[TerpeneTom]

This is me pretending to an outlaw

[Dankdude]

What it felt like to be growing back in the day.
That is a good question.
When I started growing at the tender age of 15, the year was 1977.

I had a thirst for learning, I was consulting the old hippies of that time.
I had to go up into the San Gabriel mountains because at the time my parents believed all the reefer madness bullshit.
I would say the feeling at the time was paranoia.
If caught with weed, we could go to jail, if caught around a grow, you could go to jail.

[St. Phatty]

I remember growing my freshman year in college.

Had trouble figuring out how to flower.

mid-70's.

The RA's gave me a 'Green Thumb' award at the spring picnic.

Of course, it was one of those things where everybody got an award.

[aridbud]

Originally Posted by St. Phatty

I remember growing my freshman year in college.

Had trouble figuring out how to flower.

mid-70's.

The RA's gave me a 'Green Thumb' award at the spring picnic.

Of course, it was one of those things where everybody got an award.

I can remember buying "home grown" just leaves.....back in the early '70's. My how times have changed! ;o)

[St. Phatty]

Originally Posted by aridbud

I can remember buying "home grown" just leaves.....back in the early '70's. My how times have changed! ;o)

I think that may affect my approach to manicuring.

The buds have these beautiful sugar coated mini fan leaves.

That I would have LOVED to have had when I was a teen-ager.

And they're cutting them off ?

[Andyo]

Originally Posted by St. Phatty

I think that may affect my approach to manicuring.

The buds have these beautiful sugar coated mini fan leaves.

That I would have LOVED to have had when I was a teen-ager.

And they're cutting them off ?

Those leaves in the 70,s were sativa veg stage leaves like colombian, and equatorial african ect not sugar coated!
They get you high .
I sold them too lots guys loved them ,I dried and ground them and extracted oil from one very potent african strain.

This is before indica or sativa x indica crosses were availble.
it was early season income with outside plants.A

[subrob]

Originally Posted by 420somewhere

We grew outside with seeds we got from Mexican brick. Hundreds of plants in my backyard. Cops could care less.

Then I bought a Phototron and learned about sexing.

View Image

I wanted one so bad! Back in the day when there was more bush in playboy than in the yard!
Some said they got playboy for the articles...well..for a year I got playboy for the phototron ads...hoping for more info than last month's ads...ha

[Shocks2]

@Seeded- Nice post brother and I can completely relate to most everything you said there.

I grew from roughly the early 90's to 2001 there about. Was actually a "Mentor" grower on the site Overgrow.com Basically, where this site spawned from. Overgrow had 200,000+ members and once it shut down, ICMag was opened to replace it.

Such fun times back then getting seeds from other guerilla growers that were all living the secret life you were and some of the very few that could relate what the life was really like. Names like: BOG, Rezdog, Jeast, Smoothy, Moonbeam, Old Pink, nathan, Baroness, Gypsy Nirvana, Crusty, biglove, and so many other names/friends I have forgotten over time.

There was a commercial Russian grower (Bromski perhaps?) that would put up threads of warehouse grows titled "From Russia With Love.... 100,000 watt grow!" One of my OG buddies befriended him and surprisingly, went to Russia to meet him in person. Put the "kid" (literally college aged) to work in his OP for 1 of the 3 weeks he was there. The stories that kid told me when he got back where fucking crazy!!! He was a serious OG and had hot Russian chicks doing his trim jobs because he didn't trust males to do it and liked hiring babes. lol Shit sounded like it was straight out of a movie script but was real life indeed.

Another memory was when a friend of mine and fellow grower got popped with around 80+ plants how this close knit community came together for him. I posted a lengthy thread informing the Overgrow community about what had happened to this universally loved poster, and that he really needed help to pay for a good lawyer to try and beat the charges against him. A fundraiser of sorts if you will, set up with a drop address for people to make donations for his cause. Well.... 1st week we received about $300. We were STOKED!!!! $25 from this member, $50 from that one, etc. etc. And as the weeks went on, more and more funds came pouring in. Week 2.... $1000 came in. By then end of four weeks, we had $20,000 in cash and money orders. WAY above what we thought we were going to raise for his legal team. And the best part, the fallen grower had no idea how much funds we had or were coming in. One day I'll never forget was handing him over the back pack FILLED with money. He opened it up, looked inside, and started crying like a baby. He couldn't believe what the community did for him, and the fact that he had a friend in me that would be honest enough to give it to him and not pocket that amount of dough. Will never forget those few minutes of handing over what was essentially his freedom, and how good it felt for both of us that day.

Aside from the payments the sites members sent in, there was also numerous "party supplies" that arrived as well. One time a grower sent us a Zip of Super Skunk WITHOUT VACUUM SEALING!!!! I don't know WTF he was thinking ,or perhaps incredibly stoned, but you could literally smell that shit walking up to the mailbox 200 ft away! How it even landed is a miracle in and of itself. Needless to say there was a new drop immediately created after that. lol

Ahhhh.... the double life too. The only peeps that knew I grew were my friends on Overgrow. Not even my local customers knew anything whatsoever. It truly was, for me at least, a love affair with all things growing and MJ related. It's certainly not for everyone that's for sure. Just the seclusion and hermit behavior one must keep up at all times would drive some batty. I loved it. All the different strains, how they grew, smoked, crosses, sharing it on OG with other members/growers, cranking up some Classical, Marley, Carl Cox, Sasha/Digweed, Zepp, etc. when harvesting a run with joint in mouth was fucking great! I think the whole "secret life" thing was sexy and exciting to some degree. Truly a Renegade feeling during those times for sure.

I often wonder where all those old OG'ers went to? I'm sure some are around these walls on ICMag in some fashion or another. Probably most went out West if not already there to do their thing without the ramifications of the law like a lot of states.

I remember going to Amsterdam for one of the very first Overgrow "member meet ups" during one of the Cannabis Cups between 1997-2000. Can't remember the exact date but what a fucking BLAST!!!! All these people that you only know from a website message board and their user handle/avatar and here they all are... in person... in Amsterdam of all places!!! lol Got to meet Soma and share a joint with him. Blazing with growers from all parts of the world and share stories, create our own, and learn from the best of the best. Keep in mind this is the glory days of Amsterdam and the debauchery was in full effect. hahahaha Spent a few nights on a houseboat of all accommodations.

Great times indeed...

Shocks

[ronbo51]

I grew as a kid before I knew how much trouble I could get into in Va which is a one plant felony state. From about '73 on. Grew guerrilla outdoor in Maine for almost 25 years starting in '81. On the way from Virginia to Maine we stopped in Rhode Island and I was gifted a few seeds that these guys had from Afghanistan. No one up there had ever seen anything like that and it became semi legendary. That pot colored up so intensely in the fading days and cold nights. Maine was the second state to decriminalize, but you could get into some big trouble if you cultivated. I left Maine the year before they went medical so I was never able to grow a plant in the yard and pamper it.

That's really what I want. I just want to grow a few plants in the yard so I can watch them and take care of them and not go to jail.

[Gry]

Was shown how to do cuttings by my mom with ivy in the kitchen window as a kid. It felt like magic then, and still does today.
Where I lived, cops were not a concern with respect to growing. Deer got me on a regular basis.