Youth - A License to be Foolish Now and Then

Completed another episode of The Band today. I'm at the real turning point of the book, so it is taking more rewrites than usual to get the point across. I'm having to walk the fine line between moving the story forward while keeping the reader in tune with what has happened in the past to bring the main character to the crisis he is now facing. It's work, but it's fun work.

I was thinking about the writer's assignment for our next meeting which is 'brain freeze'. As I pondered a story line, I thought about what happened to me last Saturday in our local Safeway/Denny's parking lot. About seven of our local writers had gathered for our 'after meeting' gab fest at Denny's. We were all leaving at around 4:30pm. I usually lock my car door as soon as I get in my car, but I was chatting with friends and forgot. As I headed for the exit to McCulloch Blvd., I encountered 6 or 7 spring breakers. Lake Havasu City is a popular place for the college kids to come for their spring break from classes. They usually let all inhibitions down and party hardy for the weeks they are in town. Well, these young males were definitely partying. One of them spotted my Alaska plate on the front of my car and began giving an exaggerated thumbs up. I smiled and waited for the young men to get out of the exit lane. The young man who liked the Alaska plate began creeping alongside my car making me too nervous about hitting him to move forward. Suddenly the passenger side car door opened and he leaned in. "I just had to tell you what a cutie you are," he said. I smiled and said, "thank you." "Want a drink?" he asked offering me a paper sack, wrapped whiskey bottle. "No, thanks," I said. Then he grinned and said, "You are a such a hottie. If you were 30 years younger, I'd bonk the hell out of you." I laughed, then said, "And I'd probably enjoy it." That made him laugh as his buddies pulled him out of my car and they headed towards Safeway. I laughed all the way home. When I told my friends about it, they asked if I wasn't afraid. I guess I should have been and probably would have been if it had been late at night and it was dark, but it was light and in a busy parking lot. They were just having fun, being crazy like young people do before true adult life drains some of that wild, devil may care attitude from them. I would have loved to have been there the next morning when he sobered up and his buddies showed him the pictures they probably took with their cell phones and teased him about propositioning and old lady. Ah, springtime in Havasu! Will I write a short story about the incident, hummmmmm.

All this makes me think of a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson. "For God's sake, give me young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself."
March 20, 2012