A Fool, Skyline Drive, and Night Moves..

for Barleygirl and her "Podunk Story's Challenge"

A Fool, Skyline Drive and Night Moves

“...working on our night moves, trying to loose those awkward teenage blues.. Oh I remember, I remember...”

     ~~~Bob Seger, “Night Moves” 

***

It was 1963, and I had just gotten my driving licence. Back then, it was a junior licence and until you turned 18 you had a midnight curfew. I now had one, and the thrill of being able to drive alone, without my dad being along was a dream come true. 10th grade and I was 16, a “man” with the use of a car and a girlfriend, Harriet. She was my “queen of the hop” and I was her “steady Eddie”. 

“We were young, restless and bored”, just like Seger later told. Harriet was my first serious girlfriend and we went to the dances, talked about our dreams and what we wanted out of life, neither of us knew; and we made out every chance we could get (in the hallways passing class, in home room before the last bell, in the vestibule of her parent’s apartment, on the sofa until her mom came home from work). She had wonderful, hungry lips that made mine beg for more. She had this walk, a sway that made you want to follow her from behind. We both had those raging teenage hormone blues, that never seemed to be satisfied. 

It was the last HS dance of the school year and I was able to convince my dad to let us use the car. Nothing fancy, a ford 4 door family car, this weird color of light green; but it was ours for the Friday night dance and a cruise around the downtown strip to be on the sceen. My dad, as he handed me the car keys, said, “Be careful, have fun, make sure you’re home by midnight, and do not go to Skyline Drive.” “No problem dad”, thanks and I’ll be safe.” 

Every small town USA has a “make out spot”. A place where young lovers go to make out in the back seat of the car. Sometimes it’s the local drive-in (young kids today don’t know what they are missing), or maybe by the lake or some back country roads in the woods. The town I grew up in had a small mountain on it’s eastern side and a road that wound around it’s one side leading to the top and several look out spots where you could park and see the city light below. Once a year in the summer, there would be timed races up that winding road with sports cars like Cobras, Corvettes, T-Birds, MGs, Triumphs, Carmen Gia’s spun there wheels to see who got to the top fastest. For us hormone driven teenagers, it was the perfect place to park and make out. It was Skyline Drive.

Now after the dance, and I wish I could blame this all on Harriet, but to be honest, even in spite of my dad’s forbidding it, I spun those tires toward Skyline Drive as soon as the words “lets go to....” were out of her mouth. I am a fool to be sure, but I was 16, driving, and with my girl!! 

We drove around for a while looking for the perfect spot. It was crowded, but we finally found the perfect spot on this back road fire lane. Maybe it was the wind, maybe just teenage nerves, but not long after we started making out Harriet became afraid (and I have to admit to some nervousness myself if I am telling a true story) and so did I. We decided we better go, so I put the keys in the ignition and.....     nothing! No clicks, no errrr errr sound, Just ... nothing. 

“Oh damn, what are we going to do now” she asked. “It’s 11pm and you only have an hour to get home, Now I am really scared”. I was scared shitless as we used to say. I couldn’t get the car started, and we had come to the one place my dad said “DO NOT GO TO SKYLINE DRIVE!!!” 16 and I would not see the outside world until I was 21 and that was only of he was in a good mood!!! 

So we both got out of the car and knocked on the closest car and told the couple if they could help. They were college kids and laughed, but then felt sorry for us and so drive us down to face my dad. Oh boy!.

But this was only the embarrassing part, the hard part, but mostly embarrassing as my dad wasn’t as upset as I thought he would be. Though the tought of having to pay for a tow and repairs out of my part time job was not something I wanted to look forward too. Maybe it was because Harriet was there too and he took pity on the two of us. Anyway we got Harriet home and only 15 minutes late so she was okay with her parents though they never knew what had happened.

The next day my dad and I walked up the mountain to where the car was parked and he said “you sure picked a secluded spot, what were you thinking”?. So he gets in the car, puts the car in gear and the cars starts right up, no problem... he is laughing and beeping the horn and so I get in the passenger side and he is still laughing. “Son, this is an automatic shift and you cannot start the car unless it’s in Park or Neutral. You left it in Drive and that’s why it wouldn’t star for you.”  “You are grounded for a month, no use of car for 2 months for two reasons. One cause you came up here when I said not too. And two because you foolishly do not know enough how to operate this car!!”  

It’s a true story that my dad is willing to tell anyone who might listen and laugh along. It’s my embarrassing AND “fool from PODUNK” story. Now stop that laughing... ;0)

redzone 5.22.16    

 

Author's Note

Thanks Barleygirl for twisting my arm into telling this er.. story... lol enjoy my embarrassment and foolishness... ah those "awkward teenage blues"..

Reviews

[Matching Socks]

Lol!!!!! Awwww, that's a cute story. I love it!

[redzone]

and it doesn't prompt you to go out and quickly tell us about picking your nose in public??? hehehehe..

thanks Ana, I kinda knew you might enjoy seeing me squirm a little... okay, you can stop laughing now... ;0)

[Matching Socks]

Lol! I thought it was very cute, but I can just imagine at the time how it felt!
I may or may not share mine. Tbd. :D. I promise nothing!

[redzone]

yes!! a promise, of sorts, to think about it... lol Ana, has anyone told you you are cute when you are in that may or may not share state??? true.... hehehe... and now I have bugged you enough so mouth zipped and silence will be my middle name...

[Matching Socks]

Oh yeah, of course. I get that ALL the time. :)

[redzone]

good.. ooops forgot, silence...

[Lyn Anderson]

HA HA HA -- absolutely love it -- I could add a few in the teenage hormone category, but due to the mature content and the age of the offenders, I might get permanently flagged and booted, and have the cops come to my house. Because, as we all know, no one under 18 ever has sex ... Anyhoo, I thoroughly enjoyed. Too minor things, an H in thought, and a T on the end of start. :) Loved, loved, loved your story, and also how your dad handled it.

[redzone]

thanks for the "love" and the corrections... missed those..

I didn't realize that Canada was also so Puritanical in regards to sex.... back then sex was a "taboo" subject and activity.... of course no one has ever really listened to decrees about this, even in the age of bringing back Chastity Belts, people have sex...

In many ways dad was strict and demanding, but for some reason he didn't get all bent out of shape like I expected... perhaps he thought the embarrassment alone was punishment (alng with the grounding and non use of the car.... and too there was no damage to the car, no expense I'm sure that was part of it too.... but perhaps a big part was he just had to laugh... it is difficult to be mean when you are laughing... ;0)..

so you had hormones too KL.. I .. er.. well,... er... never mind

oh, so I must ask, is this spazzy enough for you??!! lol

[Lyn Anderson]

Ya, well, I don't think we're any more puritanical than any other place, but we are in deep denial when it comes to young people and sex. Best documentary I saw on said subject is called "All men are pedophiles" - tackling the differences between normal human behaviour and pedophilia head on.

[barleygirl]

BRAVO! This is such a great story on so many levels! First of all, with your down-to-earth descriptions, I was feeling every teenage hormone (even tho I was spayed several decades ago)! *smile* Your reminders of the make-out scene, getting the car for the first time, the popular spot for drag racing and even the classic lingo (most definitely scared shitless many times myself!) -- It all worked together for great storytelling. But your podunk punchline is really one of the best I've heard! Oh how stupid we can be when nervous, pumped up on hormones, & just plain inexperienced in life! I bet you had to hear that story a few dozen times in front of company! I feel honored that you spilled your guts so delightfully here for me. Even better than my first cup of coffee this morning! (((HUGS)))

[barleygirl]

I forgot to mention . . . great song choice & perfect lyrics. You KNOW how those old tunes say so much more than we can ever hope to convey in our paltry storytelling! And how much I love weaving in an old classic or two! So fun! *smile*

[redzone]

Bob Seger sang some great songs that "said so much" about growing up back then... I was going to weave in a few more lines from this song into the story (because they did reflect and give some more life to the story but it didn't work out the way I wanted and so deleted... I do like to create poems from the music I am listening to...

Thanks Margie, for the painful twisting of my arm into telling this incident from the Podunk part of my life.. I have a feeling though that I will hear about this story many more times not that it is "out in the world" and part of aa poetry site... oh boy!!

I saw Harriet at one of the HS reunions, she still had that sway and those lips, but I was careful to to walk behind her this time... lol We did talk and had a dance.. but she was kind and never brought up our shared story of Skyline Drive... though everyone there would have had a field day with it...

Glad you like my adventure into confusion and raging teenage hormone blues...

[barleygirl]

I love the "years later" afterstory, too . . . one of these days, I'll tell the "years later" afterstory about Donnie. Thanks again for making this very fun & entertaining for me (((HUGS)))

[redzone]

I would love to hear more about you and Donnie...
not sure about saying this but I wanted to say I am sorry about being spayed several decades ago... maybe because sometime I must tell you a horror story about my ex and this subject...