Even then, our family was extraordinary, with ten kids.

The point is, when you have a chance to have a big adventure, especially if, like in your case, it doesn't hurt anyone, it's just plain foolish not to take it.

Restless, and in desperate need of adventure, I quit my job at an insurance company to travel west with a couple of guys I smoked pot with, scandalizing my family.

The first things I did when I got out of school in '65 was to buy a pair of Levis and pierce my ears.

If there's a heaven, I would probably go. I've actually a very nice person.

It was there that, through a mutual friend, I met John Waters - proving what I've always said: you meet the best people on field trips.

But some things are the same. My mother still owns the house I grew up in, on what would now be called a cul de sac, but which the sign on the corner called a dead end street.