Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fifty Years of Smoking Dope

I went to high school with Charlie and he lived in this house. This is in a wealthy neighborhood in north Atlanta near Oglethorpe University.
We graduated in 1968. Charlie was a starter on the football team and he was accepted to Georgia Tech. They don't let you in there if you are a dummy.
There were no drugs at Chamblee High School in 1968, but, Charlie started smoking pot in college the next year. Charlie dropped out of Georgia Tech.
We worked together for 5 months in 1969, we were brick mason's helpers together on a big apartment project in Atlanta.
After that I went on to Georgia State University and I lost touch with Charlie.

But another high school friend of mine's parents were good friends with Charlie's parents, and went out to dinner with them about once a month. And about 1993, I got an update on Charlie. To my astonishment, I learned that he was still living in Mommie's basement. Charlie didn't have a job, and he would get up at noon and have a joint for breakfast.

Well I could scarcely believe this. In high school Charlie was the most popular boy in the school, handsome, intelligent and a great athlete, the girls loved him.
I continued to get updates through the years and it was always the same. My last update was from 5 years ago, the parents had passed away, Charlie was still down in the basment, he had inherited the house. Charlie had never had a job and he would get up at noon and have a marijuana cigarette for breakfast. Or, some might say for lunch.

I was in Atlanta yesterday for Christmas parties and I decided to drive by Charlie's house. I looked up his address on the computer and I drove over there. There was an old beat up car in the driveway but it looked driveable. There were several lights on in the house.
As I drove around the house I was astonished to see there was massive damage to the house.



Evidently a big tree had fallen on the house. You could tell from the look of the wood, and from the lack of a covering tarp, that this had happened a long time ago.
This is a neighborhood of millionaire homes. I looked up on Zillow, the house next door is valued at $740,000, and the one on the other side is at $1.2 million. All the houses in the neighborhood are well kept up, lawns are groomed and the trim neatly painted.




I saw a neighbor walking by, he was walking his dog. I said to him "This house looks weird, what is with all the damage here?"
He said "A tree fell on that house 4 years ago."

I said "Well what is the deal is the house abandoned or what?"
He said "No, some old guy lives there by himself."

I'm sure the pot's a big part of it, but mom and dad should have kicked him out of their basement 48 years ago.

More likely that 50 years of depression and anxiety shaped his life, and he used marijuana to cope.

Kudzu acres.
Dude probably has a massive grow op in the place.

That would be my guess. Im 57 and I know folks my age who started smoking in high school and still do. They live normal successful lives raised nice kids and if they didn't pull out a joint you wouldn't know they been smoking for 40 years. Im not saying its a good habit but not necessarily does it doom you to a life in your parents basement. I don't indulge myself.

This...

Funny.

Someone is paying taxes.

Ya don’t say.

Some people are winners and some are losers.

Charlie is a loser.

Correct..........and would be whether he preferred MJ, booze or heroin.

yep.

It don't stop folks from making assumptions though.

Looks like the tree hit the attached garage not the house.

I've known some who were life long pot users, and although they seemed to be "normal," whatever that means, if you ever tried having a conversation with them, you would notice something wasn't just right. Those folks worked, and some even lived in a nice house, but you could see the damage that years of marijuana use had done to them.

His cousin Paul lives across from me. Graduated high school in 78. He found weed before graduation and still lives at home. Might be the water though as my next door neighbor has his 40+ year old son living home and across the street are 2 sisters and a brother. Mom died a couple years ago and the youngest is married but doesn’t live with her husband.

He has to be paying taxes or else, DeKalb County would take the house and sell it on the courthouse steps.
Obviously he quit paying homeowner's insurance, I guess he couldn't afford it.

Or maybe he chose to spend the insurance money on other things since he didn't give hoot about the garage.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


THIS


And he was 'enabled' by his parents...

Yeah he was big time enabled by his parents. I had another high school friend, Greg. Greg turned 18 his senior year in high school, two weeks before graduation. His dad gave him a matching set of suitcases for his birthday, and told him, "The day you graduate, is the day you get out of my house. Good luck."

We all thought that was pretty cruel, back in 1968, but it looks pretty smart compared to Charlie's parents.

No, more than likely the pot *caused* the depression and anxiety.

I’m guessing OP doesnt own a car company, a rocket ship or many other pretty impressive feats... nope, just extremely judgmental and stupid for those in the know.