In my youth I did partake of the substance commonly known as cannabis - primarily as hash, but also grass when it came my way. Not big time, and only in the company of friends who had it, but sometimes we had really 'big' parties.

One particular Christmas season, a friend had gained possession of a large flat by the sea that his family were planning to sell, and had allowed us use of it in the interim. So between Christmas Day (with family) and New Year's Eve ('proper' partying) some 5 - 10 of us spent all our time there, getting stoned.

And the only music we played that whole time was Donovan - "Mellow Yellow", "Season of the Witch", "First there is a mountain" and so on.

And one of our favourites was "Hurdy gurdy man", with the immortal line (or mondegreen - who remembers when you're stoned?) "roly poly, roly poly, roly poly, roly-poly/ Here comes the roly poly man he's singing songs... of love".

And my friend, bless him, could never hear this line wihtout, somehow, seeing Mahatma Gandhi roly-poly-ing along, singing songs. Given that Gandhi was lean as a rake, I cannot understand where this concatenation of images came from (probably from all those cannabinols), but ever since, I have rarely been able to think of Gandhi without humming "Here comes the hurdy gurdy man he's singing songs..."

BTW: Children, do not try this at home. Cannabis is a banned drug in most Western countries and illegal purchase and use is a strong indicator of tendencies to get involved in 'harder' drugs (which are, without reservation bad, bad, bad for you). If your country decriminalises, or heavens, even legalises, it, I recommend it highly, but not until then.

cheer

the sunshine (weekend trips to Amsterdam) warrior