[Dixielandjazz] Sleep Deprived Driving

[Steve barbone]

When I worked in San Francisco in the mid 1960s, I had a buddy who told the
funniest story about passing out in the car that I have ever heard. We used
to drink heavily at the House of Shields across from the Palace Hotel just
about every night after work. (Had a day gig at Olivetti on Market street)

One morning after, he called me and said he needed help. Where are you said
I? Down by Fort Mason (on San Francisco Bay) he replied. OK. be there
shortly, but what happened. He told me this:

Well, I remember leaving, getting into my car and driving away. Next thing I
know, I am slumped over in the front seat and since the windows are open I
can hear water, like waves hitting the rocks, and seagulls. The car is in
gear and still idling. I shut it off, it's 9 AM and I am at the edge of the
bay, up against some sort of bumper rail. I get out of the car and I'm on
the old railroad tracks, just outside the tunnel, by the old docks at Fort
Mason. So I went to the main gate and am calling you from the MP station.

Somehow, he had blacked out, driven about 4 miles from Shields to Fort Mason
which was the way he would go to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to get home,
but instead of turning onto Embarcadero, he had somehow gotten on the Rail
Road Tracks into Ft Mason, at right angles to Embarcadero. He proceeded on
the tracks, through a short RR tunnel until the bumper at the end of the
tracks stopped him at the edge of the bay.

That rail system delivered troops going overseas during WW 2.

My pal Don lived a full and happy life. During WW 2 he joined the paratroops
even though an inch too short. They took pity on him when nobody else wanted
him. First jump? Into St Mere Eglise. Hit on the way down in his legs, scars
up inside legs from ankles to just before his privates. Passed out then too,
woke up in a German field hospital and got really mad because . . . the
Doctor was eating his baloney sandwich which he had been saving for his
first meal in France after landing.

Spent a year in London Hospital after the German field hospital was captured
by his mates and another year recuperating in a US Hospital. He had no fear.

Don and his wife Wilma loved dancing to OKOM.  He quit drinking for about a
year after that Ft Mason episode and lived well into his 70's.

Great guy who had his own personal guardian angel.

Cheers,
Steve