"Sleeping driver" (#192, Topic D)

Today's Washington Post reports "Sleeping Va. Driver Convicted in Crash" as one of front-page stories in its Metro section. This reminds of an incident, in the early-1960s, when we were living in Huntington Beach CA, and when I was driving a VW Beattle. One night, my wife and I were dinner guests at the beautiful Baldwin Hills residence of Professor Theodore Chen and Mrs. Chen -- standing in their backyard and looking at thousands of city lights in night time was an unforgettable experience. Dr. Chen, at the time, held the informal title of "dean of Chinese faculty" at the University of Southern California -- he was both the most senior in rank (as chairman of USC's Asian Studies department) as well as in age. On that occasion, all guests were USC faculty members -- except us. While I was a lowly assistant professor at USC from 1956-60, I left USC for Cal State Fullerton in 1960; when our son was born in July of that year, we needed more income, and CSF offered me both a promotion (to associate professor) and an increase in salary. We were invited to Dr and Mrs Chen's parties probably because, back in 1956, they introduced me to my wife and they represented my family when we were married. LA was/is 30+ miles away from Huntington Beach; the driving time was 45 minutes. That evening, on the way home, I felt very drowsy. While driving on the San Diego Freeway, for a split second, I closed my eyes. If I kept my eyes closed, I probably would doze off, not unlike the driver in today's WP. Luckily, I opened my eyes, and was relieved that our car was still in its path. Knowing that my wife was unable to drive a manual-shift car, I steeled myself and managed to drive home without further incident. I dared not mention this to my wife, not then, not now. But, this incident was on my mind all these 40+ years. Since I mentioned that I would view blogging as an alternative to writing life stories (#189), let me sneak this blog in so that my mind would be relieved of this burden from this day onward.