Still So Excited! by Ruth Pointer

Author:Ruth Pointer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2015-12-08T05:00:00+00:00

12. So Excited…and Disappointed…

The honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Edwards lasted about as long as one of our crack highs. The marriage itself, maybe six months. We moved into a lovely home in Burbank after our nuptials and proceeded to turn it into our personal garbage dump. Vacuuming, doing dishes, tidying up—that was for normal people, and the norm for us was getting and staying stoned as much as possible. When The Temptations came over to the house, we never even bothered cleaning up for them. We didn’t care. Our solution was to just shut off parts of the house as they became unlivable. It got so bad that we had a massive invasion of rats, although frankly I’m not sure if it was an actual infestation or just a manifestation induced by the crack. That’s how crazy it was.

Dennis and I had become crack fiends, smoking almost 24/7. I was right there with him most of the time, keeping up a pretty blistering pace if I say so myself. Soon Dennis was once again on the outs with The Temptations. The other guys had grown tired of him constantly missing rehearsals and group meetings and showing up for concerts looking way worse for the wear. He was fined so much the amount even surpassed the tally racked up by his predecessor, David Ruffin. Temptations gatekeepers Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin finally had enough when they learned that Jeffrey Bowen had secretly approached Dennis about doing a solo album. He was all for it, of course, and started recording Wings of Love while negotiations with Motown were still ongoing. Dennis completed the album, and it was an absolute masterpiece. The only problem was, he ended up demanding too much from Motown and the project was shelved. Then Otis and Melvin booted him out of The Temptations.

Dennis didn’t much care. That was the beauty of freebase—it cured all your ailments and made you forget all your problems. Dennis, crack, and I were a steady threesome. If we weren’t working we could freebase day and night, and frequently did. In addition to the obvious side effects—paranoia, psychosis, sensitivity to noise and light, irritability, and suppression of appetite—the drug did some serious physical damage. The crack infected my gums and sucked all the calcium out of my teeth, and I had to have a total dental reconstruction. Dark bags formed under my eyes and my skin turned dry and itchy. Scariest of all were the cardiac palpitations. My heart would flutter nonstop and I’d have trouble catching my breath.

But none of that even slowed us down. One time the glass pipe burned Dennis’ leg bad enough to leave a permanent large scar. I don’t think he even flinched.

It didn’t take long before Dennis started disappearing for days on end. When he went out on tour I got reports he was causing problems if he even bothered showing up for gigs at all, and that he was seen cavorting with groupies.

Let me be

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