Somehow it was vitally important that they smoked weed every day. Finding $25 a day without having a job or an unemployment cheque isn’t the easiest thing to do. When Hawk had his job at a local pizzeria, he would take 50s out of the till while the boss wasn’t looking. Then they set up a sting and caught him in the act. He was stoned at the time, so he had no idea what was going on. He lost that job, and was never able to put it on his resumé after that.
I remember I brought my friend Kandinksy over to Hawk’s place after school. Kan actually had a job and a full wallet. Hawk said “Hey Kan, you wanna get some weed? We’ll go get a 2-5 for you.”
But when the weed arrived, Hawk and Jasper ran excitedly into the bedroom and chopped up, not even thinking whose weed it was. It wasn’t until after they’d had a round when they offered Kan a bong. He refused, remembering he was on antibiotics and might react badly. Hawk and Jasper kept smoking. It took me a few years’ retrospect to realise how fucked up that situation was. I think Kan was too polite to say “Hey fuckers, I paid for this weed now you’re smoking it all in front of me!” Or maybe he just didn’t care.
Petunia lived in Washington D.C. Some days, her and her friends would skip class, and go to the subway station. “Excuse me, we’re from the suburbs and don’t have any money to get home. Do you have a dollar?” Who could refuse a couple of sweet, innocent teenage girls? Well, some of them could, and told them to get back to school you dirty liars. But some of them gave change. When they got enough for a dimebag, it was stoning time. I pictured Petunia presenting a Rastafarian street dealer with a big bag of dimes, in exchange for an actual dimebag.
Hawk and Buckmann were short one day. “We’ve got to get $25 – how can we do it?” They went from door to door selling raffle tickets for a prize that didn’t exist. Not sure where they got the money to buy the book of raffle tickets. Another day, another 2-5. If only they’d put their hustle to work on something that meant something.
Another time I walked with Hawk and Jasper, carrying Hawk’s dad’s VCR over town to put it in hock. The thing was seven years old. The pawnbroker didn’t like it. No weed that day.
The final method is what’s known as “World Domination”, or just “World Dom” for short. You go around your entire house looking for loose change. Sometimes you find it in little bowls in the kitchen or dining room. Sometimes you find it in your parents’ wallet or purse. Sometimes you find it in a tiny little booklet that says “Commemorative $1 coin 1995 Charles Kingsford-Smith – made of genuine platinum alloy”. The World Dom was always a staple of finding money to buy weed.
