Julius, Please Get Back In The Car!

A month after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 Benny checked in as the first of two sons born to Julius and Eleanor Wade. Eleanor was beautiful and bright while Julius was talented, handsome, and full of life. Their second son, Toodly, was born in 1943. A picture taken of Julius at age 21 showed a young man in control of his world who might have stepped from the pages of The Great Gatsby.

While World War II was raging in Europe and the Pacific the Wade family experienced a serene existence on the family farm in rural South Georgia. The turmoil of war seemed far away except when word was received from family or friends in military service or when the family gathered with neighbors at Mr. Hollum Smith's house to search the azure skies for German planes. Fleeting fear surfaced on occasion at night while visiting his Grandmother in Cordele when Benny experienced all the lights in the city going dark ostensibly as a means to forestall a possible attack by German war planes.

For his first six years Benny enjoyed an idyllic time of agrarian exploration and wonder as he roamed freely in the fields and woods of his Daddy's farm. His parents doted on their two sons and each day brought forth an exciting adventure for two preschoolers. Following the close of World War II and with the resumption of commercial automobile production Julius resumed his previous occupation of automobile salesman where bolstered by the post war prosperity of the economy he became super successful. In addition he was exceedingly kind to his wife and children and life was good.

The years between 1946-51 are nostalgically recalled as the days of wine and roses but they were not to last. The rose petals faded seemingly overnight. The romance of moderate wine tasting was transformed into a nightly ritual of a steadily escalating consumption of any type alcoholic beverage available. Julius, the successful businessman and loving family provider descended abysmally into alcoholic addiction until by 1953 concern for the next drink took precedence over his regard for work, his family, or any other previously positive aspects of his life.

For the 21 years of his life which followed Julius invariably put one step forward and took three steps backward. Alcohol controlled his life and ultimately cost him his life. He got out of "The Car of Life" and never got back in for good either literally or figuratively. But although Julius is a central character in the book the real story reveals the hopes, struggles, heartbreaks and successes of his wife, Eleanor and their two sons.

The purpose of the book is to reveal and make public goods times brought about through Julius's influence as well as the telling of circumstances and events once too painful and shameful to share. It is hoped Julius, Please Get Back in The Car! will cause readers to think, wonder, remember, reflect, smile, laugh, shake your heads, and perhaps cry. Humor is at times employed as a palliative preference to the alternative of being engulfed by the results and reality of alcohol addiction.

How much of the book came from the writer's memory and how much came from his imagination? I leave that to each reader to determine. When the final line is read it is hoped readers whose parents, children, spouses, and other relatives, have been diminished or destroyed by addiction will embrace this conclusion. Genetics need not be the determining factor in whether one becomes an addict. Toodly, Benny, and a half dozen of their cousins can testify to that reality.