Okay, this was probably late summer of 1972, maybe early September.
I was riding along in an old yellow VW bug with Dave Schlutz. Dave was a friend of my “uncle” Dave. Dave was another unique character.
The VW was a unique character itself. Â I think it was a ’64 bug. Several people in the group had owned it at one time or another. I’m not sure the title was actually current.
It only had third gear. The headlights didn’t work. The tail lights didn’t work (running or brakes). No, no signals. Okay, no interior lights, dash lights… No lights. The emergency brake didn’t work. About two or three weeks earlier, Dave went to step on the gas petal. It went through the floor. He had hooked up a heavy duty coat hanger to the cable. For more gas, he pulled up, less, he’d release.
As I said, Dave and I were riding along. We were on Route 3 between Seville and Medina. Just cruising. I imagine listening to someone like the Rolling Stones blaring out of the speakers. I would be imagining that though, after all the radio couldn’t have been working.
Well, boys and girls, back in the 70’s the Ohio State Highway Patrol used to set up safety checks. They would set up areas and flag people in to check their vehicles for “safety violations”.
Yeah, you guessed it. They flagged us over.
As you might imagine, that VW didn’t stand a chance. We were told to park it and leave it.
Dave was an “excitable boy”. He started to lose it it. He began yelling about how was he supposed to get back home to Brunswick. The trooper said Brunswick was too far away to give us a ride. Dave was going on about how was he going to get home from the middle of f****ing nowhere. The trooper was beginning to get annoyed. His friends started looking over at us with too much interest.
I quietly told Dave to shut up unless he wanted to go to jail. I told the trooper that while it was true that Dave lived in Brunswick, I lived in Westfield Center. Could we get a ride to Westfield Center?
I’m not sure exactly what Mrs. Black thought when the State Highway Patrol car pulled up in front of her house. I’m not exactly sure what Bonne told her to get her to let Bonne drive us into Medina. I’m not exactly sure whatever happened to that VW.
But it was an interesting drive in the country that day.