Life is Swell: Viewer Discretion is advised

These last two days at OHS I got to be involved in the Every 15 Minutes program. It is an anti-drinking and driving program that goes through every aspect of a drinking and driving collision. A mock crash involves students, fire, police, ambulance. mediflight, and the funeral home. They care for each student, the living dead, while one is the driver, the responsible. The kids then spend 24 hours away from their life. The activity culminates the next day with a funeral. The kids and parents write letters saying what they would have said if they had another chance. It is a huge undertaking. And it has a huge impact. Carla asked Kris and I to help with the makeup and blood for the collision scene. Also to white out the faces of those who have been called out of class every 15 minutes representing a life claimed by drinking and driving.

I have been in two crashes in my life, and almost another, two involved alcohol.

When I was three years old, our family was on our way to a picnic in the country. A car full of teens pulled in front of us, we crashed into them. My Dad was driving, my brother Rod and I didn't have seat belts on (it wasn't required then), my mom was pregnant with Katie, and our dog was tied to the bed on the truck. We hit the dashboard, our dog was thrown out and found dangling on the side of the truck. She was ok, as were we. But I remember when the driver got out of the car, I remember the trash coming out with him. Many beer cans were on the ground, he had broken his nose, blood was all over his face. We were very lucky.

During the summers of college, I worked as a waitress at Denny's. I was coming home from a late shift on a Saturday night. I was driving my Dad's moody truck. It had such a hard time going into reverse. I had pulled out of the parking lot and was waiting for the light to change. I noticed headlights shining right on me. There was a truck pulling out of the Carl's Jr Building! It had crashed into it. There was a hole in the building, the truck was struggling to get out. It did, it went over hedges, the drive thru, the side walk and headed right for me. Miraculously, the truck went into reverse, the truck nearly missed me. I saw a woman on her cell phone at the intersection too, who saw the whole thing. The truck sped off and within seconds police cars were after the truck, it crashed just in front of the vet's office. I was a mess. I went home bawling. My dad called the police to let them know if they needed a witness, who I was. The next day I read in the paper that it was a guy I went to high school with, went to preschool with, our families were friends. Again I was very lucky.

I had a student several years ago with whom I was very close. He told me I was his second mom. One day he was particularly down. He told me was grounded. Why? He had come home drunk. But the reason was he had driven home drunk. He said he remembered getting into his car, sitting there, knowing he was too drunk to drive. The next thing he remembers he was pulled off to the side of the road, about 2 blocks from his house, about 2 miles from the party. He didn't even remember driving. I was pretty upset. How could he have done this? He had no recollection of that period of time. Had he hurt anyone, knocked over any signs, ran any stop signs? No idea.

I disagree when people call it an accident. Drinking and driving isn't an accident. It is a careless and thoughtless choice. And sadly it affects so many people.I don't understand why people drink to get drunk and then have the audacity to drive, to put strangers as risk. Peoples families. Children. Husbands. Wives. Parents. I just don't understand. I hope these 650 students who saw this crash scene and funeral played out in front of them got the message. You are not invincible. It could happen to you. It could happen to my family or to yours. I pray it never does.

Here are pics of our handy work. You'll see a big article in Wednesday's Oakdale Leader