Friday, October 15, 2004
It's the circle of "contributing to the delinquency"
Last night, for the first time, I was approached by a group of high schoolers wanting me to buy alcohol for them. It was a strange situation. I was on break from class and just walking around the strip mall area next door where there's an Albertson's market. As I'm just peacefully moving along I notice light from a car's headlights approaching me. My peripheral vision catches a glimpse of a small white sedan looking like it's about ten years old. And as I'm walking the car is moving at the same pace as me just a few feet behind me.
Now I'm beginning to wonder what's about to happen. This is a pretty decent looking neighborhood and a public, well lit place, so if this is going to be some kind of assault, I'd be quite surprised. All the same I take my hands out of my pockets and suddenly stop walking. I whip my head around to face off my approachers. I see a little car with five even littler faces, three boys, and two girls. I can't believe how young they look. All the same, I lock eyes with the driver awaiting his explanation for creeping.
"Hey man, can my friend here get a cigarette?"
"I don't have one. I bummed this one."
"Thanks anyway, man."
I keep my eyes on the car as it slowly drives past me, toward the grocery store parking area. I continue walking as I was. I pass the store and continue to the end of the strip mall. As I am about to turn around to head back I hear a voice about a hundred feet behind me saying, "Hey dude!" I turn around. I don't recognize the two guys approaching me, but I can tell from their apparent age that they were two of the kids from the car.
"Are you 21?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Would you buy us and our friends some alcohol?"
Suddenly I feel sixteen again, waiting outside the local liquor store by my house in my friend's car, while he propositioned entering patrons. I remember the anxiety I felt wondering if a cop was going to pull up at that moment. I remember all the good times I had thanks to people of legal age who were sympathetic to our teenage plight. I immediately know that, despite my pangs of fear of being busted, I simply have to aid these kids.
I ask them what they want and they don't even know. Young kids have the worst taste in hooch. I walk out to the car with the two kids so the five of them can decide what to get. They have eleven dollars between them. The girls have nothing. They asked me for two six-packs of Skyy Blue Vodka drink. If I can't afford that, then they'd like as many 40's of Steel Reserve as can be afforded. So I walk in, buy one six-pack of the super trendy vodka crap and one 40 of the rotgut malt liquor. I decide that they can buy me bottle of Diet Pepsi for my troubles. Unfortunately I still had to pay for my own Pepsi after the alcohol amounted to about $10.70.
When I walk outside all of the kids are still just hanging out outside the car waiting for me. This is far more brazen than I was when soliciting such a service. The driver opens his trunk and they all say thanks and tell me I'm a life saver. Whatever. Then the three guys each extend their hand to me so that I can grab it in whatever hip handshake proves I'm not uncool. I tell them to take it easy and walk away. It isn't until a minute or two later that I realize that I should have taken down one of the kids' numbers, specifically the skinny, unshaven stoner-looking one. While a high school kid can't buy alcohol without an adult, a grown-up doesn't have anywhere near the access to other drugs.
I don't really do any drugs. If I'm at a party and someone hands me a joint, I'll take it and be happy that they offered. That hasn't happened in quite a while either. But in my world, it's far more difficult to find someone who can locate the fun hallucinogens I loved so much. Damn, I guess I missed my opportunity. Oh well, back to class. I sit through the rest of class with this buzzy feeling of having just broken the law. I wonder if anyone in my class saw me buy it. I wonder if they'd care if they had. But nobody did, and class when on as normal. I go home to my wife and house so that I can go to my bed and wake up to go to my job, after which I will begin my weekend during which I will write several papers for my college courses. I am glad to not be a teenager anymore. I am glad that I can't fully relate to them anymore. But mostly, I am glad to have all that I have, earned what I own, and survived far more than those kids are aware lays before them.
Now I'm beginning to wonder what's about to happen. This is a pretty decent looking neighborhood and a public, well lit place, so if this is going to be some kind of assault, I'd be quite surprised. All the same I take my hands out of my pockets and suddenly stop walking. I whip my head around to face off my approachers. I see a little car with five even littler faces, three boys, and two girls. I can't believe how young they look. All the same, I lock eyes with the driver awaiting his explanation for creeping.
"Hey man, can my friend here get a cigarette?"
"I don't have one. I bummed this one."
"Thanks anyway, man."
I keep my eyes on the car as it slowly drives past me, toward the grocery store parking area. I continue walking as I was. I pass the store and continue to the end of the strip mall. As I am about to turn around to head back I hear a voice about a hundred feet behind me saying, "Hey dude!" I turn around. I don't recognize the two guys approaching me, but I can tell from their apparent age that they were two of the kids from the car.
"Are you 21?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Would you buy us and our friends some alcohol?"
Suddenly I feel sixteen again, waiting outside the local liquor store by my house in my friend's car, while he propositioned entering patrons. I remember the anxiety I felt wondering if a cop was going to pull up at that moment. I remember all the good times I had thanks to people of legal age who were sympathetic to our teenage plight. I immediately know that, despite my pangs of fear of being busted, I simply have to aid these kids.
I ask them what they want and they don't even know. Young kids have the worst taste in hooch. I walk out to the car with the two kids so the five of them can decide what to get. They have eleven dollars between them. The girls have nothing. They asked me for two six-packs of Skyy Blue Vodka drink. If I can't afford that, then they'd like as many 40's of Steel Reserve as can be afforded. So I walk in, buy one six-pack of the super trendy vodka crap and one 40 of the rotgut malt liquor. I decide that they can buy me bottle of Diet Pepsi for my troubles. Unfortunately I still had to pay for my own Pepsi after the alcohol amounted to about $10.70.
When I walk outside all of the kids are still just hanging out outside the car waiting for me. This is far more brazen than I was when soliciting such a service. The driver opens his trunk and they all say thanks and tell me I'm a life saver. Whatever. Then the three guys each extend their hand to me so that I can grab it in whatever hip handshake proves I'm not uncool. I tell them to take it easy and walk away. It isn't until a minute or two later that I realize that I should have taken down one of the kids' numbers, specifically the skinny, unshaven stoner-looking one. While a high school kid can't buy alcohol without an adult, a grown-up doesn't have anywhere near the access to other drugs.
I don't really do any drugs. If I'm at a party and someone hands me a joint, I'll take it and be happy that they offered. That hasn't happened in quite a while either. But in my world, it's far more difficult to find someone who can locate the fun hallucinogens I loved so much. Damn, I guess I missed my opportunity. Oh well, back to class. I sit through the rest of class with this buzzy feeling of having just broken the law. I wonder if anyone in my class saw me buy it. I wonder if they'd care if they had. But nobody did, and class when on as normal. I go home to my wife and house so that I can go to my bed and wake up to go to my job, after which I will begin my weekend during which I will write several papers for my college courses. I am glad to not be a teenager anymore. I am glad that I can't fully relate to them anymore. But mostly, I am glad to have all that I have, earned what I own, and survived far more than those kids are aware lays before them.
Comments:
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you got shoulder-tapped! i've never been the shoulder-tappee. nor have i ever been the shoulder-tapper.
too bad you didn't get that kid's number. you probably could use some right about now, couldn't you? :P
too bad you didn't get that kid's number. you probably could use some right about now, couldn't you? :P
Shoulder-tapping? Is that what they call it? Well, I think you did a good deed. People like you supply a much needed service to young people... much like the guys who make fake IDs.. Without guys like you, girls would get date raped the moment they turned 21 and stepped into a bar for a drink. Kids are growing up lots faster these days, and helping them experience life in an environment where they are surrounded by friends is much safer than being fucked up in a bar full of people you don't even know.
You're a far better man than I Mike. I think the last time I was shoulder tapped I had a flashback and took 3 of the tappers teeth home with me. Or was that a marijuana induced "episode"? Hell if I know. At least they got to drink a beer and fuck a friend.
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: 8:49 PM
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