The Retro Diary of a Gangster-Hippy kid - Part 1 "About Me"

As a ten-year-old runaway living at a heroin addict’s house, listening to 2Pac “Changes” while crying myself to sleep every night, I never thought I'd end up becoming a writer.

As a ten-year-old runaway living at a heroin addict’s house, listening to 2Pac “Changes” while crying myself to sleep every night, I never thought I'd end up becoming a writer.

Hell, I didn’t even think I was going to live past 24…

But, here I am—A gangster-hippy kid from Nimbin, Australia that made it out alive to tell the tale.

If you'd like to know what it was like, stick with me for a while and find out.

Why subscribe?

As an Australian of indigineous descent on one side, I had the fortune of being at a school tailored to aborigine children while yet having my father’s Scottish complexion. Though, my freckles were at least brown instead of red—I guess that’s where all my melanin went.

I didn’t completely fit in with the dark skinned kids, unless I was getting shit from an outsider, then they backed me up. And I certainly didn’t fit in with the middle class “normal” white kids from other schools, with their nice toys, clean houses, fridges full of flavored milk, “jelly,” and their cupboards filled with Nutrigrain, Fruit Loops and TimTams.

(For my american homies, jelly is Gell-o, and the rest are all classic Australian cereals and snacks—see the bottom of this post for definitions and pictures.)

I recall showing up to one such child’s 10-year-old’s birthday party and proceeding to put on Snoop Dog’s “Last Meal” album. As you can imagine, my DJing was quickly shut down by the child’s parents, who looked at me with frowns of deep concern.

Last Meal Album:

The other kids simply stared at me awkwardly and began asking the grown ups what “Doggy Style” was? I was quickly shunned to the “weird ghetto kid corner” for the rest of the party. I told them all “Snoop Dog was the man” and to “get stuffed” and swaggered back down the street with my Last Meal CD clasped under my arm—yeah I walked home, about 10 killometers (6.2 miles), there was no way in hell my mother was picking me up!

My mother was half gangster, half hippy. And to anyone who doesn’t know what that means, it means blasting Afro-American Gangster Rap, followed by long meditative sessions of Deep Forest, played throughout the house on large speakers purchased with illicit funds.

It means meals of good, healthy, organic ingredients, but no recipes used, and not entirely regular meal schedules.

It also means being forced to scull down 2, 300 milligram cups of blended aloe vera, papaya, spirulina, macca powder, orange juice, sour vitamin-C powder and frozen raspberries, while being screamed at to “Drink ya fucken pawpaw smoothies!” at 7:30am before school. To be fair, she was a single mother, trying to round up four aussie rascalls every morning and ensure we were healthy. She really deserves a hand.

We called it the “yucky green monster drink.”

So, why subscribe?

Well, not all of the kids who went through what I did end up becoming writers—a lot of them didn’t even make it out of the drug scene. Many are already dead.

Here, you have the oppurtinity to support one who did make it out, and worked extremely hard to self-educate after a troubled childhood, and a school career filled with more holes than the most expensive slice of swiss cheese you can get.

You will get to experience all of my wacky first-hand accounts of that childhood, in my “Retro Diary of a Gangster-Hippy Kid” thread.

In addition, you will get free access to my high-quality fiction novels that I will be releasing in serial format, prior to their official publishing.

Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox.

For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.

Why is it called Alucard’s Stack? Does this have anything to do with the animation series “Hellsing”?

Yes, in an indirect way it does. As a gangster-hippy kid born in 1991, that didn’t really fit into any group, I found myself picking up all kinds of mixed culture.

I was somehow an outdoors guy, but had no one to teach me, I knew all the dealers and gangsters but never became one, I was into street-fighting and kung-fu, but also video games and Japanese anime.

I were to really some up the culture that most fits me, it would have to be that odd mix of African-American gangster mixed with kung-fu and asian mysticism culture, AKA the “Wu--Tang” vibe.

Fighting leads to kung-fu and martial arts, this leads to asian culture, which leads to buying samurai swords and watching animation shows like: Naruto, Gappler baki, Ruroni Kenshin, Ninja Scroll, Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist, Samurai Champloo, Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball-Z, Black Butler and yes, Hellsing.

Of course I stay up to date and some of my recent favorites are: Hunter X Hunter, Black Clover and Attack on Titan.

There’s so much more to cover. I haven’t even mentioned the armed home invasions, or police raids, my whole MMA/Thai-boxing and BJJ arc, how computer games saved my life, then lost me my first job and my wilderness Tarzan adventures. It goes on and on—we will get to all that in my substacks.

To answer the original question, why Alucard?

He is a character from my feature novel “The Living Light.” And is named after the character Alucard from Hellsing. How does this fit into the fantasy setting of the story? You will find out at the end of the book!

And what’s with the strange blue-green frog wizard meme? Again, read the book “The Living Light.”

So, wrapping this up, in my “Retro Diary of a Hippy Gangster Kid” thread you will hear all of my crazy real-life stories, and in my fiction book “The Living Light” you will find an interesting and totally fresh mix of classic, quality Dark Fantasy, mixed with humor and a tinge of anime culture.

Based on feedback so far, anyone aged 16 on up will find my content interesting and enganging.

Also, stay tuned for a third thread I will be starting soon, “Darkmaw—Grim Fantasy Short Stories.” A unique horror series created from real life nightmares I have documented over the years!

See you soon.

Peace!

Definitions and photos

Nimbin: A hippy town in Australia where I spent much of my younger years, famous for its weed dealing lane. This photo is its main street.

Scull: The use of scull is explained by reference to student drinking rituals that challenge participants to down a bottle or can of beer in one draught, like the long stroke used in sculling a boat. Used heavily in Australia.

Flavored milk:

Jelly:

Nutrigrain:

Fruit Loops:

TimTams.

Join the Substack family

Be part of a community of people who share your interests. Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription.

To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.