Cannabis also was found in his system

The headline for the newspaper in my hometown of Crystal Lake, Il is "Teen who crashed SUV into home accused of DUI."

It happened in a subdivision known as "Coventry". Once you found yourself driving through Coventry it was very difficult, almost impossible, to find your way out. I can see why someone might just give up and drive their SUV into a house.

According to Wikipedia, "Directly south of downtown Crystal Lake is the Coventry neighborhood, named for the major through street Coventry Lane... Coventry has seen a large increase recently in its Hispanic population. Oral tradition holds that Coventry was originally populated by pilots who fly out of O'Hare Airport."

I had a friend whose father lived in Coventry. His parents were divorced, which seemed very controversial to me at the time. In the summer of seventh or eighth grade I was invited by his family to go to The Taste of Chicago for the fourth of July. Before we left, we all had to sit down for a family meeting about how we were to conduct ourselves in the big city. My friend could be somewhat of a troublemaker so this was understandable.

We took a van to Chicago, and on the way we listened to a Kenny Rogers tape. I must have had my own walkman with me because I also remember listening to Madonna's Till Death Do Us Part from the Like A Prayer album. Or this could have been on my internal soundtrack since that song is about a messy marriage and his parents were divorced.

We had to stake out a spot in what must have been Grant Park (?). I didn't know where the hell I was. There were unfamiliar and lackluster snacks offered. Something like Cheez-Its. Something that didn't appeal to me.

I remember feeling like my friend was embarrassed of his father.

When people ask me when I knew I was gay-- I say that the realization came very late. But looking back, I realize that relationships like this one with my friend, were the first signs of my emotional attachment to men. I didn't know it was "gay."

This friend spent the night at my house, probably about a year later after this trip to Chicago. He brought some cocaine with him, and I remember him rubbing it on his gums, which I thought was peculiar-- knowing nothing about cocaine.

He got further and further into drugs and his mind seemed to disintegrate. He talked about doing strange things. We lost touch.

There is a building that is a law office in Crystal Lake that he said he worked on as a carpenter. Every time I drive by it, I think of him and wonder where he is.