NEW PALTZ- Visitors to New Paltz have long enjoyed retracing the steps of the town’s original Huguenot settlers. Now they can walk in the footsteps of pioneers of another kind, those brave psychedelic explorers who left the shores of sobriety behind to explore new vistas of the mind. The town, in coordination with the college and the State Department of Historic Preservation, unveiled the “High Trail”; a series of 12 placards marking the sites of historic “trips” on hallucinogenic drugs undertaken within the town’s borders.
“For generations, eager young souls thirsting for wisdom have come from across the state to New Paltz at a formative time in their lives,” said college Present Christian Donaldson. “They came here because they sought more than what could be found in the library and the lecture hall; a self-knowledge that can be accessed only with face-meltingly high doses of extremely powerful drugs.”
The ceremony, attended by a smattering of alumni, struck a poignant note.
“The generation that put New Paltz on the psychedelic map is now passing into its golden years,” noted Bridget Cunningham, a long-time English professor. “Today’s students are different. Sure, they smoke pot like we did, and they drink, but aside from that, they’re much likely to pop prescription pills for anxiety or to help them study.”
Peter Bosch (’73) agreed.
“It’s hard to believe we used to have concerts with acts like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane on campus,” he said. “I’ll never forget Spring Weekend 1972 when I met a beautiful blonde angel from California named Chloe. We had mind-blowing unprotected sex in the mud of the Tripping Fields (this was after The Pill but before AIDS). God, what a time to be alive!”
Just then, a student passing by on a skateboard could be heard to utter under his breath, just out of earshot of the assembled alumni but loud enough for this correspondent to apprehend, “OK, boomer.”
