A Trip Down Memory Lane: The Kick Ass Summer of 1995

How many of you have been busy doing something while listening to the radio, and a certain song comes on that reminds you of an event or trip that happened in your past?  Last week I heard one of those songs, and it took me back to the summer of 1995.  It was the summer before my senior year in High School, and is one that I will always remember.  So sit back, relax, and get ready for one of my loooong posts, (No kidding either, it is long) because I am taking you back in time to that magical summer.

 

First off, let me start with our preferred mode of transportation, the Party Van.  It was one of those 1970’s vans with the sunroof in the back of the van, and no windows on the side.  In fact, the sun roof had been busted out during a camping adventure down in Hover Park.  With no window up there, it made for a great escape hatch to peer out of while driving around.  It was the kind of van that you might see with a hideous painting done on the side and back of it.  My friend Brad Butherus had been the proud owner of a 1980 Camaro before the engine had blown out earlier that year in March, and the van was the only alternative he had to get out of Finley.  The party van became the centerpiece of our whole summer.

 

The Party Van was our chariot, and we were the riders.  Our favorite thing to do while in the party van was cruising Clearwater.  Every night as soon as it was dark, Brad, Eric Espinoza, and sometimes Jamie Harris, and I would start the cruising path between Taco Bell on 395 and Kennewick Ave down to the 7-11 that used to be on the corner of Clearwater and Edison.  The fun part about it all was the amount of kids who would take part in this ritual.  Somewhere around 100 people would park at Taco Bell and just hang out until the cops would stop by.  That was the sign for everyone to hop back in their autos and head down the road to 7-11, where the party would start back up until the cops made their way down, which then would send everyone back to Taco Bell.  Turn.  Smile.  Shift.  Repeat.  All night long.

 

During all of this driving to and fro, the busted out sunroof came in handy.  See a car load of girls that you want to talk to?  Easy money, you just stood up in the back of the van, popped your head out, and say hello.  Although doing this could lead to trouble if a policeman happened to see you.

 

And being the dumb kids we were, it was only a matter of time before a cop saw us do the sun roof trick.  One night while we were out, Brad had noticed that a car had been following us around for awhile, and asked if someone could go look out and see who they were.  Since standing up through the sun roof ala Tom Hanks in Big was my favorite thing to do, I headed back to take a peek.  As soon as I stood up, I realized who had been on our tail.  It was Mr. KPD, and he was not amused by our antics.  He quickly flicked on his lights, and we were pulled over.

 

I don’t know how many of you out there have had to try to explain to a cop about why you were hanging half way out of the top of a van.  But take my word for it, it is not easy.  There we are, pulled over and talking to Mr. Policeman.  We are pretty sure that there is going to be a ticket issued, when all of a sudden he gets a call on his radio.  Like a flash, he throws Brad’s license and registration back into the car, yells for us to not pull the stand up trick again, (HA, like we were going to listen!) and to drive safe.  He then flipped his siren on, and went tearing down the road.

 

We felt pretty lucky after that encounter.  Like I said, there was something in the air that summer, like we could do no wrong.  After the sticky situation we had just wormed out of we decided it was about time for our usual late night trip to Denny’s.  I know there are a lot of Shari’s fans out there, but I am sorry, Shari’s has nothing on Denny’s.  First off, last time I checked, Shari’s does not serve a Grand Slam of anything for breakfast.  Denny’s has like 5 slams.  So 20 points for Denny’s, 0 for Shari’s.  Oh, I can’t forget about the Moons over My Hammy either…another solid score for Denny’s. 

 

Secondly, Denny’s has a bar.  We might not have been old enough to go inside the bar, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy the people coming out.  Most nights we would just get a dessert, something to drink, sit back, and enjoy the drunks coming out of the bar.  My favorite drunk was middle-aged-man drunk hitting on the group of over-made-up-skank drunks.  If it wasn’t the weekend and was a slow drunk night, we would just sit in there and BS with each other, and hope that the hot waitress would be serving us.  I can’t go to the Denny’s in Kennewick now without thinking about all the late nights we were there.

 

So, to get back to the story, on our way to Denny’s, we notice that the Blockbuster in the same parking lot is surrounded by cops.  We also see the one who had pulled us over only 5 minutes earlier.  Supposedly there had been an armed robbery there.  No wonder 3 kids messing around in a van became small peanuts.  I never thought that somebody doing an armed robbery would benefit me, since after all I was most likely the person to get a ticket for the sun roof incident.

 

That wasn’t our only run in with the cops.  One night we were in Richland to see if anybody was cruising G Way.  That is when I found out that everything goes to bed in Richland at 9 p.m.  We were pulled over by a cop, who asked us why we were out driving so late.  It wasn’t even 10 p.m. yet.  I informed him of the time, and he said that in Richland that is too late.  And that if anything bad happened in his town that night, and we remotely fitted the description of the hooligans who were involved, we would be getting a call.  That was the last time we went to Richland.  There isn’t anything there interesting anyway. Why did we get pulled over in the first place you ask?   He said we had a dim license plate light, and some dirt on the plate which made it hard to see.  So if you are ever driving in Richland at night time, make sure you have a clean plate and bright light.  Or else you will be pulled over.

 

1995 was the first summer that I did not spend with my family on the 4^th of July.  A number of us loaded up into the party van to head down to Columbia Park for the River of Fire festival.  At that time they had a carnival going at the same time, so we would go ride rides, and then sit down to watch the fireworks show.

 

I never made it to the rides that night.  I had spotted a girl sitting in the grass by the flag pole, and I had to meet her.  Her name was Jodi, and she was most beautiful girl that I had seen up to that point of my life.  I ended up sitting with her and her friend Christy for the rest of the night’s festivities.  It was a magical night, and the beginning of my first long term relationship. It is something that I will never forget.  But that story will not be told here.

 

Another adventure had in the party van involved my whole group of friends, plus a couple more guys that were along for the ride.  Someone earlier in the day had remarked about how the party van would make a great vehicle to go egging in.  With the sun roof in the back being the main mode of attack, we headed down to Columbia Park to wreak havoc on the innocent.  (Authors note:  While for the most part I was a law abiding citizen, I did do some dumb things when I was a kid.  This was one of them.  But hey, isn’t that what being a teenage boy is all about???)

 

The first couple cars that we egged were empty.  There was one car that we came across with what looked to be a half naked woman in, so we egged that one too.  We figured that whatever she and her mate were doing was not going to be stopped by a couple grade A’s lobbed their way.  But the next car we hit was one that we should have left alone. 

 

I don’t remember what exact kind of car it was, but it was an old boat.  Now that I think about it, this old boat and the party van could have been lot mates when they were brand new.  Anyway, this car was heading in the opposite direction.  We nailed it with 3 or 4 eggs.  But then something happened that we were not ready for.  The car slammed on its brakes, and made a violent u turn.  It was catching up to us fast. 

 

Now, if the party van had one shortcoming, it would have to be its lack of acceleration power.  Add in the fact that there were 7 guys in vehicle, and it preformed even worse.  While the car was heading for us, we kept lobbing eggs out the sun roof, which were hitting the car with great accuracy.  Then all of a sudden, I looked through the back window, and the car was gone, nowhere to be found.  Did they wreck?  Or give up the chase?  Uh, no, they did not.  They decided that instead of just chasing us, they would pull ahead of us, and spin out in front of us.

 

How many of you out there in blog land have had to try to swerve around a car that is blocking most of the road in an old van loaded with teenagers?  It is not easy, but somehow Brad was able to make his way around the car.  I still to this day can picture this egged up car spun out in front of the van.  I think that every person in that van didn’t expect to make it, but like I said earlier, we had luck on our side.

 

After avoiding the near disaster, we had reached the turn to get onto Columbia Center Blvd.  During this time, everybody in the van was yelling at Brad, telling him which way to go.  Everyone that is, except for Wes Tompkins.  Nothing could rattle Wes.  He sat there, and in a very calm voice told Brad which roads he should turn down so as not to happen upon the egged car again.  After we made it home that night, we all decided that there would be no more egg runs in the van.

 

An interesting add on to this story is that I later found out who the driver of the egged car was.  About 7 years ago I was telling this story out at work.  Not too long into the story, one of my co-workers stood up, and yelled, “That was ME you A**HOLE!!!!”  I could not believe my ears.  What kind of fate would have me working with the man who had experienced egg after egg nailing his car?  Good thing that it had been over 6 years since it had happened, and he had had time to cool off. 

 

Oh, one other thing about this story before I move on.  We had at least 7 guys in the van.  The car had no more than 2 or 3.  Why were we even running in the first place?  This is why: We were all convinced that we had just egged a car full of gang member with Uzis, and stopping would mean that they would execute us.  I think this might have something to do with us giving up the egging business.  No one wanted to get shot.

 

OK, I have saved the best story for last.  While the summer of 1995 was the best summer I ever had as a kid, I did have some really good ones the next 2-3 years afterwards too.  I can’t recall if this next story happened during the kick ass summer of ’95, or the next summer.  So I will just say that it did happen in 1995, and not later.

 

It was August, and it was almost time to go back to school.  With a little help from my Dad…ERR…a LOT of help from my Dad; I completed all the requirements for my Eagle Scout.  I am really glad that I did, because not everybody can claim that.  Even if my certificate had to be signed by Bill Clinton, it still was a big deal.  For my eagle project I cleaned up our neighborhood park, and with the help of two of my best friends, Jamie Harris and Eric Espinoza (These two were with Brad and I for the majority of our adventures that summer) and some other guys from my ward, we repaired the park benches too.  I finished at 7 in the morning on my 18^th birthday.  How’s that for cutting it close?

 

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.  Like I said, the summer was winding down, and so was the cruising up and down Clearwater.  I was always a little surprised that there were not any major wrecks on that stretch with all the kids out driving around.  But when there was one, we were right there to witness it.

 

I am not sure how the wreck happened, but it was not pretty.  One car slammed into another car, and the people riding in the slammed car were not doing very well.  The driver’s head had gone through the windshield, and the passenger in the back had been whipped around, and was in a lot of pain.  My friends and I, along with about 20 other people, got out of our cars to check up on these people.  By the time the emergency crews arrived, there was a crowd of around 200 people at the intersection looking at the damage.  The EMT’s and Fire Fighters came in and made everyone step away from the wreckage, and go to the other side of the street.

 

I was at the back of the car checking on the girl, making sure that she was not going to pass out, and that she was staying in one place.  She had told me her neck and back both hurt.  One of the Fire Fighters came up to me and told me that I had to leave so they could do their job.  I turned to the Fire Fighter and told him, “Sir, I am an EAGLE SCOUT trained in FIRST AID.  I am attending to this young woman!”  I was pretty sure his reply would be for me to leave anyways, and let them take care of it, but instead he said to me, “OK, keep doing what you are doing while we check on the driver.”  I have to say, it was a complete rush to be there in the middle of all the action.

 

It was a couple minutes later when my friends realized that I was still at the car.  Some of the group was asking why that guy (me) was able to stay out there.  Meanwhile, I could hear Brad yelling that it was his friend out there.  I stayed with the girl for about another 5 minutes until the EMT told me that they were ready to take over.  He told me thank you for my help, and asked if I could join the rest of the people on the sidewalk.  I shook his hand, and walked over to where my friends were.  Now don’t hold me to this, but I am pretty sure that there was applause coming from the group while I made my walk across the street.  If my Dad hadn’t forced me to finish the scouting program I had started 6 years earlier, I would have just been another gawker at a wreck.

 

So whenever a song from that time comes on the radio, I think of that magical summer.  Lifelong friendships were cemented forever.  Memories were forged, and the kind of summer that could be a major motion picture was lived.  It just goes to show that no matter how boring you think the town you live in is when you are a teen, there are still fun things that you can do.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy what is left of the summer.  Make some lasting memories of your own.

 

Oh ya, and Mom, I know that this is the first time you have heard some of this.  Just be glad that you never got the late night call from me asking to bail me out of jail. :o)