I have had two potentially life altering experiences with the police, either of which could have gone South faster than a Molly Hatchet song.
1974 in South Carolina. I had just finished my Junior year in HS. My Dad and I had moved to South Carolina in late summer 1973 so I could start my junior year in HS at Saint Angela Academy in Aiken, SC. He was the head of the Savannah River Plant, the source of most of the weapons grade material for our nuclear weapons. Other stuff as well.
The rest of the family followed after the ranch in California sold and my two sisters finished their college semesters: The whole clan was together early in the summer of 1974.
I was taking one of the best looking women I have ever met, and she is still stunning, to a Leon Russel concert in Columbia, SC. We were driving to the concert in my 1960 VW that still had California plates on it.
We were also smoking pot. In South Carolina. In 1974. This is central: I was not in Boulder circa 2017. People went away for smoking pot in South Carolina in 1974.
We were on I-20 east bound headed to Columbia, happy and dopey in the right lane, going the speed limit. It had begun to rain. Out of nowhere there was a police car on my bumper. In another second he lit me up.
This was serious. Since it was raining our windows were up and it was going to be difficult to get rid of the smell.
F me running.
We were approaching a closed trucker weight station and I decided to pull into the station since, why not, doom awaited and I could get off the interstate. The station is still there. I remember the near death experience every time I drive by. See pictures below.
As I pull up to the little shack, I notice two motorcycles, 70's choppers, parked next to the shack and two interesting looking fellows sitting under the eaves of the shack, getting out of the rain.
I stop and the police car pulls up between my VW and the shack, between me and the motorcycles.
The policeman gets out, stares and me and Laurie (our windows are down trying in vain to air out the mess), looks at the two motorcyclists, then back at me and says, "Beat it".
To this day I wonder about just how different my life was about to be. I have no idea why we got lit up, just that we did an it wasn't going to go well.
Two sketchy looking dudes, getting out of the rain changed my life.
