They stepped over him, around him, and on him. He sat in a pool of his own blood and vomit, drunk and bewildered. More kids walked by, laughing, stumbling, making fun of the pathetic one.
We lifted him to his feet, helped him into the rescue and gave him the kit; a bucket, a towel and a sheet thrown over him. He promptly puked next to the bucket and onto the sheet. His name was John, he’d been out with five friends from Bristol, a small town ten miles east of Providence.
“Where are your friends?” I asked.
“I don’t know, they left me here,” he slurred, then vomited some more.
I’d like to go on a rant about these useless kids leaving their mess for others to clean up, but I don’t see it that way. I’m actually kind of proud of this generation, with some notable exceptions, this being one of them. People John’s age are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and doing a heck of a job there. They don’t leave their friends behind. We’ve got some young people on the Providence Fire Department who are doing a great job, though us old timers seldom let them know it. Other people in their twenties carry on just like I did, and my parents and their parents did, I suppose. I think it’s our job to complain about the new generation, their work ethic, their horrible music, their wild ways, but in the end everybody grows up, and has kids of their own to worry about.
Nevertheless, this kids friends are a bag of assholes for leaving one of their own alone and intoxicated in the nightclub district, where anything could have happened to him.
A few blocks away, a few hours later another intoxicated guy ended up in the rescue. This one made it home, but fell and wouldn’t wake up. He was a little older that the usual amateurs, twenty-three. Two of his friends came with us in the rescue, held onto him, held the bucket and made sure he was okay. They didn’t leave him for us to take care of, they did the best they could. One of the girls that came with us told me he was an EMT.
In Isreal.
I immediately thought of the suicide bombers. I think I might have had a drink or two while away at college with those images rummaging around my head. The girls said he was simply an amazing person, unlike anybody they knew, and this situation was highly unusual for him. I wondered what was going on behind his peaceful, intoxicated face as we drove him to the hospital. Probably a lot more than I could imagine.
I’d like to send him and his friends to Bristol when he wakes up, to teach some kids there a thing or two.
This generation is just like all of the ones that came before. Most kids are good, some are bad, a few are just naive. I’d bet that even the “Greatest Generation” had some kids that were nitwits.
We’ve had a large influx of young EMTs over the past several years as we’ve been expanding the service. Most of them turn out to be pretty good EMTs. They aren’t afraid to work, and with a typical Unit Hour Utilization of 0.60, work they do. They are willing to learn, and will listen to the old farts like me. There are few that are clueless, lazy, and arrogant, but their cohort doesn’t like them any more than I do.
Thus was it always, and thus will it always be.
yep we have kids like both. We have kids from the Christian college that party and drink more then kids at a regular university. Some good some stupid thats just how it works and most of the time I hate to say it but it provides us with job surcurity
Great comment as always, TOTWTYTR.