“I See Spots”
One Saturday evening in late 1965, Bill, Gayle and myself, were sitting at home without dates. Feeling a bit of a nudge from the green-eyed monster, we concocted a plan of revenge on all those who had dates.
Highway 173 was, at that time, undeveloped and a gravel road lead up a small rise which overlooked the city. It had earned the name, Blueberry Hill (a place where you could take your date and make-out). The cops knew about Blueberry Hill, but unless the windows of your car were all steamed up, they didn’t bother you.
Bill had an old instamatic camera with no film but the flash worked. We took Gayle’s VW bug because he was a crazy driver and we were going to need someone like that if we intended to get away. My sister Val had a crush on Bill and begged to go with us. I reluctantly agreed after Mom said, ”If you don’t take your sister you can’t go.“
We drove out to Blueberry Hill, turned off the headlights and Bill and myself carefully exited the bug. Val held the door switch insuring the interior light didn’t come on. The moonlight was projecting silhouettes on the rear windows of the cars. I chose an interesting set of silhouettes and slowly approached the car, jerked open the front door and Bill flashed his camera. We ran back to the VW and jumped in. Gayle already had it in first gear and we took off with Bill’s feet still hanging out.
Gayle drove around for a few minutes while we all reveled in our victorious achievement. “It’s all in the timing,” Bill remarked. “Let’s do it again,” Gayle said. We did, with the same exhilarating results, but you know what they say about the third time?
After a short break we tried it again. Everything went as before but when I grabbed the door handle, it was locked. Bill flashed the instamatic with his normal timing but the flash reflected against the closed window and momentarily blinded us. We were running helter skelter trying to find a car that felt like a Volkswagen. By the time we found it the guy had his engine started and was in hot pursuit.
This is where Gayle’s crazy driving payed off. It looked like we were in the clear but it was then we noticed a red-light flashing in the distance. We had lost one pursuer only to pick up a second. Gayle pulled into his driveway and stopped. Unfortunately, he forgot to take his foot off the break peddle. The cop pulled across the driveway, blocking us in and walked up the driveway shaking his head.