| Drought has Hammerhead not missing his Jeep |
|
By: By Mike West Managing Editor
|
|
 Email  Print
|
After pondering the sad state of his lawn this week, Hammerhead found himself thinking about that big drought back in ... durn, it had to be around 1980.
Hammerhead remembers it because he was driving a Jeep CJ-5 back in those days, and he went the entire summer topless.
No, NOT that kind of topless, gutterbrain.
He liked to put the convertible top down on the Jeep and enjoy the elements. His favorite activity was to cruise out Lascassas Pike and explore all of those little side roads in the cool of the early evening, just before the sun set.
Even on the hottest day, “riding out to Lascassas” was a nice, cool, relaxing pastime.
With the top down and the doors removed, that Jeep was pretty air-ish, so a jacket was usually required.
Back in those days, the H-man had a Jeep cap, Jeep jacket and if it had the letters J-E-E-P printed on it ... he probably had it.
Jeeps, and four-wheel-drive in general, were pretty much a novelty then. Because of that the H-man discovered lots of people wanted to ride in that shiny, blue puddle jumper.
But we digress ....
The drought hit the first summer he owned the Jeep. Murfreesboro and the surrounding countryside were quickly becoming a dust bowl, which really isn’t a good thing when you like riding in an open vehicle.
A ride to the wrong place and H-man looked like he had been riding on a grain thresher for about a week.
His face was covered with dirty sweat, and his hair (yes he had hair then) was stiff with dirt and grime.
Piloting a Jeep had about the same effect as riding a motorcycle. He even got to eat an occasional bug.
Well anyway, at the first of the summer, Hammerhead, who was worried about rain in the interior of his fine, shiny vehicle, would also put the Jeep’s top up when he parked it at work, home or wherever.
That lasted about a month ...
By July, he had completely removed the top and was hoping it would rain on the interior to help wash down the dust.
He was beginning to look a bit like Lawrence of Arabia after a 600-mile camel trek.
But still somewhat worried about Bill Hall’s sporadic rain predictions, Hammerhead bought what was called a “Bikini Top” for his Jeep.
It was a pretty little thing that matched his interior and could be attached in seconds. The “Bikini Top” would break the rain and keep the relentless sun from beating down so hard that long, hot summer.
Best of all ... it looked and sounded good as in, “How do you like my Bikini Top?”
Well, anyway, it eventually did rain. Hammerhead was cruising down 231 toward Shelbyville for no apparent reason when a few big raindrops began to fall.
Not to worry. He pulled over and popped his Bikini Top on in a jiffy before it started to rain hard.
Soon it was pouring back on what was then a busy two-lane highway. But the H-man was high and dry and just whistlin’ away.
Until ... an 18-wheeler going 80 or 90 passed him. The whooooosh of the big truck sucked his “Bikini Top” right off. It flew away just like a big kite in the wake of the semi.
Suddenly, there in an absolute thunderstorm, the H-man decided being topless might not be so glamorous after all.
Now cut to an older, wiser Hammerhead in the summer of 2007 ...
“Air conditioning ... not open air ... is king.”
T-t-t-t-t-t-that’s r-r-r-r-r-right.
Mike West can be reached at 869-0803 or at mwest@murfrees
|
|
|
|
|
|
Login and voice your opinion!
|
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!