(I stole this image from www.podunknowhere.com,and feel obligated to identify 'em in order to ease my guilt!)
I bet most of you had this experience at least once-
Back in the days of 25-cent per gallon gas, Willy, Hawkeye and I would fill the tank, then point his '56 Ford sedan South on Highway 135 until we got to Highway 44, where we would turn Westbound. From that point I don't remember details very well... maybe Hawk can fill in some of my blank spots, but somewhere along the line there we'd find a gravel road and just see where it lead. The goal? To see if we could get ourselves really, REALLY lost. Willy's car had a six-cylinder engine which got great gas mileage, thank God, because we sometimes found ourselves in the "boonies" to the point where the roads narrowed to one lane... truly "Podunk Nowhere"... in the dark of night you couldn't see much, but there wasn't much out there to see. Even so, we did this often enough that there were places we began to recognize, and we became more and more comfortable with driving there. Still, as an adult I look back and wonder what might have happened if the old Ford had suddenly quit running, for whatever reason. No cell phones to call AAA to come help... heck, no phones of any kind were available around there!
But what a great time! Of course we were bonding... we had the radio blasting, and we had one another to bounce ideas off of.
We'd drive until we finally came out somewhere we recognized... the little roads almost always lead us to Highway 37 somewhere around Martinsville. We'd feel some sense of accomplishment and head back to Jerry's or the Kitchen for a Cherry Coke.
Help me here-
There was a shopping center up nestled between Highways 31 and 135... "South Park Plaza"? I'm really unsure of the name. It was just North of 465 if I recall correctly. There was a miniature Golf Course on the Southwest side of the shopping center that we used to drop by and check to see if any hot Southport gals were patronizing. We were leaving the place when a car with four huge guys came into the drive. For some reason they took offense at the way Willy was departing and shouted something at him. Willy of course responded to them by signaling that they were "Number One!" They quickly turned to come after us. Willy, realizing we were outnumbered and outsized, put the throttle to the floor. We headed South on 135 as fast as that six cylinder engine could go, with the four "Hulk Hogan" types right on our tail. At probably just over 100 miles per hour, I'm amazed we didn't have a close encounter with law enforcement along the way. Past County Line Road... past "El Dorado" Country Club, past Stone's Crossing road. Right turn on Highway 44... find that gravel road leading to Podunk... and now we have the advantage!
Following someone at night on a gravel road, all the dust bein' kicked up by the preceeding car, making all those twists and turns, finally got the desired result. The big guys backed off considerably and started honking their horn.
We grinned and made them suffer for 15 minutes or so. Willy finally slowed down enough for me to hang my head out the window to see what they wanted.
Yeah, you're ahead of me, aren't ya?!
They were scared to death. Scared we were gonna lose them somehow, and they'd be lost in Podunk to be eaten by Bigfoot or some other big, hungry creature.
"C'mon Dudes, just lead us outta here... PLEASE!"
And since the request was so nice, we did just that.
Podunk...
Been down in that area lately?
If not, don't go. Keep your memories alive and vivid .
And for me, what wonderful memories!
9 comments:
It’s called –
SOUTHERN PLAZA
and I think it’s still there, although it’s not such a good area anymore.
The TeePee used to be close to Southern Plaza, did you all hang around there?
We used to buzz the TeePee, Jerry’s, The Pole (on west 16th & Lafayette Rd), and The Steer-In in Franklin. Ahhh, the good ole days.
Southern Plaze it was, it was ancored by a William H BLocks and a Standard Grocery Store. Mom work for Blocks for 27 years. Spent alot of time there myself. Used to do inventory for them for some mad money.
Aww. Podunk, spent a many Sunday afternoons down there driving around. There was a true haunted house down there. It was up on blocks and there were car loads of ole CG students that unloaded and went into each and every room and looked under it and nothing was ever found, until.....they headed back to their respective cars and turned around and there was someone standing in that houses window. No second invitation to leave was needed.
It was a wonderful magical place to go and get lost. In the Fall the leaves were incredible.
There was a bridge to nowhere down there also.
I bet it is all gone now. So sad.
Please, I need help!
This is off the subject, but I have been trying to post to this blog and my own blog and I want a blank space between paragraphs. No matter what I do - copy/paste, cut/paste or just plain manually type it all - when I go to view my post or save & view, it is just one big paragraph. I have edited, re-edited and cussed it out! But I cannot get it to do what I want.
^ see it's fine on the comments, there's a blank space between my paragraphs, but can't make a posting that way. I looked through "help" but couldn't find any help.
Please, any suggestions?
I have the same problem sometimes, M.
Publish what you have written, and I bet when it appears it'll have the spaces and paragraphs that you have written.
It's just a strange system!
Thanks GB.
I sent you an email.
Funny story GB. The things we did and survived. Sharon and I were with Marty Umbarger and his girlfriend maybe Lana Myers (not sure) one day. He had a ford convertible about 1962. We were going across was it 144 or 44 to Martinsville hilly and curving road. Marty was going way to fast over the hills. We finally came to one that went straight up and straight down. Of course we went airborne actually lifted up from the sits when we hit he actually kept it under control. But its amazing we weren't all killed. Its amazing most of us have made it to 60. Hope most of us can remember this all when were 90. The TeePee and Jerrys great times. Just sit and see and talk to everyone.
GB -
Do it again so we all can watch!
Bo
GB,
Do you remember the time the four of us, Willie, you, me and I think Steve B. went to Podunk and thought we knew every turn. Well we missed one, just missing the pole and guide wire. We had jumped a ditch and were driving around in a field trying to find a way out. Lights started coming on in the trailers in the area. After we got back on the road Willie was so shook up that he had to get in the back seat and lay down. You started driving, three in the front seat and a bat hits the windshield. We found a drive-in something like the Kitchen stopped and went in to check our shorts. We came back out and there was the car. It must have had a ton of weeds and mud hanging on it, under it and behind it. We had a ball and survived. Where's Wellie ?
Yeah Hawk, I remember that incident, and remember that we only missed that utility pole by inches! If we had hit it the story could well have been tragic... no seat belts in that car.
Don't we all have stories like this to relate? We had a guardian angel looking out for us during those years!
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