2017/12/07 - Melinda

It was 1982, before the dawn of the DUI in Weschester County, New York. In those days everyone drove a little drunk sometimes, at least I thought so. But then all of a sudden the police started cracking down on drunk driving. 

The way I saw it, the goverment found a way of making a fortune out of American’s loving of alcohol. The DUI was a fortune maker for lawyers, courts, and prisons, but a real downer for civilian fun. 

The Texaco Athletic Club (TAC) party was a huge event in 1982. Hundreds of Texaco employees attended. I remember my friend John Swolphs coming into my office and jokingly asking if I was entering the “speed drinking” or the “marathon drinking” competition for tonight. I told him to enter me in both events. I was 32. 

The TAC parties had become a huge event. The Monday mornings at the coffee machine after a TAC party were filled with wild story’s of crashed cars, hookups, and fights. 

This night was no different. This was my first TAC party an I was newly “single” after my first wife left me. I was also the driver of a van full of party animals for the party that night. 

Now in those days I was a dancer and lucky for me it was the only way I could pick up chicks, because I was pretty shy otherwise. Melinda was a dancer too and she was the most beautiful woman at the dance, but with a bad reputation. I remember Ellen Koslowski saying “She must be up to the H’s now” when she found out we were dating. But that night we danced until we were sweating and needed to get outside to cool off. And that’s when I suggested going into my van. 

Nothing really happened that night between me and Melinda in the van, except a whole lot of kissing, but at the end of the dance when my idiot friends started banging on the side and back doors, they laughed and teased us. Melinda exited the van totally embarrassed, but I kissed her good night with a little smile on my face. 

The following Monday morning when my carpool van arrived, I was totally embarrassed when all my friends started clapping their hands as I entered. I guess my debut to the TAC party was a success.