BEFORE WE CRAWLED TO TEARS “The ocean was salt before we crawled to tears.” “The Wreck of the Thresher” –William Meredith “Give it some gas, boy. Put the pedal to the metal!” my dad yelled through a mist of Pabst Blue Ribbon as he popped his first one. He had pulled the grumbling Buick over to the side of the road so that I could take the wheel, get the feel of the car on the highway and then be the one to drive it down the smooth, slick beach. All around Daytona, cars cruise the Atlantic coast, their racing motors competing with the crashing tide for attention. I couldn’t wait to make that drive. Of course, I’d rather cruise with my buddies if I had any choice. I had driven their cars around our scrubby, inland town where nobody went faster than 30 miles an hour but us. This was my first legal drive though and the only present Big Papa was