Chapter 5
During his Grade 7 year Colin determined he wished to become a marine biologist. In the fall of 1974, at the age of 17, he moved to Edmonton to study at the University of Alberta.
He lived in the University student housing on 9th floor Henday building, an all-male building. On Fridays the U of A Students Union held an open craft market on the main floor of the Students Union Building tower.
Colin worked diligently throughout the week making beaded chokers, wrist bracelets, and macramé plant hangers and wall hangings. He sold them at the Friday SUB market and made good money from it.
Every morning he smoked dope first thing. He drank heavily at night. He wore a tan fedora hat and a long black trench coat. His backpack was red with a Canadian flag on the flap.
That first year of University was wall to wall parties, as Colin’s new found life in the big city took a turn. He struggled with extreme culture shock and felt there were very few places where he fit in. Neglecting his studies for nights of drinking and drugging he missed classes and exams and then without whisper of a warning there came a letter from the University telling him to leave.
Kicked out of school and feeling like a failure he took work cleaning suites at the U of Alberta HUB student housing building. One day over lunch he learned the women on the team were being paid less than the men for the same work. The whole team of cleaners was outraged. They called 630 CHED radio and Eddie Keen, a consumer advocate, aired a scathing criticism of the University. They made protest signs and brought them to work and picketed the Administration Building. The next day the entire team was fired. And that was the end of it.
Colin moved back to Hanna that fall to work in his dad’s butcher shop. He had yet to come out to his father, let alone the rest of the town. But tucked away in the back of his mind he had an idea he didn’t need to, that everybody already knew. He had confided his secret to many friends and he knew the sticky web of small-town gossip all too well.
Colin joined a garage band called Prime Kut as lead singer. The band of five young bucks rocked out with cover songs of the popular music of the day. They drank like fish and played at local dances in halls filled with gyrating youth. Prime Kut was a popular local band and Colin became fast friends with the other four band members.
In June of 1976 they embarked upon a grand adventure and bought tickets to the Paul McCartney and Wings concert at The Kingdome coliseum in Seattle, Washington, USA. They drove to Calgary and flew to Vancouver where they boarded a charter bus for the last leg of the trip.
Colin: Hey man, we’re at the border crossing and I can see cops with dogs up front.
Dave: Oh no, dope sniffing dogs.
Bob: Shit, what about the pot?
Bill: Dam the windows don’t open we can’t throw it out.
Dave: I’m not going to jail for a few measely joints.
Bill: Me neither, throw the joints on the floor, they can’t prove they’re ours.
Colin: Give them to me.
Fearlessly, Colin took the pot and put it in his shirt pocket and miraculously by the time the cops arrived at the front door of the bus something happened and the bus was waved through the border crossing without being checked.
The Kingdome had a capacity seating of 70,000 people and it was packed to the rafters. The guys were giddy with excitement as warm up music kicked off the concert.
They were seated high up in the nosebleed section but it gave them a bird’s eye view of the whole coliseum. Just as the announcer introduced Paul McCartney and Wings, the lights came up over the floor seating and a giant mushroom cloud of smoke billowed up to the roof. Everyone lit their marijuana joints at the same time and a thunderous deafening roar shook the crowd.
A group of girls in front of the band began screaming and crying and the roar grew louder. Colin was overcome by a sensation he had never felt before. It felt like he was being swept up into a pandemonium over which he had no control. He screamed with joy as the music rattled his bones.
Colin was swept up with mass hysteria in the Kingdome that night. A powerful sensation that stuck with him.
