The Buick of Death
The Most fun I ever had in a Buick. Man, what Idiots we are when we are young.
My first ever car was a 1984 Buick Skyhawk. 4 doors, 4 cylinders, no front suspension. One depressing Western Kansas afternoon, I had two of my friends get in the backseat while I was driving. We were traveling on a back highway in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, very little traffic. I set the cruise at 45 and proceeded to climb into the passenger seat. I was holding the steering wheel at the bottom, and to any passers by it appeared that our car was occupied by three boys and being driven by none of them.
We really thought this was the height of comedy, that our little trick could not be topped. I will never forget the look on the face of the blue hair in the Cadillac as she passed our car headed in the opposite direction. Terror replaced elation as the prevalent emotion in our car as the Caddy careened off towards the ditch, its operator rendered useless by her shock in seeing a ghost car traveling the highway to Ellis.
Our plan had not included a strategy for stopping the car and turning it around, so we did the best thing we could think of; panic. I managed to get back into the drivers seat and get the car headed back to what I was sure was the scene of someone’s grandma’s terrible end. By the time I got headed back her direction though, the Caddy was pulling up out of the ditch on its own, and not wanting to further terrify the poor geezer, I pulled to the side and watched from a distance as she headed off about her day.
I would have loved to have been there when she reached her destination though.
My first ever car was a 1984 Buick Skyhawk. 4 doors, 4 cylinders, no front suspension. One depressing Western Kansas afternoon, I had two of my friends get in the backseat while I was driving. We were traveling on a back highway in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, very little traffic. I set the cruise at 45 and proceeded to climb into the passenger seat. I was holding the steering wheel at the bottom, and to any passers by it appeared that our car was occupied by three boys and being driven by none of them.
We really thought this was the height of comedy, that our little trick could not be topped. I will never forget the look on the face of the blue hair in the Cadillac as she passed our car headed in the opposite direction. Terror replaced elation as the prevalent emotion in our car as the Caddy careened off towards the ditch, its operator rendered useless by her shock in seeing a ghost car traveling the highway to Ellis.
Our plan had not included a strategy for stopping the car and turning it around, so we did the best thing we could think of; panic. I managed to get back into the drivers seat and get the car headed back to what I was sure was the scene of someone’s grandma’s terrible end. By the time I got headed back her direction though, the Caddy was pulling up out of the ditch on its own, and not wanting to further terrify the poor geezer, I pulled to the side and watched from a distance as she headed off about her day.
I would have loved to have been there when she reached her destination though.
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