Last 
12/28/98
The Early Years | Spring '92 | Summer '92 I | Summer '92 II
Summer '93 | Summer '94 | Fall '94 | Spring '98
The Early Years
Summer '90 : I remember very shortly after getting my license... (maybe even a day or two) - and I went over and picked up Chuck and we went for a ride. My dad's car at the time was real good at peeling out. ;-) Anyway... it has just rained a little, so the roads were wet... and Chuck and I were cruising along in Auburn by Thomas Park. At a stop sign, I said to Chuck "check this out!" and proceeded to peel out while making a right turn... only because it was wet and I over corrected, the car went up into the yard of the house on the corner...! It was only for a second because I steered out of it pretty quick... but of course there was a cop sitting at the next street, slightly behind the bush... waiting to turn in my direction.
He flashed his lights real quick... I stopped... he pulled up beside me, facing the other direction. It was the Chief of Police! His first name (no joke) was Buck. He kinda just looked at me and said "what's going on?" I tried to look as innocent as I could... and just said something like "well... you know, I misjudged the rain and everything... I haven't been driving long... I just hit the gas too hard... blah blah..." heh. He kinda half smiled... asked me if it was my dad's car, to which I replied affirmatively. He then said with a big grin... "he'll kick your ass!"
Spring '92
Spring break '92... my big bro offers to take me anywhere I want to go for a roadtrip - free of charge. Being 17, I of course picked Florida. I was hyped and we were all set to go, so we took off... the plan was to drive through in one clean shot, alternating driving time and naps. We took Jeff's 'lil Honda Civic, and he told me I couldn't go over 85. I couldn't really handle much driving, but I was actually awake and at the wheel at about 3 in the morning outside of Macon, GA when I got caught up in a little driving posse. You see, when I would wake up from a nap, Jeff would tell me all about this group of people he was just crusing with... about how they would take turns with the lead and how he was going like 95 at one point... and all this crazy stuff. Like it was some freaky race. He was all geeked about it. Well... he was sleepin', it was late and I was all fueled up with Mountain Dew... so I lead my own pack. There were only a few cars with me since it was so late, but we were haulin' ass at about 90 MPH... when all of a sudden, it seemed like I was the only one left in the pack... and there was a car with blue lights flashin' behind me. I wasn't even sure I was being pulled over at first - I'd never seen a cop car with two blue lights (instead of one red/one blue). Jeff began to wake up... and I said "Jeff... I think I'm busted..." doh!
So I pulled over... and waited for the copper to come talk to me, but he never did. Instead I heard a voice coming over the speaker of the cop car, asking me to come over to his car! That was new to me! Wow, so I got out... went over to his car! He was very, very business like... very much unlike the Auburn cops who had their head up their ass with an agenda to try and piss you off. This GA cop was cool - he asked me if I had been drinking... (no) but asked me to take the breathalizer - no problem. I passed, he told me to slow down, no big deal. I got a ticket... and for going 90 in a 65, it was pretty cheap at $96. But still, it was my first ticket (and the folks don't know about it to this day). Jeff made fun of me for awhile... even going as far as to call me A.J. (as in Foyt) around the parents! doh!
Summer of '92 I
So, Mike D and I are watching some TV or something, shooting the shit on a weekend night back when - it's the night before he goes to Germany on a German Club field trip. We get a hankerin' for some Dunkin' Donuts (it happens). We take off to DD in Mike's
car and all is well. We're on the strip uptown and we spot a cop car up near the interstate exchange that had pulled someone over. I thought I recognized the pulled-over car, so I told Mike to drive around the cop car so we can see who it is. So... off we go, and we get up to the car and I didn't know who it was, but it was a couple kids our age.
Anyway... Mike goes up and turns around and we head back into town and past the cop. But, I get some kind of rebellious dumb-ass urge in me to yell at the cop as we pass by. I lean over to Mike's side a little and yell "DICK!!!" really freakin' loud. Mike is more than a little peeved at me for yelling; at the time Mike was not anti-Auburn Copper. I calm him down and we keep going on to DD which is only a quarter mile down the road from where the cop was. We go in and order our D-Nuts and we walk back out the door and - wham! there is the cop, parked perpendicular directly behind Mike's car, blocking him from leaving. He's leaning out the window and tells us he wants to speak to us, one at a time - "you first (points at Mike) and then you (points at me)." Mike and I look at each other... and what to do? Mike gets in the cop car.
They were in there for a couple minutes... then Mike gets out and Occifer looks at me to get in. If I had any balls and would have thought about it, I would not have gotten in. He had no right to tell us to get in his car. At least with not charging us or something like that. If I would have said no, what was he gonna do? But I did, and I got in there and he's giving me all this shit like "is there a problem? cuz you know, if you yell like that, you WILL be pulled over and asked if there is a problem."
and I'm just going, "no, sir..." somewhat sarcastically. He asked me if I had my license because apparently Mike had packed his wallet in his suitcase for Germany already! So, I pulled it out and showed it to him, he noticed I have the restriction that I have to wear glasses/contacts and he asks me if I have my glasses on me, I say no - that I wear contacts. He kinda leans over to look in my eyes (!) and I don't really think he's serious - but I lean over and pull my eyes open so he can get a good look. Guh! I did it more as a "yeah, right" move but he wanted to get right in there and see for sure. Geezus.
Well, he said something like "you might want to drive his car home cuz apparently your buddy there forgot his license." Whatever, dude. I don't remember what all he said but he was a total ass (not that we didn't deserve it, but he had no proof of what we said or that it was even us). I should have asked him in the car what he thought we said. He never mentioned anything about the content. Anyway - we were leaving and I was driving, of course - and we wanted to go to Ponderosa next door (where I worked) to hang out but the copper had blocked it off and was waiting for us to leave. Asshole. So we (I) drive by and then he follows us downtown for the first few minutes. ASShole. Needless to say, Mike was won over in the Auburn Copper department. Mike's first words in the car (I think) were : "what a dick!"
