Back in '81, when I was still living in the lakes, I started working with a hippy from Brighton.
One day he came up to me, said 'Put your hand out'. So I did, and he placed what I thought was a mass of knotted shoelaces into my hand.
He said don't take all of them, 'Take them?' I asked. 'Yes, they're magic mushrooms. You'll love them'.
Of course, I went home took about half of them, then after 30 minutes thinking they weren't working, took the rest.
I had a splendid time. I was still living at home, so I had to go walking. I ended up at the top of our local mountain/hill/dormant volcano.
I stayed till it was dark, and started getting paranoid. Made it down at about 10pm and went home to bed. Couldn't sleep till about 5am.
Obviously, I introduced them to all of my mates, and we found out where they grew, so the Summer of '81 became my 'Summer of Love.
One kid got into a frightened mess and told his parents what he'd had, they phoned the busies and then the local paper got involved.
They actually sent a reporter up to the area they grew, where he took a photo of some Liberty Caps with a 10p piece next to it.
For the rest of the Summer, I swear people were up there looking for 10 pences...
The worst trip I had, was when I took about 100, and went to a nightclub. Jesus, the place just seemed like hell.
Haven't taken 'em now for over 30 years. But would recommend for young people without the weight of emotional baggage us old fellas have.