Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 2 Volume 9 | Page 13

L IFE S TORIES BY K EITH B ETTINGER
A F ORGOTTEN M ARINE
K EITH B ETTINGER WRITES STORIES THAT TOUCH YOUR HEART .
I
imagine every town, big or small has a
town drunk. We had one in Huntington
Station, NY. His name was Larry. I’ll forgo
his last name, not that it’s not important,
but to give him some of the respect he de-
serves through anonymity.
I first heard of Larry when I was a cop
working in uniform with a partner. You
could never tell when you would encounter
Larry or who would be calling the police
after they had a chance but unwanted
meeting with Larry.
When Larry was drunk he could be both
verbally and physically abusive. One day we
received a call from the volunteer fire de-
partment that Larry was disrupting their
tournament activities and scaring some of
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
the small children. Upon our arrival, Larry
quickly and unsteadily left the area.
There were other times when he was in-
toxicated he would go into the Huntington
Library substation and curse and yell, scar-
ing the elderly librarians. There would be a
call for police, but when he saw them make
the call, he was smart enough to leave im-
mediately.
Larry was a chronic arrestee and on a
regular basis, failed to make court appear-
ances. This lack of an appearance resulted
in a warrant for his arrest for failure to ap-
pear in court. The warrant would be as-
signed to our precinct and an officer as-
signed to warrants would assign the follow
P AGE 8
S UMMER 2019