Opium Story



In 1969 a group of us in Toronto rented an old mansion on Jarvis Street between Dundas and Gerrard.
It was not quite a commune. It was a sort of Hippie paradise. We could actually order drugs with our pizza delivery. I always seemed to pay my share of the pizza. I always seemed to wake up after it was all eaten. We actually had a girl who used to occupy the house when nobody was there. We often saw her jumping out a window or the backdoor when we came home. She didn't seem to steal anything or eat much so we didn't worry about it.
We smoked pot and hash most of the time and dropped acid every weekend.
One hot summer Friday night I got home after a usual night at the Pilot Tavern sometime after one. The house was empty? There was still a few beer left in the fridge? What happened? I grabbed a beer and heard a giggle from the back yard. I open the back door and there is like a dozen or so bodies lying all over the yard and Curtis and Whitey hunched over a pipe on the back step.
Hey man! Jeff brought some opium back from Morocco, Wanna try some? sure I say and I am presented with a lit pipe. Curtis and Whitey fade off to the grassy bed and I sit there sipping beer and dragging on the pipe. Suddenly I see across the maze of backyards and alleys a flashlight and then a woman police officer. She wends her way to the back fence and i amble over. I have had a complaint about the noise she says. I look around at the unconscious crew.
You must be kidding. I say. Sorry! she says and moves off in the general direction of Away!
Wow I woke up in the morning sun. Everybody else long gone for breakfast. I couldn't believe the vivid dreams. A complete different reality rather than a vague hallucination like acid and psilociban. I smoked it with my girlfriend for a few days but then I felt that little twinge of addiction and refused to smoke anymore. Much to chagrin of my girlfriend and we actually broke up over this.
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EXSENO said...

Glad to read that you will be posting some stories, I love your stories. I'll try to remember to check by. I thought you had stopped blogging. I've checked Gary's Bar from time to time.

October 16, 2008 at 3:07 PM

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Hi I am Gary LeDrew
And I am writing a book
I was lucky enough to be in the middle of most things in sixties and seventies and got to hang out with some of the greats and near greats and characters of that time.

I was involved in the Art scene and was friends and hung out with Jack Bush, Harold Town, Gord Rayner Robert markle, Mickey Handy, Gerry Gladstone, Gershon Iskowitz etc. etc. and I have stories about all of them.
I was in the music biz and managed a few bands like Kid Bastien and hung out with most of them. I was a close friend of Murray McLachlan for years, and hung out with Mike McDonald, Danny Marks, Praire Oyster, Irish Rebels, Downchilds, Ian Tyson, Tom Cochrane, Burton Cummins etc. etc. of course I was the Lobsterman and sang with McLean and Mclean. I hung out with Cannonball and Nat Adderly whenever they came to town.
I was Toronto's leading bootlegger for 5 years everybody came to my afterhours club from the Rolling Stones to the premier of New Brunswick. And Joanie Mitchell sang there.
I won an Actress in a poker game, Helen shaver cooked me supper and I went out with a bunch of models and actresses.
Lesley McDonnell introduced me to Leonard Cohen , Rod Steward and Paul Shaffer for a few. I hung out with Leonard for a while. I survived a night hanging out with Hunter S. Thompson (sitting with tom Waites)I basically had backstage passes to Maple Leaf Gardens and Massey hall whenever i wanted and Bonnie Rait kicked me out of her dressing room.
In the Movie biz I was friends with Mike Ironside for years and Winston Reckert, Catherine O'Hara, Michael Sarrazin,I have lain on Elizabeth Ashely's belly while she shoved coke up my nose. I showed Johnny Hart and Jack Caprio a good time. I took Howard Duff to Lunch everyday for a six weeks and was on his xmas card list until he died. I drank with Richard Burton at least a couple of times a week for 3 months and he told me everything.
I lived on a lighthouse as a kid and took off sailing in the caribbean for 15 months. I took and sold all manners of drugs and in the seventies I was The guy to know in Toronto.
I was one of the few white guys go to the Elephant walk club. If there is one thing I hope to dispel is Toronto as a dull place.
To business I am getting old and not in great health, I am living on a basic pension and I have to Hustle with my art and web sites most of the month to get by. I am afraid I might die before I get all these stories down
My friend Richard Flohil is also raising money to write his book so far over ten thousand and well deserved Richard was instrumental to the folk and blues and jazz scenes in Toronto and tells a good story too. In my own way I was too, I helped a lot of people along the way and I never really cared about money , you wouldn't believe the people that never paid their bar tabs for starters. i just might be a little more fearless in my admissions. For I am not ashamed of anything I did there is lots I wish I had never done.