It was 1960 and I was driving a carload of friends to a bar/resort/club featuring a live rock and roll band at Greenwood Lake, New York. The bar was one of several that catered to 18-year-olds from northern New Jersey – as we were – who had to cross the state line to beat the Garden State’s drinking age limit of 21.
The night was cool. When we got there the bar was smoke-filled, the girls and the band were hot, and the beer and hard drinks were cold. I remember the party as if it was yesterday. What I don’t remember is how I got home.
I woke up in driveway of my parents’ house behind the wheel of my 1954 Buick Special all alone at about 4 a.m. I had driven more than 35 miles totally blasted as one of a car-full of drunken teenagers. I dropped them all off – somewhere – and I was home safe. They say it’s better to be lucky than good and I was lucky as hell. I grew up a little bit that night because it scared me that I could not recall a single minute of a 35-mile trip over highways and dangerous back roads that certainly took an hour.
My confession is not your excuse to be stupid – not everyone is going to be as lucky as I was. If I thought you would maim, cripple or kill only yourself, I would not be writing this column. My philosophy is that at some point, your life is your own. Although there may be those who love you – whether you decide to ignore how they would suffer if you had a very bad alcohol-caused accident or texting, that’s your business. If I don’t know you or those who love you, I don’t really care. However, the odds are that if you’re blitzed, blasted, high, tired, distracted or all the above, you’re going to maim, cripple or kill someone else while you’re doing the same to yourself, and that’s the problem.
The “someone else” will be a lover, a friend or some innocent bystanders just living their lives, and you are going to come along and ruin it for them while you ruin your own. That’s the part I’m trying to prevent, so I want you to do me a favor.
If you drink or do drugs, don’t drive and tell your friends not to put you in a car with a driver who has been drinking or doing drugs. If you want to consume enough alcohol or drugs to kill your brain cells, do it at home or somewhere where you can sleep over. Make sure you do not kill that lover, friend or innocent bystander by putting the odds in your favor. Just do not get behind the wheel or on that motorcycle. Because I cleaned up my act over 50 years ago, and I don’t want my luck to run out just because yours does and I happen to be nearby.
Marty Richman is a Hollister resident. This will appear in next week’s Free Lance.
