Remembering

On the way to the gym I heard an old Van Halen song.  For a few moments I found myself back in 1985 driving my split pea green 1969 Buick Special Deluxe.  One of the first things I did when my mom so kindly turned the keys over to me was to install an Audiovox radio/cassette player along with two 9 inch oval speakers that I installed on the rear seat deck by the trunk.  I had two tapes that I played to death during those first few months, Van Halen & Billy Idol. 

I recall turning the volume up as high as it could go without distortion, rolling the windows down and just cruising the greater metropolitan Shillington area with pride. I desperately wanted to make my car more like a muscle car since several of my friends had SS Novas, Camaros and Chevelles.  The radio was the first of several “cool” upgrades I performed.  Air shocks, seat covers, wire wheel hub caps and a set of nearly bald tires rounded out the performance upgrades.

The balding tires allowed my 250 cubic inch inline 6 motor to kind of do a burn out if I slammed it into drive while revving the motor. If I slammed it into reverse the burnout was significantly better.  Of course the bald tires also was the cause of my hydroplaning incident in a hard rain storm that caused me to slide into oncoming traffic wrecking my Buick as well as 4 or 5 other cars in the process.  Kids are so dumb.