The Green Acres Drive-In

From Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 03/17/03:

Only seems right that I should send along a drive-in memory since I suggested the thread:

June 1963:

Memory is understandably foggy here; after all, it was 40 years ago and I was in a complete testosterone fog. Who can think clearly under those conditions, let alone recall the event with any accuracy 40 years later.  Nevertheless, here goes:

It is a double date at the Green Acres.  If memory serves, I was with Katie Dempsey (WHS '64), and Donnie Reed (NNHS '65) was with her sister, Patty Dempsey (NNHS '66).  (We won't even discuss the dynamic of trying to make out with two sisters in the same car!!)  The flick was "Spencer's Mountain".

(An historical note: "Spencer's Mountain" was authored by Earl Hamner, Jr., and it was essentially "The Waltons" long before the TV show came along.  But, I digress.) 

I was driving the  '52 Dodge I had "inherited" from my late grandfather.  Now, in 1963, an 11 year old car was indeed ancient, unlike today. This car was always an adventure ... a triumph of wishful thinking over the laws of physics.  Anyway, the Dempsey girls had a mandate to be home by ... heck, I can't remember ... let's say 11 PM.  Well, the movie looked like it would end with just enough time to crank up and scoot down Jefferson Avenue to their home on Clinton Drive, but it was going to be real close.  So, film ends, lights come up, several hundred cars roar to life ... all except for my old Dodge.  I turned the key ... and nothing, zip, nada. 

So, now I have this picture of Mr. Dempsey, who was not a large man, standing in his front yard with a baseball bat, ready to "greet" me when I returned 2 of his 3 daughters well beyond the curfew.  In the back of my mind I can hear the Everly Brothers singing "Wake Up Little Susie", while I desperately tried to start the car.  So, Donnie and I are beginning to consider alternatives:  Is there enough time to find someone we know among the other attendees, and send the Dempseys home with them?  Is there enough time to ask someone for a battery jump? Is there enough time to call a friend to come get us, or at least the girls, and take them home. Is there enough time for me to make out my Last Will and Testament before 11 PM?  As a last desperate measure, I found the hammer I kept in the trunk, wailed on the battery terminals a few times, and the old girl sprang to life. Off we tore in a cloud of blue smoke (I got 5 miles to the quart of oil) and beat the curfew with seconds to spare.
 
To be honest, I can't recall if there was a goodnight kiss. I just felt lucky to have escaped with my life.

Still laughing over this one,
Dave '64


 

"Green Acres" midi courtesy of http://home.att.net/~maggie49/music4.html at the suggestion of Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 01/24/04
Thanks, Dave!