I Had a Fast Car and I Wanted a Ticket to Anywhere...
Different_Brian. Getty Images.I was hoping to buy some time living with Jay in his parent's basement, with the understanding that once September hit, he'd be headed back to BU, and I'd have to find another place to live.
Jay and I entered the basement through the garage, and once inside the garage, we had to unlock another door to get into the house. I was given a blue aluminum key that was brittle, and one day, it snapped off inside the lock. I told Jay what had happened, and he wasn't in a hurry to tell Len. We left the door unlocked for several days before he got up the nerve to tell him. Len wasn't happy. I forget how we got it out, but we did it without hiring a locksmith.
One night, Jay and his family were going to a wedding and wouldn't be home until late. Once they were gone, I brought my girlfriend back, and we stayed in. I had her home by the 11:30 curfew her father set, then went back to the house. I was lying in bed watching TV when I saw water leaking under the door to the utility room.
I opened the door and saw water coming from under the electric water heater. I wasn't a plumber then, so I had no idea what to do. I knew the wedding wasn't local, and because they never told me where it was, I had no way to get in touch with Len. I put a beach towel on the floor and waited for them to get home.
They got home around 1:30, and I immediately told Len about the water. He was drunk, stumbled down the cellar stairs, and went berserk when he saw the water on the floor. He started yelling at me, "Why didn't you call me immediately?" I told him I had no idea where the wedding was. (It was 1976, and there were no cell phones)
It was almost 2:00 AM when he called Irv, his plumber and my girlfriend's father. He demanded he come over right away, and Irv told him to shut the electricity to the water heater off at the panel and close the valve on top of the tank. He'd be over first thing in the morning.
Len kept yelling, but by then, Irv had already hung up. The water heater was replaced the next morning. It was thirteen years old, and that's why it failed. Had nothing to do with me.
I sold my motorcycle and the Falcon and bought a navy blue '68 GTO convertible. It wasn't pristine by any stretch, but it was a fast car that my girlfriend and I enjoyed driving around in.
Jay and I once bought a pound of weed, split it into ounce bags, and sold 'em to friends. We made money and got our weed for free. He wanted to buy another pound, but by then, I only cared about my girlfriend, and I told him I wasn't interested.
He and his younger brother bought a pound and stashed it in the garage. Back then, everyone stole gram scales from the high school, which were necessary tools if you were selling weed. I can imagine Science teachers doing yearend inventory and having to go to their department heads with the bad news that all the gram scales had gone missing.
One afternoon, after we all got home from work, Jay and his brother told me they were headed out to the garage to start bagging the weed and to let them know if anyone was coming.
I was blow-drying my hair and getting ready to pick up my girlfriend when I heard Jay's mother say, "Hi, Vinnie!" as she walked across the room towards the garage. I responded loudly, hoping Jay and his brother would hear, but they didn't, and they got busted.
The three of them went upstairs to talk to Len, who was already relaxing in his recliner, getting ready to watch the ballgame. I left to pick up my girlfriend and missed all the fireworks, and I'm pretty sure they weren't the pretty ones—they were the bangers.
The following night, a Friday, Len walked downstairs, and after we said hello, he said without any reservation, "Vinnie, you have to leave…"
I didn't ask why. I only asked when
He responded coldly, "You need to be outta here by Sunday night."
All I could say was, "Okay…"
When he was back upstairs, I suddenly faced the harsh reality that he had given me until sundown on Sunday to get the hell out of his house! I was being unfairly blamed for what his two sons were caught doing…
I didn't want to spend another minute in Len's house, so I put the roof down on the GOAT and threw whatever didn't fit in the trunk into the backseat. Someone had given me an old table lamp, so I threw that in the backseat, too.
It was 9:30 at night when I parked in front of Bendinelli's Variety in Sharon Center. I lit a smoke and started wondering where the fuck I was gonna sleep. I figured I could park at Ames Estate (now Borderland State Park) in Easton, take the table lamp out, put the top down, and maybe get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep…
Then, Bambi, Moose's younger brother, pulled up in his light blue Challenger. He walked over, looked at me, and asked, "How much you want for the lamp?"
I took another long drag, continued staring straight ahead, and after exhaling, responded, "It's not for sale…"
After we both had a good laugh, I told him what happened at Jay's house. He said Moose and him were living together in an apartment in Foxboro, and he'd call Moose to see if I could crash on their couch.
While Bambi was in Bendinelli's using the payphone, I suddenly remembered that the last time I spoke to Moose, I threatened to kill him…
My world was crashing all around me, but I still had a hot girlfriend and a fast car…
To be continued…
*All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental…