By Richard Haas
My brother Larry (2 years younger) and I went to a “Blue Notes” dance at the Stockton Ballroom, hoping to maybe meet a couple of sweet young things who wouldn’t mind taking a ride out to the vineyard with us.
We
were in my ’48 Chevy Fleetline (with a GMC big block 6-cylinder, 3 one-barrel
carbs and a split exhaust).
The “Blue Notes” played stuff that was a lot like Jimmy Reed and I had just found a little darlin’ to rub up against me to that sweet, slow blues music. Things were lookin’ good.
When I opened my eyes to look around and see if my brother was having any luck, lo and behold, there he was, flying headfirst through the air, headed right for me and “whatsername”. I pulled her down to the floor and watched as my brother crashed into this guy that had been sneaking up behind me, getting ready to blindside me.
How was I to know that his girlfriend loved to dance and he didn’t, and that he was extremely jealous?
When I saw that he was a local guy and had many friends in the crowded dance hall, I grabbed my brother and we headed for the door, and both of us knew, without looking around, that we had a few guys hot on our trail!!
Into the Fleetline we went, throwing gravel as I headed for Hiway 99, about a mile away, that would get us back to our own territory (20 miles away) if I could just stay ahead of the parade that was chasing us.
I cut a couple of traffic lights very close and the “parade” just came on through, and didn’t seem to care about running red lights in their wild frenzy to catch my brother and I.
There it was, the
cloverleaf on-ramp for Hiway 99, about a block ahead. And just then, in my
rear-view mirror, I saw the Police Car turn on his red lights behind the
“parade”. As they began to pull over, one by one,
I took the on-ramp, and my brother and I breathed easy as we looked up and
watched the cop car pull over behind the “parade”.
We cruised on home, laughing our butts off all the way. That next weekend was the first time I ever let my brother borrow my car, even though he had asked me a hundred times before. I figure he earned it.