I drank way too much
And Frank drove my car.
This long-haired drunk smoking a cigarette is me, just forty years and a few months ago. I've been so focused on getting an extension to stay in the Army, I forgot that Feb 1 was the 40th anniversary of my initial enlistment.
On that auspicious evening, my best friend Frank Capuano, my sister Jean and others I cannot remember took me to a basement bar in Kenmore Square, Boston, for pitchers of beer before I left for basic. In Boston in 1972, 3.2% beer was legal for 18 year olds.
So we drove to Boston and I drank way too much--something that has always been easy for me. I can get drunk on three beers. I got really drunk. Enough that I fell off my chair onto the sawdust-covered floor. One of the bouncers decided I had enough and carried me up the stairs over his shoulder. The bouncers wore vertical-stripe red and white shirts. Looking at the shirt and bouncing caused me to throw up on the bouncer. He tossed me into the alley.
I was up at 6am to go to Logan Airport for the flight to basic. Not a great beginning. But it turned out OK.
By the way, we tried to get in the Ratskellar across the street. Aerosmith--a local bar band at the time, was playing at the Rat. But they wouldn't let us in. So we settled for K-K-Katy's.
