Life
What's Your Favorite Marijuana Memory?
Though it's raining in New York City today, somehow, this Monday seems happier than usual. Could it be the fact that even McDonald's is serving breakfast all day today in apparent honor of 4/20? Or could it be the fact that marijuana, and women's enjoyment of it, is less stigmatized than ever?
Either way, it's probably-officially spring, and we're here to celebrate. In honor of the season of sitting outside and vaping in the park we asked a select group of 4/20-friendly Bustle readers to share their favorite memory with Mary Jane. Of course, for most of us, it's nearly impossible to pick just one — (or remember more than one, let's be real) — but some memories of getting stoned do tend to stick out.
If I absolutely had to choose, my favorite memory of getting high is the first time I got really high at a party in Brooklyn, my freshman year of college. I was riding the Q train back to the city alone at 3 a.m., and had a sort of vision of myself, being in my mid-to-late 20s, living in Brooklyn. I felt a certain peace about my future, like my life was unfolding exactly as it should, and I should just stop worrying so much about it. Turns out, I was right.
So, without further ado, here are 12 Bustle readers on their favorite memory of getting high on green. And remember, vape responsibly.
1. Emma, 27
"I love intergenerational smoke seshs! My dad came to visit Brooklyn, and to prepare for this epic meal I was taking him to, we shared a bowl in my Bushwick apartment. We spent the next hour giggling on my bed (legit like two schoolgirls) about who knows what, and then struck out on an hour-long meander to the most delicious restaurant in Greenpoint that included a 15 minute argument about what the "fluff" means in the fluff-n-fold sign on a dry cleaners' sign (which we're still fighting about three years later, by the way). And then we had the most absurdly delectable meal of our collective lives."
2. Carrie, 37
"So my friend got my girlfriend and me really high once (and we both did not smoke with any regularity) and then my friend decided that she was going to sleep over on the couch and after my gf and I went to bed, we had really amazing sex and apparently it was not quiet and my friend who had gotten us high, laid awake with pillows over her head, regretting her decision to get us stoned."
3. Stella, 27
"My older cousin was probably the first avowed feminist I ever met. She was a model to me — of liberated young womanhood, with no f*cks to give. When I was 14, she treated me and my visiting boyfriend to our first bong hits in a dorm near the local college.
That first time was like none other: I looked out the window onto a commercial street and felt a love and goodwill the likes of which I'd never experienced before. One hit, and I let out a hazy 'right on.' Soon after she married, and became a religious fundamentalist. When I saw her last year I offered her a smoke sesh and she declined, saying her husband would take issue with it."
4. 'L,' 65
"Several years ago on July 4, a friend and her husband came to visit me and my husband. In the 70's, she and I had lived together in San Francisco; when we were in our 20's. We listened to a lot of Keith Jarrett, James Taylor and Bach, and smoked pot together. We would talk for hours at a time.
On this visit, we all took a walk in the country and got high, and I found myself with her as we had been decades ago. She knew me as a young woman; she knew my mother; we had loved our friendship, our talks, each other. I introduced her to her husband. I held her ring at her wedding; she held mine. Then we went our separate ways for a long stretch of time, she on the east coast, me on the west.
But on this day, on our walk, we had all of that deep connection back, just as it had been years before, under the influence. And then the four of us came home and read the Declaration of Independence aloud."
5. Emma, 27
"Four of my best friends and I were at a lake in New Hampshire — we smoked just enough to get silly and then did yoga poses on the dock, ultimately collapsing in giggles after each pose."
6. Alex, 25
"My first year out of college, I lived with a Craigslist roommate — another woman my age. We got along but sort of tiptoed around one another at first, but then, one Saturday afternoon, when we were both hanging out at home, I offered to smoke her out. We sat on the floor listening to Girl Talk and discovering we were both the perfect age and demographic to have learned all the disjointed lyrics to every Girl Talk album, so we sang along while making weird abstract collages out of lady magazines."
7. Marie, 25
"My cousin is probably my best friend, and as close to a kindred spirit as I've come to. On his last visit to NY, we got beautifully stoned and just ventured into Manhattan from Brooklyn. We ended up at this little hole-in-the wall club that was playing blues and rockabilly and proper rock 'n roll; looked at each other and just went for it. We danced to some of my favorite music, and for a few minutes, everything else stopped. That's what music should be able to do, but we very rarely seem to let it."
8. Anastasia, 27
"I'm a gal who really likes smoking weed in many settings. One of those is before I get busy. I've somehow found myself dating many men who don't know the glory that is high sex, and so one of my favorite things is opening their minds to the sensitivity and silliness that comes with being high while getting down.
One of my favorite memories in this vein was when I got an older lover of mine to smoke before sex ... for his first time ever! Afterwards, he just looked at me and said "Woah" and I thought, this may be the first time I've ever given this dude a new experience. Thanks Mary Jane!"
9. Alejandra, 26
"Getting high with my Dad the first time. We just sat at home and talked and ate a bunch of junk food. My Mom got home and saw all the junk food and she must've known ... but she didn't say anything."
10. Matthew, 31
"When Fuerza Bruta first came out, they sent us a promo DVD at work containing the full performance. I had only just started smoking — this was back in 2007 or 8 — and my ex-nutbat roomie Chris and I got super high and watched the DVD with my awesome surround sound speakers and we were beyond enthralled. I wound up seeing it three times for real so I guess their marketing tactic worked."
11. Jane, 25
"The first time I smoked weed was the very last day of high school classes, senior year. It was a kind of like, "Yeah, I'm graduating, so f*ck high school I'm gonna smoke weed now" (maybe I was preparing myself for the next four years at Brown). This one stoner chick's parents were "chill," so when I arrived for the groovy sleepover we'd planned her dad greeted me at the door, a bit of a Jabba The Hutt type with a long braid down his back. "Heard you're going to have an adventure tonight," he said.
We waited until nightfall to sneak out into the woodsy part of the suburban cul de sac, all the while keeping a furtive eye out for neighbors. Those days everyone was all about waterfall bongs, made by cutting holes in glass Arizona bottles. I remember the feeling of my mouth over the bottle opening, taking in the smoke for the first time, holding it in and finally releasing in coughs and wheezes. "I'm probably not going to get high," I thought. "I don't feel anything." Then an hour had passed, and I realized it had only been just a minute, and I remember feeling that distinctive rush that floods the body when you become incredibly stoned.
We spent the rest of the night watching movies and eating ice cream on Eggo waffles. One of my friends fell asleep, and I spent a good time watching her. 'You look just like Snow White,' I whispered, then I laughed for a half hour after that because it was so fucking hilarious."
12. Shannon, 31
"Favorite memory? I can't remember, I was stoned!"
Images: Daniel Lee/Flickr; Giphy