Adam’s Story

I hadn’t planned on blogging this, but when I came home from prison tonight my 21 year old son Brian told me that he saw Jim McGreevey on the Elliot Spitzer show and was very impressed by him. McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey, spoke about politics, his homosexuality, and his life’s work at this time, working in prison.

I told Brian that there were only two inmates at my Kintock session this evening; Adam, a white guy in his late 30’s, and Dash, a sad-faced black guy who reminds me of Bert Lahr. Several years Adam’s junior, Dash is consistently eager to learn about music that’s new to him, including Bernard Herrmann’s score to Psycho, Adam Guettel’s Light In The Piazza, and Sinatra, all of which we listened to tonight...we played lots of Frank’s material, and almost all of it was new to him.

Adam showed up first and I asked him how he was doing. “Today’s a tough one,” he said. “Three years ago today the incident that landed me in jail took place.”

Adam told me that he had two very successful businesses-a landscaping company with about 75 high end clients and a Hair Club For Men franchise. He was working about 80 hours a week. Those businesses are gone now.

That night he was out with a close friend. His pal had cheated on his wife, so when Adam went to drop him off at the house the wife said get out, you’re not welcome here. On the next leg of the journey Adam fell asleep. When he woke up, a woman was pulling him out of the car. He had no idea, he says, what was going on. When he saw blinking lights and heard sirens he jumped into the woods.

As a result, he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident. His friend was dead. Adam’s ok with his prison sentence, which will end by August, 2012. “If it brings his wife peace, that’s alright with me,” he said.

Our session began at 6:30 pm. Adam told me I was the first person he’d spoken to about the anniversary, and how it’s making him feel, all day. I told him I considered that an honor.

12/6/2012