fRaNK tHE cAt Is UnDer thE tAbLe

[Jim Ratto]

ever been chased at night by a wild old man in his underwear?

I have.

[sheep]

oh jim do tell do tell

[Jim Ratto]

about the time I first "encountered" Catfish Don in our junior year?

[sheep]

do tell do tell, also dont forget when he chased you in his tighty whiteys

[Jim Ratto]

In junior year, the girl I had made friends with the orange '71 Bug, she worked at a flower shop as a delivery driver. She got me a job there too. It was cool becasue only chicks worked there, and they had this 1985 Dodge Caravan thing to deliver in. We had some steep railroad track crossings in Pleasanton  I think we went through 3 transmissions while I worked there.

Anyway one afternoon, I had to deliver flowers to some office on the north end of Pleasanton. Near the office, was Hungry Hunter bar/restaurant. I was trying to get out of the parking lot of the place but there was this green Oldsmobile just sitting there, blocking the driveway, like it ran out of gas. From behind, it looked like nobody was in the car. I got out of the Caravan and walked up to look inside the Olds and this sunburnt little guy with huge forearms and gray hair was slumped over across the bench seat. I thought the guy was dead. I started to open the door and he came to and glared at me and mumbled something and stood on the gas and took off. It was weird.
Next day in math class, I was sitting with my pals, the girl with the orange VW, and Sheep and our buddy Bryan Boster, and I started telling the story about the passed out guy... and Sheep starts cackling his trademark laugh... and we're looking at him like "dude, he's not even done with the story... WTF 's so funny?" and when I said the car was a green Olds, he laughs out " that was my DAD!!"

The tight whitey story was told here before, but anyway...  Sheep lived on a ranch just east of Pleasanton, out in the sticks. Getting to ranch you had to take the freeway 580, and get off at this desolate exit, then travel down a 2 mile long arrow-straight private road to get to his house. You can see where this is going...
Our friend had a Pontiac Tempest with a three-eighty-something motor and a carb/manifold... etc.  Nothing wild, but an honest 14-15 sec car. We were all friends and I had just put the first stroker motor in my car and felt i should test it. We met up at Sheep's house one Friday night to race. It was 9:00pm, and I took dual quiet mufflers off and put on my stinger. We made a few passes, he'd win one, I'd win one... all good fun. All of the sudden, this quartet of headlights on the front of a 1981 Ford Fairmont caem racing towards us, then screeched to a stop. Out jumps Sheep's dad, in nothing but his (very) tighty whiteys, and he's flaming MAD. He starts screaming at me to "get home BOY and NEVER COME BACK"...his eyes were crazed and his fists were clenched. I didn't know whether to laugh my ass off or run!

Remember this? "that thing loud?"3
"uh...."
"Better not be"

[cal_gecko]

Oh, I remember the railroad tracks .. the "Castlewood tracks" or "Castlewood jump" as some called it, I believe

That 'jump' was legendary back then.

I remember.. ....

I was in Junior or Senior year of high school.. had my '73 Plymouth Duster (link) with a 318.. I had spun the rod bearing in it while barreling down 580 at about 100mph (remember how that thing handled. .. it's scary to think about now..) when all of a sudden .. BANG CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK...

So, while I was rebuilding the engine in my ROP auto machinist class, my Mom was letting me drive her car - a 1983 Pontiac Grand Prix with the weakest V6 in the history of the world.  I took that car over the tracks a NUMBER of times.. got it completely airborne on several occasions to the point where I was counting the 'hang time'.  Well... seeing as how we had originally moved to CA from MA just a couple years prior, the car had some rust going on in the exhaust, and she decided to take it to Midas to get the exhaust looked at because it was leaking.. I went along with her for some strange reason.  As they had it on the lift to inspect the exhaust, the service writer comes in to talk to her about her shocks..
somehow.. (ahem) they had all completely blown out their seals and it was apparent the suspension had been bottomed out ... .HARD.  She ended up having to replace all 4 shocks, some bushings, and the exhaust that day.  To this day, she still doesn't know what happened that caused her suspension to bottom out.

Then, not too long after that.. I was still driving the Grand Prix, and was going up the Sunol Grade on a hot summer day.. with the AC cranked.. the car was struggling up the grade, so what did I do? Floored it, of course.  It didn't respond well.  Turned out it was overheating (I don't recall ever seeing a guage or dummy light)... I blew up the engine.  Yeah, the Duster engine was still dismantled at this point too. 

Needless to say, I quickly finished up the rebuild on my Duster engine and mom never let me borrow her car again.

[Jim Ratto]

Oh, I remember the railroad tracks .. the "Castlewood tracks" or "Castlewood jump" as some called it, I believe

That 'jump' was legendary back then.

I remember.. ....

I was in Junior or Senior year of high school.. had my '73 Plymouth Duster (link) with a 318.. I had spun the rod bearing in it while barreling down 580 at about 100mph (remember how that thing handled. .. it's scary to think about now..) when all of a sudden .. BANG CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK...

So, while I was rebuilding the engine in my ROP auto machinist class, my Mom was letting me drive her car - a 1983 Pontiac Grand Prix with the weakest V6 in the history of the world.  I took that car over the tracks a NUMBER of times.. got it completely airborne on several occasions to the point where I was counting the 'hang time'.  Well... seeing as how we had originally moved to CA from MA just a couple years prior, the car had some rust going on in the exhaust, and she decided to take it to Midas to get the exhaust looked at because it was leaking.. I went along with her for some strange reason.  As they had it on the lift to inspect the exhaust, the service writer comes in to talk to her about her shocks..
somehow.. (ahem) they had all completely blown out their seals and it was apparent the suspension had been bottomed out ... .HARD.  She ended up having to replace all 4 shocks, some bushings, and the exhaust that day.  To this day, she still doesn't know what happened that caused her suspension to bottom out.

Then, not too long after that.. I was still driving the Grand Prix, and was going up the Sunol Grade on a hot summer day.. with the AC cranked.. the car was struggling up the grade, so what did I do? Floored it, of course.  It didn't respond well.  Turned out it was overheating (I don't recall ever seeing a guage or dummy light)... I blew up the engine.  Yeah, the Duster engine was still dismantled at this point too. 

Needless to say, I quickly finished up the rebuild on my Duster engine and mom never let me borrow her car again.

Remember the dirt patch right near there, Mark, where guys would try to scale that hill in their 4 x 4's?

[cal_gecko]

Oh yeah. .. I remember that hill.  Man - it's amazing some of us lived to see our twenties...

[crofty]

off of Happy Valley Rd, right? I scared the bejeezus out of Eisberg in the buggy out there once!