My Date at the Local Big Boy – Late 1960s

Beaver Park Ball Room, cover band (The Four) playing top 40, Four Seasons, Tommy James, Wipe-out, and most were…

Rode with Tiny D…, who having gotten lucky, as usual, left me to find a ride or hitch home. It was late by the time I walked to the Big Boy on 6 and 2… open all night, at least coffee, somewhere to sit till I revived enough to walk the rest of the way home… eventually.

Walking across the parking lot, a silver XKE came flying around the corner of the building. Saw it too late. As it struck, I dropped my hands onto the hood and pushed. The impact caught my shins as it screeched to a halt…too late.

You know how time seems to slow down, almost stop, at certain points in your life, usually during a near-death experience? Well, this was one of those.

As I was cartwheeling over the hood toward the driver’s side, I noticed our reflection in the windows, and people lounging on the other side; a few staring at us in wonder – perhaps horror, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.

She looked down at me, her look of surprise turning to a wry smile as I picked myself up. Then, tires squealing, she fish-tailed out onto the highway and West… tail lights dimming in the distance, lingered for only a few seconds, and she was gone, my Big Boy date; yes, I finally “connected.” All was still, except for the buzzing of the neon and old fluorescent lights, traffic signal changing orange-to-red.

The bruises on my shins eventually faded, but not the memory.

I’ve been asked why I didn’t report it, call the police. Truth is, I was only…, maybe too stunned, perhaps even a little too macho to let a little thing like being flipped over a car hood cause me to delay hot coffee, a little break before my long walk home…well, only a few more miles before I slept. Plus, only enough coin for coffee and the jukebox; none to waste on phone calls (payphones by the front door)… After all, I was young and invincible… always hoped I’d run into her again sometime, but long enough to get acquainted… seems like a dream to me now, my date at the local Big Boy.

–LE