brent hamilton blackstone pg.5

after graduation i tried continuing my education at osu(newark) and cotc(newark), i didn't do very well at either school, my grades weren't really all that bad but i had absolutely know interest so i quit and moved to columbus where brad and several of his friends and me rented an apartment, brad and his friends were going to school at osu, i was partying, working at a store called the union, and growing up,i was 19.after my short stay in columbus it was back to mom and dad's in thornville, working at the elevator or at the quaker state gas station in thornville , and dating linda hommrich. in 1977 linda and i got married at a church in thornville, brad and his girlfriend jane edskowski were the only people we had invited, we had an apartment in newark and for the moment everything seemed fine. we both were working linda for state farm and me at the elevator, money didn't seem to be much of a problem since in 1977-8 the cost of living wasn't quite as bad and we didn't have kids. in the spring of 1979 linda and i went with friends bob and kathie bevard on vacation in florida we drove down in bevard's van, everything seemed fine then on the way back to ohio the feelings changed, even though it's been years now(30) i can still remember that strange feeling, i can't put it in words but it was sick. days later linda informed me she wanted a divorce and i was crushed. so once again i moved back to thornville partying and being bad daily.my friend dan"ernie"shade and i cosumed mass quantities of beer and did a huge amount of partying but we did find time to play tennis, and despite everything else we weren't half bad, but we were young and dumb, ernie was married and had a child he was a construction worker and i worked at the elevator,lived at home, so it seemed we had plenty of money, oh i failed to mention i had a new 1978 jeep renegade.then the evening of sept.9th came, i was at the hole in the wall bar in somerset, somerset was down the road 11 or 12 miles south of thornville, at the hole in the wall i drank like i had never drank before, beer and wild turkey(whiskey), the next thing i remember is wakeing up 3 weeks later, from what i've been told i wrecked(totaled) my jeep about 2 miles from home. maybe an animal dashed in front of the jeep, maybe i passed out, i probably passed. any way i was in the hospital. i later found out they had put me in a drug induced coma, and gave me a 4% chance of survival. i remember thinking i could still walk so i got up to use the restroom and down i went. it was probably the drugs they had me on but everything seemed unreal. i spent 2 months in university hospital and 2 months in dodd hall a rehab. hospital. while in the hospital i lost quite abit of weight i went from 170 to 140.i've always liked food so when i arrived home from the hospital i ate and ate, and i was thin and weak so i spent quite a bit of time exercising and eating, for three months besides everything else i was doing at least 500 pushups a day. at that time i think brad was in portugal, and bruce was still in college, betsy was at home and barbie was at home.