Ex-police officer, Lou Barrett, the charter member of our breakfast club, was the kind of cop you would want arresting you. He starts you off with credit points for being human. I know this from the stories he tells.
He and his partner spot a car pulled off to the side of the highway with the driver slumped over the steering wheel. Lou knocks on the window with no response and so he opens the door and shakes the guy who finally comes around. Lou tells him he was driving over 80 miles an hour and weaving all over the road until getting pulled over. His partner says to the driver, "Who was that guy who jumped out of the car and ran across the field?
Long pause trying to remember: "Probably my brother but you'll never catch him because he's really fast."
Lou gets him out of the car and walks him around away from the edge of the highway and asks him where he was going. The guy names a town about 80 miles in the opposite direction from the way the car is pointing. Lou figures he has been there for awhile because he is pretty steady on his legs and he gives the guy bonus points for having pulled over and stopped driving. But he can't leave him there with his car so he tells him he is going to give him a break and write him up for public drunkenness instead of DUI.
Lou said all the way back to the jail the guy is in the back seat singing, "A boy Named Sue." Over and over. The guy called out to Lou as they were leaving him in his cell, "I'll never forget you, officer, for saving my life back there."
Lou eats a large bowl of oatmeal with his black coffee every morning. Over and over.
