drug of any kind. (Or anything stronger than an aspirin, actually.) In my 30's, I tried a puff of marijuana but it made me cough so I never bothered with that again. My biggest vice is an occasional beer. I have had a few adventures, though.
We can certainly learn from our past, or supposed to. Tried weed a few times in high school, that was about all that was going around. Were always able to get booze, headed for a country back road to commence happy hour. With all our old time cops, they have been in our town for almost forever, so they didn't pay attention to us. We actually got away with a lot until a new crop of RCMP's moved in. Our fun got downsized. Those were the "Good Old Days", Weren't they.
@Micki Pembroke They certainly were! My close circle of friends, when I was just out of high school, Russ, Ted, and George, were all a few years younger than me. We played softball just about 7 days a week, weather allowing, then darkness falling, went to the local liquor store where the man there "carded" me, underage, but not Russ, who was then about 15! Sold him anything he chose! Russ became the dedicated buyer; the stuff of choice back then was Cobb's Creek Whiskey, about $2.49 a fifth! That kept all of us happy down in my folks' basement. They knew. But supposed better there than on the street......... Frank
Ken, sure we aren't brothers? I and a friend left home in '71,hitched from NY to California. Ended up in Bakersfield doing day labor. Worst was clearing brush from around the pump jacks. Would go down to a lot about 5:30 AM, got a ticket from a guy in a booth. Truck would roll in and the driver would call out the number of guys he needed,and all would scramble to get on the truck. Hauled us out to the fields.armed us with rakes,brush axes and shovels. Hot miserable snakey work.Lunch came around and it was a baloney and cheese sandwich. I don't remember the rate of pay,but ended up pocketing ten or twelve dollars at the end of the day. There was a deduction for the sandwich, water and the ride to and from the worksite. All kinds of adventures, Got picked up by a semi on the 101 heading south. Opened the door and got in. Guy with eyeballs as big around as hubcaps waving a gun in my face,ranting about his ol lady, doin some guy and he was going to get them. Propositioned by innumerable gays. Don't know why I remember this but an older guy, driving a '60's convertible Cadillac crossed about 5 lanes of traffic to pick ,me up. I jumped in ,he handed me a bottle of "Red Rocket Wine" actually in a rocket shaped bottle. Guy was hammered scared the hell out of me. Was in Ely,Nevada, heading East. February got stuck there was freezing. After many hours a girl came out of a hotel and got me. Took me in and several ladies fixed me up with coffee and a bowl of stew. The one who brought me in set me up with a ride into Salt Lake with a trucker. I was so naive at the time, I had no idea what the "hotel" actually was or why it was populated just with girls or how they earned a living. Was going from SLC to Ogden. Couple of Mormon girls picked me up and took me to their home. Got a real nice hot shower,"very rare when you are living rough", Those gals did not smoke,drink coffee or do drugs, but that was all they didn't do. I left three days later a much more worldly young man. Up in big tree country, old cowboy picked me up and warned me against taking rides from Indians. Said they had those Dang peyote buttons and would mess you up. Started looking for Indians to ride with. Different time different country. Folks would pick you up offer you the odd job or two, bring you home to sleep on their couch, barn or garage, hand you a couple of dollars. I slept under bridges,under tables,learned to shoplift, ate pigeon, ate a lot of ketchup soup,( Catchup hot water and saltines) all free from friendly diner staff. My parents informed me that I had received greetings from the "People of The United States" so I headed home. In lieu off entering the Army and going to Nam for two years,I selected door # 2 and joined the Marines for 4 years.
Rather than repeating them here, my hitchhiking stories are in a thread called Hitchhiking. Or some of them, anyhow. The thread didn't get any replies so it didn't go anywhere.