RELIGIOPATH

Shewho and I went back and forth. BB and I did the same. Then, one day i was talked into being in this underground movie being shot by Chuck's wife Nona. There had been a big shift in the community of drug takers on the LES. Once they reached their 30's many of the more serious users went on the wagon. Nona was was one of the pioneers in this climb up the 12 steps of sobriety. She, along with Sailor Ricky Kern and many of the better looking junkies and speed freaks went to meetings, got tattoos and had a lot of sex amongst themselves. Chuck and i were accepted by the group and God bless 'em they never tried to turn us. Someone had to keep the torch burning. We filled some sort of vicarious role in this bunch. At picnics we had our separate beer cooler and stash of pot. They may have been having more sex than us, but we still got high. Tattoos were about even.
Nona was shooting this film- DIRTY down at Max. Fish, a bar on Ludlow St., where Chuck and i now worked the door. As I waited for my shot, a pretty little redhead came up to me and asked if i wanted coffee and a bagel? This was Dr. Stripper. Following the government's example of making sure someone is well enough to execute, I'd just about gotten to the point where I felt comfortable in our relationship to break with Baby-Baby. Shewho was seeing someone else (who she'd eventually marry) and the redhead seemed like just the excuse I needed to jump both ships. In restrospect I can see how stupid this all was. At the time i thought it made sense. I hit the water paddling.
Dr. S was in the program and following my sober friends' lead in giving up things, i decided I would give up all this philandering. I had no desire to stop drinking or smoking, but cheating was something i could do without. It was also at this time i began work on my first memoir- RELIGIOPATH. I was about to turn 40, had a 22 year old girlfriend, who had just moved into my new place on 7&C (after my free ride ending on 6&A), and realized it was time to take stock. My job at the Fish paid me barely enough to survive, so everyday i walked down to Spring and B'way, to PAPER offices, sat down at the IBM and started banging out the story. Dr. S was also a wannabe writer and this inspired me to keep up. The band had broken up. I'd begun doing little KK paintings on book covers and we were about to do our first LGM funeral for the late Richard Hoffman, whose apartment i now rented. RH is tattooed just above a lotus flower on my lower back. The future looked good through my rose colored glasses. What did I know?