Going Down

If I had to rank order various drugs and my past experiences in taking them, I'd have Methaqualone probably in last place.  (All you 60's/70's former druggies know this bad boy as a Quaalude.)  I won't go into all of the details as to just why I never cared for "Ludes" but just leave it that my experiences with it were not very good.  In retrospect however, maybe that is because, while I was luded out, I was not aware of the following tip for how to deal with being in such a state of mind.

A lady in Buzzy's Country Store the other day told me that she had attended Woodstock years ago and while there took a couple of Ludes.  She noted that she thinks she briefly appeared in the movie along with several other folks sliding around in the mud but is not too sure that it really was her. 

What she does remember clearly however, is that it was the first time she had ever taken anything like a Quaalude and that the person who gave it to her advised "If you start to have any negative thoughts, just focus on the number 714 and think of Dragnet."  (As she told me this story, it did not occur to me to ask how thinking about Dragnet was supposed to counter any negative thoughts.  I was more interested in hearing about whether or not she was actually in the movie and did not followup on that 714 piece of advice that her friend had laid on her when he gave her the Ludes to take.)  

However, now that I think about it some more, recalling the number 714 just may have worked for and helped me out too.  You see, whenever I hear 714 I always think of Babe Ruth and the number of home runs that he hit.  While I still can't recall how many home runs Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron each hit to break the Babe's record, 714 always sticks out in my mind.  Had I known of this think-about-714-Quaalude-taking  tip, I may have enjoyed my Lude experiences more so than I did back in the day.

Music-wise I found a 714 song by the Godz; but trust me, they are not making any Babe Ruth home run references in it: