JUST A TINY FREE PASS

It must have been the St Rose senior prom, late 1965 or early 1966. It’s kind of a blur. There were two SI (Saint Ignatius) guys, me included, and one guy from Riordan. It was a triple date, and the Riordan guy was driving. Of course, all three girls were from St Rose.

St Rose Academy wasn’t the snootiest Catholic girls high school in San Francisco, it was the second snootiest. At least one of the girls was from a family with significant connections in local politics.

I don’t know where we had done our drinking, but we got pulled over on the way to the prom hotel. I was a little too drunk to be nervous, and I managed to keep my mouth shut. It just sort of happened.

As I recall, the officer got our story about who we were and about going to the prom, and that, yeah we’d been drinking and stuff.

Then, after determining that the driver was too drunk to continue, the officer asked if any of the rest of us were ok to drive. One of the girls, who I guess hadn’t drank that much, said she could do it.

The officer looked her over, she slid behind the wheel, and we were off.

Luckily for us, and for the officer, we didn’t get into a crash or run somebody down.

I don’t know if that would be considered special treatment, or not. Being from SI and St Rose definitely didn’t hurt.

Given the sea change in attitudes and info on homosexuality, if I were that age today I probably wouldn’t get involved in such dopey heterosexual activities. I think they have dopey homosexual activities for kids these days.

But I guess it was ok to go out with girls and kiss them and stuff. I mean, it’s not like a sin or anything.

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