Feeling Old

Jim was looking for darts. A good set. He's had a set for years, but he decided that maybe there was something better these days. So we were told to go to The Gas Pipe on Burnet Road.

We walked into this store, through the bamboo beaded curtains, and walked straight back into 1981. In 1981, we were living in upstate New York. We were in our early 20s. We were having a carefree crazy life. Walking into this establishment was like having a flashback. The smell of incense was heavy in the air. There were showcases full of pipes, papers, and 'water pipes'. Of course, these are all meant for tobacco use. What other possible use could there be? It's all legal and stuff, with a wink and nod. Sign outside reads: "You will use the proper terminology inside, or you will be asked to leave." In other words, it's NOT a head shop. Really, it's not.

There was a store in Woodstock (the town, not the concert) that was so very much like this. As a matter of fact, at that store, back in 81 or 82, we bought a three-foot red plastic 'water pipe' (for tobacco use only, of course). Oh hell, that wasn't what it was used for. And we called it what it was, a bong. And there wasn't any legal reason that a store couldn't sell it to me for any reason that I wanted to use it.

I remember when we moved out of our first house, in 1993, I found that red bong in the back of a closet when we were packing..... Wow. Hadn't seen it for years. Now I'm getting reading for the movers to come, I have two young children, and I threw it away.

Yes, we all grow up eventually. And I grew up probably back in 1985 or so. Regrets? Not a single one. Before or after I grew up. And yeah, I would love to be 22 again, just for a day or two. Really really fun times when there wasn't as much to worry about.

The Gas Pipe. I felt so old when I was in there. So old and conservative. But damn. It wasn't always that way. And I can certainly appreciate that some things should never change, no matter how much we try to legislate them away. And that is a very, very good thing.

Oh - and he didn't buy the darts. He said that they were nice and everything, but there was nothing wrong with the old ones. Some things just aren't meant to be replaced. Amen.