One evening, Dad was waiting on Charlie to come and pick him up to go to work. They worked at the Asbury Power Plant on swing shift so this particular week it was Charlie's turn to drive and they were working midnights. My sister and I always had to be home at 11:15 no matter what shift Dad was working because my mom didn't like being at home by herself, especially at night. As Dad waited for Charlie, he could hear the spew of water on the pavement made by vehicles passing since it had rained earlier. He said that it was so clear that night that one could hear a pin drop. The crickets, locusts, mosquitoes, the electric pole humming, everything. But the one thing that Dad didn't hear was the spewing sound from the tires of an oncoming vehicle that suddenly stopped and in a few minutes a woman arose from the highway of darkness and was walking towards him up our long driveway and asked Dad for a ride. She told him she had dropped her cigarette lighter in the floorboards of her car and reached down to get the lighter when all of a sudden she crashed her car in the wooded area out by the highway on my parents land. She told Dad she was on her way to work and really needed to get there. Charlie got there and Dad asked Charlie if they could give this young woman a ride to work in Pittsburg that she had crashed her car out by the highway. Charlie said it shouldn't be a problem, but they needed to call in because they were probably going to arrive late. Dad went back to the house and called him and Charlie in late and away they went to Pittsburg. Dad said the woman, who was dressed rather provocatively, was an exotic dancer at Pat's Lounge. Dad didn't tell Charlie where she worked until they got to Pittsburg because he knew Charlie would've had a freak out with the possibility of him and his vehicle being seen outside of Pat's Lounge. He said Charlie had a hard enough time keeping his eyes on the road because he kept looking in the rearview mirror at this young woman and her attire!! I laughed so hard at Dad when he was telling me this story because I was imagining Charlie gawking at this woman from his rearview mirror with his big, pop-bottle glasses and if you knew Charlie's wife there would be no more Charlie because Big Margaret would have squished him like a bug!!
After letting the woman out at Pat's Lounge, Dad and Charlie headed on to Asbury to go to work. They finished their shift and headed home the next morning. Dad had gotten in the house and after a few minutes, there was a knock at the front door. It was the young woman, a bouncer, and the owner of Pat's Lounge bringing her to get her car but it wasn't crashed in the trees where she left it. Dad told the young lady that he didn't know where her car was and then the bouncer flashed open his jacket revealing a gun and he asked my dad again where her car was. My dad didn't take too kindly to being threatened by a trashy man with a little handgun so he told them to wait right there, he'd call the sheriff and find out. Dad went and got his shotgun, called the sheriff, and came back to the door holding his shotgun and told the bouncer that Sheriff Sharp had seen the car and towed it to the county lot for abandoned vehicles and they could get the "heck" off his land and never come back.
I've never heard this story until yesterday because I'm sure that in Dad's mind he was protecting us and keeping us from worrying about sketchy people knocking at the front door. All I know is I'll never give an exotic dancer a ride nor will I ever feel the desire to visit Pat's Lounge!!
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| This guy reminds me of Charlie!! LOL |
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