Growing Up Gunnison

Mustang Touchdown

Mort had a 69 Mustang fastback that we all liked to cruise around in on Friday and Saturday nights.

On one of those nights, I’m pretty sure it was late fall when we were seniors. We were out cruising Tomichi like most weekends when we saw another friend.

Wilson had just finished working on his 75 Trans Am and had it out cruising.

Since we were young and full of vinegar you can imagine the revving engines, and chirping tires anytime we got close to him with the Mustang.

Finally we pulled up side by side at Main and Tomichi for a red light. The windows promptly rolled down and good natured insults flew back and forth.

You might think you know where this is headed, but even we weren’t stupid enough to drag race at Main and Tomichi.

I seem to remember Wilson saying something like “You think that piece of crap Ford can keep up?” I don’t remember our exact answer but we were soon racing around on side streets, up and down alleys, and through parking lots with Mort right on the tail of that Trans Am.

Wilson kept turning sharp corners at just about every intersection trying to lose us.

Mort said “I don’t know why he keeps doing this, that Trans Am is so much faster than us if he would just go straight. I can stay with him in turns all night long.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than we hit a slick spot on the wet road (there was snow on the grass but the road was just wet) and we spun around backwards facing the opposite direction.

Mort hit the gas and we tried to guess which direction Wilson went but we lost him.

We looked for a while and ended up in the parking lot of Pizza Hut (There was an arcade in the basement).

After a while we decided to do what bored teens do and go spin doughnuts on the football field.

The high school was just a couple blocks down the road and it was getting late so we jumped into the car and took off.

As I said there was snow on the grass, plus it had started snowing and we figured our tracks would be covered by morning.

Mort pulled into the parking lot and we found a place where a parking curb was missing and eased out onto the field.

As soon as we were clear Mort hit the gas and spun us around and we were riding a tilt-o-whirl spinning around and sliding side ways.

The windows were getting covered with snow and grass being thrown up into the air and Mort was having a hard time seeing.

All of a sudden he yells out “Oh Sh!T” as we are traveling sideways at about 20 miles an hour.

I strain my eyes through the snow and grass on the window only to see the goal posts fast approaching!

“HOLD ON!” someone yelled as we slide sideways perfectly between the goal posts.

The car came to a stop and we just sat there looking at each other.

“Maybe we better get out of here.” I said.

“Yah.” Mort said easing the car forward toward the spot we came through to get on the field.

We drove slowly back to Pizza Hut and parked. When we got out we noticed the car covered completely in grass!

We started wiping it off with our hands and tossing it to the side of the parking lot. We wouldn’t live down getting busted after we got away from the school.

The rest of the night, and if I remember the rest of that winter was pretty mellow as far as the Mustang went.

The next spring in my PE class we were outside on the football field when the teacher started talking about how horrible it was that someone had driven on the grass and made all these terrible tracks.

Pointing at the set leading through the goal posts, I told her “At least they scored.”