You Smile and Laugh
You smile and laugh and tell us about all the great times you had while drunk, and I remember some wonderful times as well. Like the time when my best friend went out on a binge, and later blew his brains out, and I cringed. That was a bang up time no doubt, but I don't like the result. Then there was the time when I ran into a young lady who I knew while at work in the hospital, who had a wonderful voice, and hoped to be a professional singer. While driving she had an encounter with someone who had been out partying, his choice. She couldn't say much with the tubes in her. I remember wheeling her down the back hall where the coolers were. She lost her voice and life that night. That encounter on the highway had led to a bloody good night. You joke and laugh about your inexplicable abilities when driving drunk, and can't recall how you did it, and I remember a good friend Jim who went out driving one night with some friends. They had some fun too as they drank and tested the car, and what they could do with it. Jim now has a plate in his head and that's his good luck I guess as his 3 friends were pronounced dead after meeting a truck. And then there was Tim an alcoholic by trade, though not very popular with those he encountered who gave him a bad grade, he did manage to make an impression on everyone he met, maybe not as favorable as he might have liked set. He had achieved his goal in life I am sure. For being a disgusting drunk must have been his plan when he first took a sip. I did find him sober one time while in the hospital, a changed man he was for a brief period: nice, and congenial, an all around nice guy, but he had to hurry back to his trade - drinking by day, and obnoxious drunk by night. A jolly life he must have led. He died rather young, and I am sure nary a soul went to the funeral, and he has not been missed by hardly anyone. Oh what a fun guy he was. There is one more story I would tell but I fear you would die laughing for the comedy of it all. I know I would laugh till the tears fell. But then again I just may tell of that wonderful day when a mother collapsed after maybe just one or two too many into the arms of her 4 year old now isn’t that just too funny. What a gay sight that was watching the young girl trying so valiantly to hold her mother up before the ambulance came to take her away in a whirl. Or maybe this tale will entertain you of the time social workers came to a house to take the children away from both mother and spouse.
So if I don't get excited when you talk of all the benefits and fun of drinking, or invite me to a party to drink. Maybe just maybe you will understand why. I have had quite enough, and have no need of or desire to see my friends make idiots of themselves, and then perhaps die from that fun stuff. And if you think I don't understand the joy of drinking I assure you I do, oh I do, Been there, done that, as they say. Oh I can think of some 'funny' experiences, but I also know what a fool I was, and the chances I took with my life, and the lives of others as I let the seductive voice of alcohol take hold. Of course what happened to my friends could never have happened to me....or happen to you...LOL
K.C. Barry
