Looking Like a Party

I had a conversation with a young friend of the family the other day, a 15 year old, who really enjoys pulling your leg (I try to stay away from the L word).

I asked him what he had been up to. He told me he spent a little time in “Juvy”, but insisted he was innocent. I guess I should have known he was lying, er… pulling my leg, given his history, but I wasn’t at the top of my game that day.

I sympathized and told him my Juvy story.

I was probably 15 or 16 myself at the time, when two girlfriends and I went to a concert. It just so happened to be Thanksgiving Eve. The plan was to get dropped off by one set of parents, and get picked up by another. The first half of the plan went off without a hitch. The second half…not so much.

The three of us ran into two guys we knew from school. We sort of hung around with them for the rest of the concert, and before I knew what happened, we were getting a ride home with the guys. I didn’t get the memo.

I begrudgingly went along with the plan. I don’t remember why because I wasn’t thrilled with the idea. Maybe it was because I didn’t really enjoy the night. Oh wait, maybe I do remember…because they were ‘DRUGGIES‘ (yes, I’m shouting the word) as we called them back in the day. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t opposed to a little partying myself, however, I really wasn’t into that sort of thing.

On the ride home the driver of the car, who I’ll call Mark (because that was his name) pulled into the parking lot of a liquor store. He and his friend, who I will call Steve (because that was his name) needed a cup of ice. Yep, these two genius-types had a bottle of whiskey under the seat of the car, and they wanted to pour themselves up a little night-cap. And they chose a liquor store to get the cup of ice! Guess who pulled into the space beside us?

It was a police officer (or two), looking quite interested in the car full of teens. We were asked to step out of the car while they did a search, which is when the bottle was found, and even though the guys told the good officers we had nothing to do with any of it, we all took a little ride to the juvy center.

Our parents came to pick us up. Ironically, I didn’t get into trouble over that one. I think my parents knew I was more pissed upset over the entire episode than even they were! (The tale was told around the Thanksgiving table at my grandparents’ house).

The morale of this story (there are a few) is if you have a bottle of whiskey hidden under your seat and you need a cup of ice…go to McDonalds…just saying.