HEY MA, HE’S DRUNK!

It was June of 1970, I was single and in love. Traveling everyday on the Long Island Rail Road, I partied that night since it was a Friday. Every month, on the final Friday of the month, a group of riders like myself would take over the car we rode every night for about one and half hours. We would bring on cold cuts, chips and booze, usually scotch and beer, and soda for the sissies.

This particular Friday was extra special since it was the final game of the 1970 NBA championship at Madison Square Garden between the NY Knicks and the LA Lakers. It was to become the greatest basketball game I ever saw on TV. There were heroics and drama as the Knicks took the court, with their big man center, Mr. Willis Reed with a foot injury. Slight underdogs in this game because of it, everybody from NY to LA knew who would win, as the Garden crowd became the sixth man.

But the story is about me (what else?) as I danced home that night from the train station in walking distance from home. As I entered the front door, my skinny little baby sister Joanne was waiting in the living room. Next to the front door of my parent’s ranch home was a table that held a lamp. I past by the lamp and the shade spun around rather quickly if I remember. “Hey kid!” said I, and as I did, Twiggy ran out of the room screaming: “Ma, He’s is drunk!”

Deciding to stay in the living room so as not to hear my Mother lecture on the virtues of sobriety, I plopped on the couch, turned on the TV and watched the Knick game. The introduction of the players began as they announced the players on LA. I booed them louder than usual, yelling “You Bum” name after name.

Then: “Ladies and Gentleman, THE NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS!”

“YEA” “KILL THOSE BUMS”

“Ma, Joseph is STILL drunk!”

Well, if it wasn’t for my long distant rooting…

The Knicks win, and I now have the greatest headache ever self-inflicted.

Yes, I was going to die. I was near death, I was tired of hearing the stool pigeon, and I was going to bed.

Mom never said a world the next morning, just a distant look of disappointment. But who cared, the Knicks had won, I witnessed it, and had a grand time before hand.