Friday, November 16, 2007

just another bottle in the wall

Summer of '79. Many stories here but this one is just another bottle in the wall.

At the end of Beason Well Road, at the intersection of Stone Drive, next to "Ralph's Bar and Grill", was the infamous Marbro Drive In. Specializing in the finest in "B" horror and Cheerleader Titty Movies. My favorite being "I Spit On Your Grave". I also saw "Jaws", "American Graffiti ", and "Saturday Night Fever" there. "Bruce The Chin" movies were prevelant there. Bruce was the master of "B" horror. Most don't know Bruce but if you ever went to the Marbro you saw a Bruce movie.

The "Marbro" was exactly what drive in movies were supposed to be. In the sixties my parents would pop the corn and pick up a six of coke and we would have family night watching Disney Movies. There was a swing set and jungle gym in front of the massive, concrete screen.. A place right out of dreamland for a kid.

By the mid-seventies this had all changed to a place to trip and have sex for $2.50 per person. Of course, the price was too high so we would invent ingenious ways to sneak in. Including dropping a couple of people off at the side of Beason Well Road to walk in from the cow field, two people in the trunk, hunkering down in the back seat of our enormous cars, or covering up in a blanket or sleeping bag. On any night a person could see many trunks opening. like Mexicans crossing the border.

On this particular night, probably June or July, we were in Spike's Batmobile. A 1963 Ford (my friends, including me, drove incredibly uncool cars, and we didn't care). The Batmobile was given to Spike by the late, great G.B. Archer. Totally uncool by standards but totally cool by ours. Eight track tape player with speakers mounted in the rear window, three speed on the tree, wings on the rear like the real Batmobile and drove like a USS ship. Huge auto it was. We smoked and drank and jammed so much in that car...another story entirely.

After all, this is a "Jan" Story.

We always had "yazz" with us, always. "Yazz" is what our click called it. "let's catch a yazoo" means just what you think. Our buzzes and bongs were all named, Tommy Toker, The Killer, Double Trouble, as in "Did you bring Tommy and Yazz".

Any way, we had successfully infiltrated the "Bro", only two of us paying, Jan, Jonsey, I in the trunk, Spike and Big Joe actually paying. We always parked behind the projection booth so they would not see us exit our fortress.

It was still daylight, God I love summer. Joe, Jonsey, and I were sitting on the ground in front of the Batmobile, Spike and Jan were reclining with their backs on the windshield, Jan loading ones and all of us drinking those six ounce Bud ponies. Eight packs of Bud were the shit then.

After each succesfull swilling of the beer we would absently toss it over our shoulder.

Joe finished a beer and tossed it over his shoulder straight into Jan's eyebrow, blood everywhere. You just had to know Jan. No screaming, no yelling, just a simple, "Damn, I'm bleeding."

We spent the rest of the night doing what we do with Jan holding a T-shirt over his eyes with Joey's never ending apology.

Jan's destiny. God, there is so much more

This is another one of those "I will never forget moments"