For the uninformed, the Stash Box was a head shop, a term that I haven't heard in a while.
At the time of the 1973 article, the store was located at 1065 Broadway. Later, it moved to Eighth and Broadway (which is the location I remember). Here's a December 1976 ad mentioning the move. Note the illustration of its building (now the home of Marzavas & Son Jewelers).
With the legalization of recreational marijuana in Ohio last year, maybe head shops will make a comeback. The Wiki entry suggested that cannabis dispensaries more or less double as head shops.
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It may seem strange, but I never tried marijuana in my life, although it was definitely in use in the dorm at Ohio State. When I came back to Lorain one year for the summer break, all of my old high school friends were using it too – which upset me and probably cost me some friendships.
I guess if I wanted to get a buzz on, I preferred the 'old fashioned' way: alcohol. Nowadays, I literally do it the old-fashioned way sometimes: with an old-fashioned! I like all the fruit in it, although to many it's sacrilegious.
I know several people at work that were downright excited about the legalization of recreational marijuana in Ohio. I know the State will make a lot of money of it. But at what cost?
So no thanks. I'll stick to my Hamms and my old-fashioneds, the way dear old Dad used to make.
I never did get into drugs or alcohol.I just never saw any point in it.My life is good.Or at least good enough for me.I'm not putting anyone down for using drugs or alcohol.Go ahead and get ripped.But it seems to me that people are missing something in life if they use that stuff.And I never needed a crutch to fall back on.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Seventies and Eighties, I was a frequent flyer on the alleged road to Utopia. Overall, while it gave me countless experiences, I can't really say that it added anything to my life.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that there's a certain amusement in seeing ads for the Stash Box in the Journal, considering their editorial stance on the "drug -crazed hippies" of the time.
The Eighth and Broadway location mentioned in the article was at the time the home of another head shop, the Cosmic Boutique, which moved south to the 1800 block of Broadway.
The anti-paraphenalia laws of 1979 doomed both establishments, although a similar business, Northern Lights in Elyria, continues to this day.
The modern reincarnations of such places are the "Vape Shops" springing up over the past few years. Take a drive to Michigan if you want to see what Ohio *might* turn out like if dispensaries take off.
ReplyDeleteThe one ad describes waterbeds... It was right around that time when, on a family trip to Florida, we ran into our first, on display in a shop in St. Petersburg. Not selling to young sex-fiends, but to old people perhaps unable to sleep on a conventional mattress.
Dad, always willing to try something new, climbed aboard. The mattress was "unbaffled," and the water sloshed back and forth so violently that it nearly tossed him onto the floor. He started laughing which made it even worse. He worked himself into such a state of hilarity that he couldn't manage to get off the doggone thing and us kids had to grab hold of him and haul him to safety.
For the next 20 years, every time he saw a waterbed ad on the T.V., he'd mention the one he tried in Florida and giggle.
Legalizing marijuana and gambling are terrible ideas. As was/is the water bed.
ReplyDeletei only visited head shops because many of them sold records. They all reeked of patchouli.
I have to agree.
DeleteLee furniture was the place to buy waterbeds in Lorain Ohio. $199.00 for a queen size with a bookcase headboard. I pain an extra $100.00 for a fiber filled water mattress that you didn't bounce much. Had an electric heater to keep you toasty in the winter and they threw in a set of sheets. I kept that bed till 2005 when I built a new house.
ReplyDelete