I've got the biggest grin on my face after reading (wading) through 3.6
million messages on this AOL thing.
Mark - you're quite a guy for keeping this list, AOL-ers, get real.And quiet.
For our DH Day story, we go back far too many years to the winter of 1972.
I'm a 21year old rock & roll disc jockey at a small radio station in
southern Ontario, headed home on a flight to northern Ontario (Thunder
Bay)for my parent's 25th anniversary. My roomie and I are certainly devotes
of the rock & roll lifestyle of the time, and both drove red B roadsters.
Gary's was a '69 w/wires, mine a '70 -split rear bumper w/rostyles. We kept
these cars showroom. Anyhow - the nearest major airport is Toronto, meaning
we have to drive from St. Catherines - about an hour. It's February. It's
snowing that southern Ontario kinda wet slushy stuff, and we set out for the
drive - in Gary's '69, as I had just polished *my* car within an inch of
it's life, and Gary's B was wearing some road grit (remember, at this point
these cars are only a couple of years old), besides he had an appointment
that night in TO with a lovely young lady.
Now, I reiterate the rock & roll lifestyle of the times, and sacrements of
the time, and as we drove we had a small puff. All was well. Robin Trower's
'Bridge of Sighs' was wailing. Gary suddenly noted that the temperature
gauge was starting to rise. Wow, man.
We decided driving faster might be a good idea - more air y'know. Perhaps a
change of music to that new Pink Floyd 8-track, 'Dark Side of The Moon'
seemed a good idea also. Temperature rising.
Then, the brain wave! More air. Since there's a safety latch mechanism on
the hood, just popping it to it's first 'stop' would give a 'scoop' effect,
channeling more air over the rad. Cool!
WHAM! That sucker wrapped itself up and over the windshield and top,
completely turning our field of vison on the busy QEW highwqay into a
10-inch close-up of the topside of Gary's B's hood/bonnet at 60 miles an
hour (pre-metric days)!
The suction created by our anal passages must have pulled the pattern right
out of the seats.
We did manage to get off the highway immediately without any major incident
and onto the shoulder and out of traffic's way. The alloy hood looked like a
wet rag lying across the windshield, and across the top. Now what? We
atempted pulling the hood back down, but it was now shaped something like
this: ___\
Next brain wave - grab that old 2x4 in the ditch - place it across the
fenders, pull the hood down on top of it at the point of the bend, and push!
We now have something that looks like this: ___
\
This configuration did allow the latch to catch - somehow, and we made it to
the airport, I to the anniversary, he to the lovely lady, and to this day -
I still flash back to that highway-speed close-up of the B's hood as Floyd
sings,
"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.."
Terry "Somewhat Saner Now" Williams
'70 BGT
'68 roadster - red, just like that ol' '70
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