Skip to main content

Ride Captain Ride

    I don't wish to glorify stupidity but since Father's Day is just around the corner, I'll tell you a story about a funny old guy, my friend's father.
    It was the summer of 1969. On a warm summer night, about 2 o'clock in the morning, 4 friends sat drinking beer in a remote area. We were all teens and pretty buzzed. Just laughing and cutting up.  Four young guys without many redeeming characteristics.
        So, my three mates and I were bemoaning the boredom of living in a small southern town. You've probably heard it yourself, the whole "This town is dead" routine. At length someone said, "Heck, we should just go to Florida and live." This idea was accepted with enthusiasm. Visions of beaches (and women), clubs (and women), parties (and women) must have filled our heads. This seemed kind of epic at the time because at that time people really didn't travel that much. Nowadays, Spring Break is an annual rite of passage. In our drunken condition, we just decided to do it. So, we stopped by the driver's house and told his folks. "We're leaving this hick town forever." His Mom cried and his Dad laughed his butt off.
     At any rate, we left in my friend's Camaro. It was a 1969 model with a 350 CI motor and a Hurst 4 speed. My buddy was a great driver. He was great at speed-shifting that big V-8. I couldn't count the times we out-ran the police. Yes, in answer to your question, there was at least one of us with a pack of Marboros rolled up in the sleeve of his tee shirt.
    We drove all night long, what little of the night was left, then well into the next day.  We took turns driving and sleeping, so it wasn't a problem. We stopped in Jacksonville Beach for the simple reason that one place was as good as another for a bunch of stupid guys seeking fun.
       It was my first look at the ocean and from that day to this I've loved the sea. It was such a thrill for me, to see the scope and magnitude of it. Yeah, I know, it seems pathetic now, the way everyone gets to travel, but it was cool for me. We stayed at a Mom and Pop motel on the beach. There were no such things as chain motels or restaurants in those days. By the way, cigarettes were 25 cents a pack and gas was around 19 cents a gallon, I think.
     Since it is not germane to the story, I won't bore you with the story of the hillbillies' activities in Florida. I do have the most vivid memory of a moment in time from the trip, however. We were cruising across a bridge by the ocean and had the radio blasting. The song was Ride Captain Ride, by The Blues Image. Wow, we had great songs and cool cars back in the day! It even made it okay to be young and stupid, with no future at all.
    To make a long story short, we arrived back home in 3 or 4 days. When we walked into my buddy's house his Dad looked at us and remarked drily, "My, how you've grown!"
     Reminds me of another song from another time. The song is Leader Of The Band, by the late, great Dan Fogelberg. In this song he talks about his Dad, but the part I like best goes like this:
     I thank you for your wisdom and your stories of the road,
    I thank you for the freedom, when it came my time to go,
    I thank you for your kindness, and the times that you got tough,
    And Papa I don't think I said, 'I love you' near enough.
    Happy Father's day to all dads everywhere. From the author's  green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
     
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The White Chicken Mystery

    The other night I happened to come home very late. It was the middle of the night and I was driving up a steep mountain road. Near the top I saw something white in my headlights. It was standing in the other lane, standing very still. It was a large white chicken. It was probably a rooster because I thought I could see his comb as I whizzed by at my customary pace. He never moved a muscle. This is weird, don't you think?      After a couple of days to consider this phenomenon, I have come up with some plausible answers for his bizarre behavior. 1. He was conflicted whether or not he should cross the road. 2. He was feeling cocky and decided to play chicken with the traffic. 3.He was being hen-pecked at home and had decided to end it all. 4. Someone had egged him on to do it. 5. He had just watched the movie Fantastic Four and decided to try to stop a truck the way that Ben Grimm did on the bridge. 6. He had driven himself crazy wondering if ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cake Is Better Than Swords

Hey, everyone. On Thanksgiving, we had a get-together here at The Author's Green Retreat. One lady brought a cake which I wanted to show you. It had the look of a Roman Coliseum about it. Inside it was just as decadent...and fun, as ancient Rome. When I cut it open, homemade marshmallow cream began to ooze out in several spots, running over the chocolate cake and peanut butter icing. It is best served warm so the cream is fluid. Very tasty. The same lady, and her children, are people who have played a lot of Skyrim. They gave me some pointers on the game because I am having problems with it. They taught me how to fast travel, and a ton of other things, but the main thing was the armor and clothing problem. This is a little embarrassing, but let me explain. Okay. For several weeks when I played, I would enter towns and everyone I met would comment on my nakedness. I would select a tunic and shoes, whatever, go back around people and they would say something about it. I guess I w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Batman Lives In Washington, DC

    Hey, everyone. I just read an interesting article on Washington Post.Com by Mike Rosenwald. It was titled Who Is the Route 29 Batman? This is a true story about a guy that the cops pulled over. The guy was driving a black Lamborghini with Batman plates. There were yellow Batman symbols on the doors. They had a video from the police car that showed him being pulled over. He was wearing a Bat-suit which he said cost him $5000. His gig is that he visits sick children in area hospitals and hands out Bat-Toys and Bat-books to cheer the kids up.     His name is Lenny B. Robinson and he says that the 'B' stands for Batman. He is perfectly sane and is just a good dude trying to make a difference. He is a self-made millionaire and is currently having a duplicate of the Batmobile custom-made at a cost of $250,000.    It was a hoot, watching the cops having their pictures made with the Bat Guy. Someone asked him where Robin was and he said that the boy won...
Post a Comment
Read more