This morning I was reading a story about a guy
that took a test ride in a ‘40 Ford coupe and then just couldn’t
manage to bring it back until he had taken his girlfriend for a
date. The dealer pressed charges and he was given the choice of
going to jail or joining the navy. He joined the navy. Something
like this happened to us “back in the day”.
It is hard to believe now, but a certain car dealership used to
leave the keys in their “loaner” cars. They were parked in back
of the building, out of sight from the road and not far from my
house. I had my little neighborhood gang that I ran with and my
younger brother had his little group. I was about 14 or so, that
would make my brother about 11. One summer night us older guys
were looking for something to do and we hit on the idea of taking
one these loaner cars for a little ride. We found one with some
gas in the tank and keys in the ignition and away we went. We were
smart enough not to cruise town with it. We headed out toward Banner
Mountain where it was pretty certain we wouldn’t meet any traffic
that late at night. Well, that little adventure worked out fine.
We returned the car undamaged, with a little less gas in the tank
but otherwise just like we found it. Since it was so easy the first
time we started doing this on a regular basis. Usually on a Friday
night. Once we even drove to Marysville where they had a drive-in
with girls on skates .(really!!) If you wanted to, you could fill
out a song request and give it to the carhop and then on Saturday
night they would play your dedication on the radio. I tried to
imagine how great this would be to be parked with your girlfriend
listening to the DJ come on and say”the following song is dedicated
to Peggy Sue (or whomever) from Lanny Netz who offers his eternal
love......blah ,blah etc. This would have been sure to get a favorable
response. However, since we didn’t have a car or a girlfriend we
didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.
After a time my younger brother found out what we were doing and
he wanted to be included. I think we might have let him ride along
once or twice, but being a “little kid” we really didn’t want this
to get to be a habit. Us cool guys just don’t hang out with their
little brothers after all. Around this time I finally did
find a girlfriend and she was a nice “church going” girl. When
I told her about our little adventures she was horrified! She made
me promise to never do that terrible thing again. Bummer!! But
I was getting real close to being 16 and I would soon have my own
car, so I agreed to stop. Come Friday night my little brother,
Donny was his name, was raring to go riding. I had to tell him
,sorry, I won’t be doing that anymore, I have seen the light. He
couldn’t believe it! This was the most fun so far this summer,
how could you stop now? Being a little adventuresome himself he
proceeded to recruit some of his buddies to pick up where we left
off. He had no trouble finding takers. I am sure he told them about
watching me and my pals doing it and it was easy. There was one
little problem that they hadn’t thought about, none of them were
tall enough to reach the pedals. No problem. One of them would
set up high in the seat and steer, another would work the throttle
and brake. One of the cars we used to take had a fluid drive. This
is probably the car they chose since it would be somewhat easier
to start and shift.
Away they go, off toward Banner Mountain and adventure. I think
there were four of them, ranging from maybe 10 to 12 years old.
Wouldn’t you know that they met another car somewhere along the
way and managed to run it into the ditch. Not good. Of course they
kept going, probably figured the other guy hadn’t seen enough of
the car to identify them. Sometime later, as they were cruising
between Grass Valley and Nevada City the red lights come on, busted!
As they were pulling over they hatched a brilliant plan. Let the
cop come up to the window and when he asks what we are doing we
will peal out and get away. Genius!
So the cop walks up to the window, my brother is at the wheel.
His buddy is on the floor ready to punch it and drop the clutch. OK,
now! Only one problem, nobody had shifted the car into gear.
So there they set, engine screaming, going nowhere. Of course the
cop took them in and they all went to juvenile hall for the night.
Now to understand the humor in the last part
you have to realize that my brother was considered to be the “good
kid” in the family. It could be said that he was my father’s pet.
Me, not so much. So when the phone rings at maybe 2 in the morning
and the voice says ”we have your son in custody” my dad says ”good,
at least I know where he is”, and he goes back to bed. I guess
a little voice must have been talking to him because after a while
he peaks into our room. Guess who is sound asleep and unaware of
anything going on? Talk about lucky, that’s me. Maybe if I had
gone the accident would not have happened that night. But it was
inevitable, something would have eventually got us. Some has said,”better
to be lucky than good”. Amen brother, that’s me.
