In the sixties, as was stated before, one of the hangouts was the drive-in theatre. John, Mike, Dennis, Don and I all worked at the most popular one in the area. Sometimes movies would stay as long as three weeks, and be shown twice a night. By that time you could say the lines in the movies by heart. All of us had girlfriends that worked in the concession stand. On nights that we weren’t working ; we would hang out at the drive-in anyway. It was our home away from home.
One night my girlfriend and I decided we would have our first sexual encounter. I have to admit that I had been begging for three or four weeks. It came as a complete surprise when she finally said yes. Excited is not the best word to use, I was ecstatic. The night I had dreamed of was finally going to happen. The one thing that I had to do was have protection ,or I could forget the whole thing. Here I was at work and no way to get what I needed. John, Mike, Don and I were working that night and Dennis and Kathy had dropped by to visit. I got Dennis over to the side and told him my problem and asked if he could get the protection for me. He just looked at me, smiled and walked away. I, in my ultimate wisdom, took that to mean no. John was getting off work earlier that night so I asked him if he could help me out. John, being one of my incredibly good friends took my quarter, put it in his pocket and assured me that he would rush right out and buy some for me as soon as he got off work. Not that I was anxious or anything, but I was able to get my good buddy off work earlier then he had anticipated.
Two hours had gone by and still no John. I went back to the concession stand and expressed my excitement to my girlfriend about the adventure that was going to happen soon. She expressed to me in no uncertain terms, no protection then there would be no adventure. Another hour went by still no John. My girl was getting off work and indicated she would meet me in the car. My hopes were becoming more and more distant each minute that went by. In my mind all I could think about was, no protection, no nothing.
Finally John appeared, after asking him what took so long, he told me the story of going to a gas station. It seems that he went into the restroom, inserted the quarter in the machine, turned the knob and nothing happened. He took another quarter, inserted it in the machine, turned the knob and still nothing happened. He began beating on the machine in hopes that the product would drop down. When he did this some alarm went off and the next thing he knew two burly gas station attendants appeared out of no where, and wanted to know what he was doing. He told them what had happened and had hoped they could help him out. He wasn’t sure if they had believed him, but after close inspection of the machine they gave him that product and one quarter back, with a warning that it better not happen again or they would call the police. Now that was the story he told me. Whether it was true or not is another thing; but I really didn’t care. I had what I wanted and tonight was going to be my lucky night. If the story was true, then John was the greatest friend I had. If it wasn’t, well I didn’t care just then, I had my mind on other things.
After signing out of work ,I walked back to the car where my girl and the adventure was waiting. We crawled in the back seat. She asked me four times if I had the protection. I said yes to each time while getting a little louder. We finally settled down with a blanket over us. Just as I was getting ready to get down to business the cars dome light came on and someone sat down in the front seat, the door shut and the light went off. Then the familiar voice of my friend Mike asked if we were going anywhere after the movie? I mean here I am with my girl about to embark upon what I thought at the time was the greatest thing ever and he was asking what we were going to do after the movie. I told him we didn’t have any plans, wasn’t he suppose to be checking the restrooms or something? Mike sat there for a good ten minutes keeping his eyes on the screen and talking to us. With every minute that went by, I could see the look in my girlfriends face go from startled, to amazement to astonishment. Finally, Mike left saying , I’ll talk to you guys a little later. I kept saying to myself this has got to be a joke. John told Mike what was happening and this was a little practical joke they had cooked up to embarrass me; but to this day Mike and John have never admitted to it.
After Mike had left ,I began making my moves again. Intermission began, the lights came on and people were walking past the car to go to the concession stand. That was it. My girlfriend said there would be nothing happening. I began trying to convince her that everything would be alright after intermission. She wasn’t buying it. She just wanted to be taken home. What started out as a great adventure ended up in the biggest argument we ever had. If you were to look up nuclear war in the encyclopedia; I’m sure you would see a picture of us arguing.
After intermission, she kept insisting to be taken home. Finally, I jumped in the front seat behind the wheel and she jumped in the front seat on the passenger side. Upon leaving the drive-in ,I had decided to drive over the ramps rather then driving down the aisle like normal people would do. As I was driving over the ramps, she was yelling at me to knock it off and leave the right way or we’d have an accident. I responded that she should not worry about my driving as I knew where every speaker pole in the theatre was. No sooner did I get that out of my mouth then there was a loud thud and the car seemed to raise up off the ground, and came to a complete halt. Just then she yells "And there’s one now" I slowly looked out my window and right next to us was another couple. The girl just stared at me, rolled down her car window, threw the speaker on the ground, and they pulled away to another spot. I opened the door to my car and stepped out. Well actually I fell out, not realizing the car was 3 feet off the ground. John and Dennis came from one way. Don and Mike in their lovely white ramp attendant jackets came from another way. My car was surround by people and I heard, What the Hell is wrong with that guy is he drunk?"
After looking the car over and discovering that the cement block that held the pole in the ground had come out and was holding my car in the air, and a little conversation about what to do, we decided to try and pick up the front end of the car and get it back on the ground. With some help from a few other guys, we were actually able to lift the front end up and pushed it off the pole and block only dropping it once. I got in the car and started it up, but it sounded like a 150 Honda. My girlfriend had one of the other girls take her home and mentioning something about someone being an idiot. I left the car at the Drive-in where Mike and I would return the next day to attempt to fix the car; but that is a story for another day. This was a night to remember not for the great adventure I thought I was going to have, but for the results of being stupid.