Tom Petty "Even The Losers"

"PJ, look out for the cop!"

"I see him," I said, calmly. Not really understanding what the big deal was. I wasn't speeding or screwing around. I was a pretty cautious driver at age 17.

"The COP, PJ, The COP!" he was shouting.

There was a police car, parked, on the way far side of the intersection of Salisbury Center.

"I SEE him."

But there wasn't even anyone in it. What was the big deal?

"LOOK OUT!!!"

I turned my gaze from the cruiser far across the intersection, to the Traffic Cop standing in the middle of the road, inches away from where I had screeched to a stop, his hand outstretched, yelling "STOPSTOPSTOP!"

"PULL OVER THERE," he barked.

This was not good.

I was 17. Four of us were skipping school to go to the beach. There was a case of beer in the car. And I had just nearly run over a man with a badge.

I do not have, what you would call, a Poker Face.

Never having a real taste for trouble, I had never skipped school before. And I'm not sure I'd ever had a beer during the light of day. And definitely, most definitely, I was not the kind to absently run down a Traffic Cop.

"License and registration."

I'm sure I was shaking as I handed my papers to him, nervously shifting my eyes in a way that said, "Don't look under that towel in the back seat, because there is nothing there. Certainly not beer."

While he ran my plates, my friends and I had a brief, going-nowhere conversation about what the hell we should do to get out of this.

"Mr. Finn?" he said, returning to my window. "You're from across the river, huh?"

"Yes sir."

"Tell me. Are you Newburyport boys in the habit of running over Police Officers?"

"No. Sir."

"Alright then. Pay attention to what you're doing. Get out of here."

We stayed pretty quiet for the next few minutes as we rolled down the long road that opens up to Salt Marshes, with the beach homes of Salisbury then Seabrook on the horizon.

At some point, among the beer and the frisbee and the sun and sand, we heard, "Even The Losers Get Lucky Sometimes," and knew that, yeah, that song was ours for the day.


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