I’d be lying big time if I told you that the first thing I did when I got out of the Navy was got a job and started putting money away. No, the very first thing was to head to a restaurant for a farewell lunch with three of my buddies. From there, my guitar, Charlie, and I started a whirlwind tour of all my former haunts. We hit Boston, New York and Baltimore. This “I’m Back!!!” tour wound up with me sick, dizzy and disoriented every morning for about two weeks.
My trail of disreputable behavior ended in Baltimore. Once there, I teamed up with my best friend and road buddy, Captain Zero. From Baltimore, the two of us went on a grand tour of five states, seven large municipalities, dozens of counties, and multitudes of state and local roads. I’d be negligent if I didn’t add every disreputable coffeehouse and gin joint therein!
Where did it end? Well, you can’t live like that too long without suffering some consequences. I wound up as a walk-in patient at the Mass General Hospital Emergency Ward. Over the years I had spent living on Beacon Hill, I was already a known habitué. A walk-in radiology patient for various injuries, out-patient for infections, and generally stupid behavior. In the waiting room was my chair waiting for me. I had inscribed it with a Magic Marker with my name and a date in 1965.
On that visit, I saw several nurses I’d known from living on the Hill before the Navy. Then we set up a date for the after-work at the Harvard Gardens. It was Friday, and they wanted to hear about the grand “I’m Back!!” Tour. When I got to see the doctor he asked seriously when I was going to start budgeting some of my activities. Soon, he said my liver would be medium well done, I’d have splotches all over my hands and I’d die before my time.
I promised him I’d think seriously about it, and I did as I crossed Cambridge Street and headed two blocks down to Harvard Gardens to meet my nurse friends and have a much-needed beer.
Years later I look back on all that stuff, and I’m grateful that I eventually did think about what I was doing to my body. But at the time I was having a hoot. Perhaps you’ve heard the song by Warren Zevon, I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead ? That was me. I was living my own movie. The prompt on Word Press for this day reads” “If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be?”
Thanks. But I’ve already been there and done that. I’m good.
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There’s an old Scottish proverb that says ‘Life life while you can, for you’re a long time dead’ 🙂
I have some Scottish ancestors (Forbes), and that may be where I get it from.
I enjoyed it too and I would be less of a human being without having lived it. ❤️😜
I love this saying!!
I sounds like you have enjoyed being Lou, and the best character of your life story
My foray into what my high school English teacher and later friend called, “The seamy side of life,” ended when I got alcohol poisoning. That was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me. Not really pleasant, but… “My” song at the time was Emmy Lou Harris’ version of “Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This.”
You were lucky to learn early that it was not a great lifestyle.
I climbed out of the hole, but it was a deep one. Warren Zevon and Tom Waits helped provide the soundtrack to part of it in the seventies. I am rather nonjudgmental about it. I did it. I enjoyed it. Saw and learned a lot, but would not repeat it. I also feel that I’d be a hypocrite to deny that I enjoyed lots of it.