Litmus test for friendship

[Uncle Jesse]

This didn't happen to me but I know it's a true story. The participants were foolish, but that often makes for a good story. I may have told this story before but it bears repeating.

I have a pal who stopped drinking when he woke up in prison in Germany. Needless to say he had some good stories leading up to that point.

He and a pal were at Paterson's Bar in Sausalito, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. They started drinking scotch around noon. Around midnight they were completely destroyed and decided to leave. My pal had ridden his motorcycle and was carrying his handgun. He is a total gun freak, very into handloading and such.

So, he took a few laps walking around the parking lot to see if he could sober up. He was sure he couldn't so he had the presence of mind to hand his gun to his friend who had driven a car, got on his motorcycle and proceeded to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. He told me he was so hammered that he had to ride with one hand over one of his eyes.

He made it all the way across the bridge to the Presidio and the cold and wind sobered him up enough that he could use both hands on his motorcycle. However, he got pulled over by two cops for an expired registration. Obviously at this point he smelled like a distillery in Campbelton, so one cop started running him through the field sobriety tests while the other went to call out the breathalyzer/blood test unit. The cop put my pal through the paces, stand one one foot, lean back and touch your nose, say the alphabet backward, walk a straight line one foot in front of the other and so on. Not being a cheap drunk, my pal passed every test. The cop told him it didn't matter since they would soon have an actual reading of his blood alcohol content. Or perhaps more appropriately at that point, his alcohol blood content.

Around this time shots were fired somewhere nearby about a block away. The cops and my pal ducked behind the patrol car for cover. One cop ran into the car and the other told my pal basically "You live less than a mile from here. Here is your license. You go directly home. I am going to stop by later to check that your bike is there. If I ever see you out here again you are going straight to jail!"

The cops sped off.

So, somewhat sobered up by this experience and shaking from adrenaline, my pal limped his bike home and counted himself lucky.

A few minutes later his friend came in, out of breath, and basically said "Oh, they let you go! I saw you get pulled over so I exited the bridge, pulled over about a block away and emptied your gun into the air!"

Who knows where those rounds came down. The next day there was a shell casing on the roof of the car, lodged in the ski rack. If he had been caught there wouldn't have been much point in denying!

Like they say, a friend will help you move; a real friend will help you move a body.

[Bigbob]

Excellent story......good friends are hard to find.

[rad14701]

Heck of a story... I could see that happening...

As for tests, how many here ever learned the alphabet backwards...??? I didn't and to this day don't know it backwards because I have no need to... The trick to that test is that the LEO is waiting for you to say "I can't even say the alphabet backwards sober!"... To which the LEO will exclaim "Gotcha! Put your hands behind your back, you're under arrest!"... The correct answer is "I never learned nor do I know the alphabet backwards!"...

[pfshine]

Best friend for life there. Couldn't ask for more.

[DAD300]

A good friend will bail you out of jail.

A great friend is sitting next to you saying, "Hell that was a hoot!"

[WooTeck]

sounds like quite a night.

[Uncle Jesse]

Yeh I don't want to sound like I condone drinking and driving because I don't. As I said, this friend quit drinking when he woke up in prison in Germany and spent 3 months thinking about how he has just lost his drinking privileges.

He and his roommates also used to set up a line of phone books in their place in San Francisco and do target practice in their living room. The foolishness and number of gun safety violations is simply astounding and had I been there I would have left immediately.

[bitter]

Awesome story! Glad all turned out. Sooo funny!

I too even though I drink I never drive. It hit home hard in highschool when a friend was killed by a drunk driver.... since then if people were going out and talking about driving.. I told them call me any time.. day or night and I will ensure you get a ride.

Today still were I live I see people drive by tipping up a beer. Most is pretty harmless.. They are farming and having a pint on the break driving the haul back to the silo... I'm sure the cops would not be happy buts whats 1/2 a beer or so to quench the thirst. I know for a fact none of them ever get drunk while working.. The party is saved for after the crops are in!

B

[pythonshine]

True that bitter. I used bail hay and straw for a buddy. Worked hard in the day partied harder at night...I would walk home sideways before driving.

[WooTeck]

Yeh I don't want to sound like I condone drinking and driving because I don't. As I said, this friend quit drinking when he woke up in prison in Germany and spent 3 months thinking about how he has just lost his drinking privileges.

He and his roommates also used to set up a line of phone books in their place in San Francisco and do target practice in their living room. The foolishness and number of gun safety violations is simply astounding and had I been there I would have left immediately.

that i am ashamed to say is something my freinds would probably end up doing . we used to do late night drunken cooking with machetes.

[Uncle Jesse]

I had forgotten this story. Now it is bumped.

[Ben]

A good friend would have called him a fucking taxi.

[Uncle Jesse]

A good friend would have called him a fucking taxi.

yeh well sensibilities in the 80's weren't what they are now

[Saltbush Bill]

OK so maybe it wasn't the smartest move, but I sure am glad that I grew up in an era where it was still exeptable to ride or drive home carefully looking through one eye.
Did it many times and still here to tell the tale.
Life wrapped in a cotton ball can't be half as much fun.

[Ben]

Yes, let's make this guy a hero because it happened in the 80's. Let's pretend quality of life was somehow better then. Then lets act like negligent discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment and drunk driving were all somehow less dangerous for the people around you because it was "the 80's", because you weren't "wrapped in cotton". Let's pretend like it wasn't a totally selfish act with no consideration for the people who have to share those roads, the people who may have caught those bullets.

Cool story.

People like this shouldn't be idolized, or told tales of like hero's.



I would hardly consider fighting in the Afghanistan war "life wrapped in a cotton ball". Of course you wouldn't understand that, you didn't have a war to fight, growing up in the 80's.

[Ben]

Thinking on it, lets discuss just how terrible the 80's was.

A grand total of 42 soldiers, sailors and marines were killed in combat between Panama and Grenada. That was minutes in any of the wars preceding, a single sort-of average day in a modern war.

From 1982-1990's there was minimal inflation and good economic growth.

There was no housing market collapse in the 80s

There were no recessions/depressions in the 80s

There was no famine, no fuel rationing, no attacks on American soil.

There were tons of huge tech breakthroughs, computers were becoming accesible.

There was more focus on safety and welfare of students and workers than any time previously in American history.

Television became massive in the 80s, entertainment was more accessible than any time previously, and to more people, the average Joe could come home and relax, and be entertained, they no longer had to spend their time chorin'.

Real tough time to be alive in the U.S., guess you really didn't need much padding. Maybe that's why your hero stories are about alcoholics being assholes.



"Wrapped in cotton"... Just because the current generation is making an effort to be good to each other doesn't mean you should shit on them. People say the current 20 somethings are "entitled". Hopefully they won't feel entitled to act like this, and brag about it.

[Saltbush Bill]

I do hope your feeling a lot better now that you got that load off of your chest Ben.

[Uncle Jesse]

I do hope your feeling a lot better now that you got that load off of your chest Ben.

Kinda reminded me of The Big Lebowski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmy1AsWgOXY

[RC Al]

"Wrapped in cotton"... Just because the current generation is making an effort to be good to each other doesn't mean you should shit on them. People say the current 20 somethings are "entitled". Hopefully they won't feel entitled to act like this, and brag about it.

Fk mate the number of GTA ( grand theft auto, computer game based on a car jacking spree for you extremely under a rock oldies) crimes committed here in oz on a daily basis easily outnumber the crimes and social fallout of the current "Boomer" generation.

I deal with millenials every day at work, I absolutely love them, they make me feel young (and so very old sometimes), but they have no idea of real life, just a bunch of ideals and concepts that have been drummed into them by a PC education system and the "me too" movement, with no life experience, with little chance of getting anywhere near the experiences we "older" people had (im not even 50 yet)

Entitled should be the eighth deadly sin, though it kind of straddles lust, greed and pride.

Hippies in the 6-70's got smashed by the authorities, this lot really do have it easy in being able to express themselves with no fear of ostracization other than social.

Love you Ben, nothing personal, the world was extremely different back then, just opinion

[RC Al]

-Everything- is relative to personal experience.
Where I grew up in the late 70's - early 80's, it was considered "bad luck" to get convicted for "poofter bashing" (twas illegal to be gay there). Time changes all things, just not as quickly as we would like sometimes.