Drink Up, Fathead

Most of the time I try to be charitable. Occasionally people will benefit more from a smack upside the head.

I just witnessed some underage punk trying to buy alcohol with a fake ID at the local Safeway. The night manager laughed in his face and sent him away. "That's not you." He was full of mock indignation.

Pretty boy meandered out into the parking lot where a car full of teenagers, boys and girls, waited. After discussing it with his cohorts, I saw him pay a guy in the parking lot to go buy their beer for them.

This is exactly the kind of stupidity that will get somebody killed. The saddest part is that it will probably be an innocent motorist that these drunken louts crash into. My grandparents were killed by a pair of teenage joyriders, so I know from personal experience that this can, and does, happen.

Teens' in particular and even young twenty-somethings' brains are not yet fully mature. They really don't see consequences; or if they do, it's somehow remote, unbelievable. All young people think they are going to live forever.

If I'd been a little more energetic, I should have returned to the store and foiled their plot. As it was, I wanted to be as far away from them as I could get.

Word to the wise, Moms and Dads: if you love your teens, don't let them stay out late cruising. Nothing good can come from a bunch of teens late at night. Yeah, it won't make them popular, but it will keep them alive.