I woke up today pumped to light off some fireworks, and to do something that I have been trying to knock off my bucket list for a long time. It has been a dream of mine to meet Tommy Chong, and have him autograph my Chong Bong. I look at Smokey’s autographed Chong Bong at his store in Salem, Oregon and I always get green with envy. I though that today was finally going to be the day that I was going to fulfill that dream, as Tommy Chong was set to appear for autographs and pictures at Mary Jane’s House of Glass on Millplain Blvd in Vancouver, Washington.
Despite my 
constant thirst for anything involving marijuana, I didn’t hear about the autograph session until Friday of last week. I instantly text all of my stoner friends to see who wanted to go, and we rounded up the crew. Keep in mind, Vancouver, Washington is quite the trek from Eugene, Oregon, so I called ahead of time to make sure everything was lined up. Ring, ring, ‘Hello, Mary Jane’s House of Glass.’ ‘Is Tommy Chong appearing at your store today?’ ‘Yes Tommy Chong is here signing autographs and taking pictures; he will be here until 6pm.’ ‘Thanks, we are on our way!’
While we were driving up Interstate 5, I was getting anxiety with every mile marker passed. I brought my Chong Bong along with a killer poster that I obtained at the Spring Gathering 2011 in June with the hopes that I could convince Chong to autograph both of them. When we got there, there were a lot of disappointed faces and chaos at the door of the shop. It didn’t take long to figure out the reason — you had to have prepaid for a set amount of ‘autograph tickets’ in order to meet Chong and get his sought after John Hancock. I was so bummed; we were totally denied.
I have never been to that headshop before, but I know that there are several of them in a chain, and that they advertise a lot in the Portland metro area. You can frequent the establishments if you like, but I have to say that I was not satisfied with my experience. I tried to ask the lady running the door, ‘Baby Jane,’ why didn’t anyone tell us this information on the phone and that we drove a long way. She got very upset with me and told me that it wasn’t her problem. It was a mind blowing experience, and not in a good way!
Luckily, I was able to burn away my sorrows with some top notch Washington fireworks. In Oregon, the fireworks are sparklers and pop-its. I have made many a trip across the border into Washington State to get bottle rockets, mortars, and M-80s up to M-1000s for the Fourth of July…I would pay top dollar for a mortar that blew up into a marijuana leaf, if there is anyone out there!!
Phrase of the day — ‘Yes officer, I plan on using all of these before I cross the river into Oregon….’
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO ALL OF YOU TWB READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
