Birth of the Blue Missile

This next little vignette is here because Larry reminded me of its significance and it is one we both remember with fondness. I would also like to say that Larry and I both wish Bob could be here to share these memories. Bob took the path that slid him into the dark abyss of hard drugs and a street lifestyle. So for you young guns out there please don’t go that way. He died sometime in the late eighties in his late twenties and is buried in an unmarked grave in Miami’s pauper field. Let me also say that at that time it was still legal to go on such hunts. The farmers didn’t care so long as you didn’t harass the cattle or destroy their fences. I also want to say that we all start out as ‘young and dumb’ I am happy to say that I have greatly matured and these kinds of stunts or behavior are not part of my lifestyle anymore. But back then, after being introduced to the wonders of South Florida’s mycological flora by TK, we all had many adventurous hunts.

Larry, Bob and I were hanging out at my place one Friday night listening to albums and decided to take a ‘field trip’ in the morning. .As Larry puts it (We were going on a fungus-collecting safari in North Miami where I was doing some research on how territorial male cows were at daybreak! L.W.) The partying supplies were running short so I decided to ration them. I told them we would get well adjusted before we left in the morning. Larry and Bob really liked to party and had little patience for such measures. We were going to leave 6:00 or so. They crashed at my place so we could be sure to leave on time. I set my alarm for 5:30 and went to sleep around midnight. The alarm went off the next morning, we had breakfast got well adjusted and left. We climbed into the Duster and left. It was still dark as it should have been, we turned north onto Biscayne Blvd and as we went up the street I spied the clock on top of the bank at the corner of Biscayne and 79th st. The clock said it was 4:30 in the morning! Because of their impatience those guys had set my clock ahead!

We turned back and hung out for a while. We needed to get to our destination at daybreak, where we were going, you were so far out in the country (I know in South Florida?) that there were no city lights and it was pitch black before sunrise. When the sun came up it would cause the incredibly thick fog to glow a caramel color and you could not see more than a few yards in front of you. Now as the sun actually came up the fog would lift and It also went from being sort of cool to hot and steamy in a matter of minutes. This incident happened before the sun was fully up. As Larry has already said, and the part of this story that makes us both smile, when we were on the hunt Bob would not leave one of the local residents alone. Bob was definitely the craziest of us three. Now he was not yelling or acting in a goofy fashion, he just wanted to get past the cow to look in another part of the field. These cows have relatively long horns pointed to the front, not like the Texas long horns, which are to the side. Larry and I were at least ten yards from the fence line and Bob was at least forty. As he continued to approach this particular cow to get past it, he finally violated the cows ‘personal space’ and the cow charged him. All of a sudden through the fog we heard a snorting sort of sound and Larry and I climbed over the fence with relative ease just in case. Then through the fog came Bob with the cow behind him, making a mad dash for the fence and diving over it. These fences were four strands of barbed wire about four feet tall on metal posts. Larry and I lost it we were laughing so hard. The rest of the morning was spent without incident and we returned back to my place, with memories of a hunt we will never forget.

Lots more to come, I have already sent a later portion to an old friend in Hollywood he liked it but said there was no future in it. Too much like deleverence. Iwll tell you all that every word of this tale is true and as accurate as Larry and I can rememberit.
Andrew