April 28, 1977… You won't believe this! I didn't! Well, I got another migraine today right after lunch. Dad got me again. Slept most all day.
After three days of head-wrenching, I decided to play it safe and recuperate at home. I found I became paranoid concerning the multiple headaches, and feared that my worry would result in more pain.
A week later.
May 5, 1977… Got a migraine AGAIN!!!!!… Dad got a prescription for me and it said to take two capsules, so I did and a half hour later, I got all numb…
How well I recall that incident. I was seated at my place at the dinner table after having swallowed (miraculously) the pills, when I suddenly was immersed in a bath of incredible, yet unfounded hilarity. I began to snicker, then burst into a cascade of inexplicable laughter. My family looked up from their plates and, because of humor's rather contagious nature, broke into bewildered smiles and tried to detect the source of my behavior. "Really…" I replied, "I don't know why I'm laughing…" Then, just as rapidly as it had begun, the laughter ceased and I was convulsed in a fit of tears. It was embarrassing to me for I had no control over my emotions, and agitated, I fled from the room. At length I was able to quench my strange and unbidden tears while Dad sat beside me with a worried look on his face.
Afterward I marveled at a drug's ability to produce such startling effects, yet I was equally startled by the fact that some people knowingly swallowed pills to acquire mind-altered states of being. Such was not my goal in life; self-control meant too much to my inner presence to eradicate reality.
A week and a half later I had another migraine. It was full-blown; I even had to vomit. I didn't, however, take another pill. Lack of control was much worse than the presence of pain.
May 18, 1977… School. I got a trophy for doing the Vision cover and also a certificate for (submitting) "A Friend" in "Accent on Ink." Great!!
June 1, 1977… The 9th graders got yearbooks today. Everyone liked 'em… Dad got me and helped me take my cedar chest home.
June 2, 1977… Last full day!! We signed yearbooks all day.