CHI TOWN

 Another reason I hated Florida was because it was so fuckin’ hard to hitch-hike. I believe the reason for this would probably be because of all the old people. We ended up getting stuck in this little town, not too far from the Georgia state line for three days. It sucked, but at least we were making really good money. I think we stayed in a hotel every night we were there, and had plenty of Natty Ice to go with it.

  I remember the second or third day we were on that fuckin’ on-ramp, a car finally pulled over. We were so happy until we got up to the car and saw it was two old people. They tell us they can’t give us a ride but they can help us out. They gave us 20 bucks, so that was really nice, but we were kind of pissed because we wanted to get the fuck out of there. I ended up going to a gas station to get water or something and I saw a guy pumping gas that I thought might give us a ride, so I walked over to him and asked him where he was going. He told me he was heading to Macon which was up the 95 going our way. So I asked him if he could help us out and he said yes. Finally!

  I don’t remember how long it took us to get up to Atlanta but it didn’t take too much longer after that first ride. We ended up in a part of town called Little Five Points, and were squatting in Big 5, which was in the heart of the ghetto, where we would always hear gunshots. We met a guy named Drake there and we started to hang out and get drunk with him. A couple days after we were there, that kid, Lee, that stole my Subhumans patch from me in San Francisco showed up. Him and Drake were friends so Lee and I started to get along really good and like I said he is a good buddy of mine now. When I asked him about it he told me that he couldn’t remember. Yeah right, you fuckin liar!

  Not too much happened this time in Atlanta other than Syd and Drake got into a drunken fist fight that I had to get involved in and ended up fighting Drake, which Lee had to break up, but that was all gravy in the morning. It was funny when Drake came into our room the next morning to wake us up and said to Syd, “What’s up Tyson? Here, have a beer, bitch.” It was a totally good ice breaker, that I stole from him and used on such occasions to this day. Another thing that happened to us is that we almost went to jail for sleeping on the street. I think it was trespassing. We didn’t have an address for the ‘promise to appear’ but the cop ended  up figuring something out and cited us. He told us he would make a point of it to come find us if we didn’t go to court at the same time. FUCK OFF! So we went to court after a day or two and plead guilty to trespassing and got a fine. I remember we had to wait for all the people that were incarcerated to pass in front of the judge before we got sentenced. But every one of them were there on BS charges and not one was getting out. It was fucked! I felt bad for them and counted my lucky stars, because that could have been me up there. They were all black too, I’m glad I didn’t go to jail there.

  It was still winter and we couldn’t head north, so we went back to New Orleans. I should have known better and that I would end up in jail, but the risk was worth it because New Orleans was just so fuckin fun! I love it there. We went through some of Tennessee, but didn’t stop. I wish now we would have stopped in Memphis, but it was too cold.

  It wasn’t too long after we were back in the French Quarter before I had another yellow bracelet. I’m trying to rack my brain, but for the life of me, I can't remember why I went to jail that time. It was definitely for BS. The first four times I was in New Orleans, I was in jail six times!

  I remember another time while in New Orleans, I plead not guilty on my first court appearance, and took a 21 day set-back. Somewhere, in that three weeks, I got a letter from Syd, that she was at her mother’s place in Austin, Texas. I wrote her back and told her I would come out there as soon as I was out. I ended up getting time served after 21 days and called my dad to see if he would loan me the money for a bus ticket. I didn’t want to fuck around. I was soon on the next bus to Texas. I had a lawyer in Houston and while I was waiting, this gangster kid tried to lure me outside and I was sure he was going to try to rob me. For what, I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to find out. I ended up in Austin the next afternoon. Fuck it was hot there. It was early May or June, and the second you stepped off the air conditioned bus, you were soaked with sweat.

  I found her mother’s place on the North side of town. Syd’s mom was nice but you could tell that there was friction between the two. Syd was on this kick that she wanted to settle down and try to do something with her life, but I just wanted to travel. Syd was three years older than me so she’d been everywhere already. Syd’s mom made the mistake of buying us a 40 oz of vodka. She thought we would drink it in a couple of days, not hours. I ended up puking all over the back deck. Her mom was pissed!

  I went downtown one day to score a rock and when I was walking to go smoke it, this toothless crackhead chick that had seen me buy it told me that she’d suck my dick for half my shit. I told her I only had a five piece and she said she didn’t care. WOW! If I would have had a ten piece I probably would have let her give me a gummer just for a laugh.