Life Lesson Number 8: Don’t Believe Everything You’re Told
Throughout my lifetime, I have realized it is a good idea to question the established narrative. I am not addressing the recent fake and regular news surrounding the COVID outbreak over the past several years. My cynicism goes back to my teen years and the movie Reefer Madness proves my theory don’t believe everything you’re told.
Therefore, I entered high school in 1969. To put the year in perspective, Woodstock happened in August, I started school in September, and everyone I knew started smoking pot. Take a trip to Cat’s Corner, where everyone hung out at lunch, and you’d find a joint being passed around. Racial tensions in the small city where I lived were high. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis in April of 1968. Boys I knew found themselves in the military after graduation and sent to die in a rice paddy in the far-off country of Vietnam.
Don’t Believe Everything You‘re Told
People of all races started hanging out at the mall. They built what we consider a giant shopping center in those days in the field across the road from my house. They location the new mall in my neighborhood consisting of run-down houses across the street from the highway. A movie theatre happened to be located inside the shopping mall.
The movie theater started playing a feature they called the “Midnight Show.” As the name suggests, they started playing features at 12:00 a.m. and focused on the teenage crowd. Money talks and businesses started noticing that the Baby Boomers had the cash. They weren’t concerned about whether this late-night activity promoted juvenile delinquency. The movie theatre made a profit.
Don’t Believe Everything You’re Told
One of our favorite films at this theater was Reefer Madness. This propaganda movie was made in 1939. This movie, directed by Louis J. Gasnier, featured events like car accidents, murder, and mayhem, all attributed to the use of the evil drug marijuana. This move designed to scared people about the evils of the plant became a comedy to us.
During one viewing of this film, I remember a tall, skinny kid in the front of the theater standing and running his hands down the front of his bell-bottom jeans.
“What are you doing, man? Sit down. You’re blocking the show. They are about to get to the best part, where the dude goes crazy.” A guy behind me shouted.
“I lost my pot,” the skinny kid shouted as he dropped to his knees and started frantically searching the sticky theatre floor.
Mayhem followed suit as everyone in the theatre tried to find the missing pot. An usher moved into the back of the crowded theatre and noticed the fray. “What’s going on here? He asked, turning on the flashlight he carried in his hand.
“I lost my keys.” The skinny guy said.
The usher turned on his flashlight and started scanning the floor. Someone in the dark called out, “Found it.” Things returned to normal. I never knew who found the pot. Rumors floated around that he got together with the skinny guy in the parking lot. They smoked a joint and celebrate.
Don’t Believe Everything You’re Told
Back in the dark ages, a person could serve years in prison for possessing a small amount of marijuana. These days, the plant is legal in many states. The medicinal value of the plant’s painkilling and anti-inflammatory properties haven’t been explored. It might influence the bottom line for big pharma.
Good reminder, Molly. We’ve also been told a lot of garbage over the years about nutrition…
Thank you.
What an interesting story! You were entering high school a year after my dad graduated high school.
It’s interesting because it seems like some areas let a bunch of teenagers hang out and some don’t.
Anyway, is this story legit based of the title? (😉)
Thank you,
Hahaha!! I was raised so straight, that movie scared the *@#% outa me! Now weed’s the only pain killer that keeps me tickin’.
I think the healing possibility of that weed are a secret big pharma doesn’t want out there.
Said a whole mouthful there. 👌
Great story!!!!
Thank you.