PorkPieGuy
Platinum Member
I thought this may be fun since we are getting close to Halloween. It could be about the gig, the ride home, weird people you've met on the road while gigging, or whatever.
??Any takers? ?
??Any takers? ?
Driving home after a 2 week stint from Florida to PA, circa 1984, a 22 hour drive, with 3 guys jammed into the front bench seat of my 1966 Chevelle (the back seat I removed to get more gear in) We were doing illegal stimulants and smoking marijuana when I got pulled over for speeding. The result was an 80 dollar ticket and watching a half ounce of weed fall about 50 feet into the swamp. Took off, drove maybe 5 miles and decided to go back and try to retrieve the weed from the swamp with a fishing rod.
We managed to spot the weed with a flashlight, I tried to hook it, but I couldn't, so I decided to try duct tape. Well stupidly, I tied a new full roll of tape on with the sticky side out. But it broke my line. So I decided to go after it in person, hopping the guardrail, making my way down the long embankment. So I get to the bottom and start making my way over to the goodies in the muck. Meanwhile I'm sinking down further and further in the mud. I was maybe 20 feet away from paydirt, but with actual running water between me and my target....when I hear some kind of small life form near me make some kind of noise and that's when it all hits me...I am thigh deep in a Florida swamp...at like midnight. There's alligators in Florida. There were probably alligators that lived in this swamp I am mired in. I got truly scared and said, "I'm I'm I'm getting out of here!" and got out as fast as I could. Hopped back in the car, took off. Wouldn't you know I get pulled over a 2nd time by the same cop. I had mud up to my thighs. He said, "Mr. Hinkel, what are you doing back here?" I told him some lie about dropping my license...He gave me a 2nd speeding ticket.
The only time I was more scared than that is when I lost my steering merging onto Rt. 95. I determined it takes a human 10 full turns of the wheel before said human realizes he has no steering lol. I just missed getting clipped going 60 mph, was able to pull off the road onto onto a grassy median (which isn't there now, it's another lane) looked under my truck, and there was a 4 foot steering arm hanging down. I saw where it went, inserted it, got a long skinny screw and used it as a temporary cotter pin to keep my steering arm in place, and I drove away 5 minutes later.
On the way home from a gig in Philly, I lost my windshield wipers during a bad rainstorm, again, in my 66 Chevelle. So I got some clothesline and loosely tied a rope to each wiper arm base. I brought the rope ends into the cab via the wing windows, and alternately pulled on the ropes to operate the wipers. I had to steer the car with my knee. Manual steering on that car. I'm thankful I have 4 way coordination.
Lol.. that's a great story! Much better than my first ever gig as a jazz trio at an big old run down hotel - where the owner said he wanted to 'attract a higher class of clientele'. Little did we know when we walked in for the first night of a 3-week engagement - that the club was notoriously dangerous - usually packed with drunk construction workers and shady criminals who wanted nothing but country and bar fights! The only thing missing was the chickenwire from the Blues bros. movie. I did setup my cymbals on steep angles to deflect flying beer bottles..Needless to say, after surviving the first night we learned 30 country songs the next day.. we needed the money to pay for all the equipment that was stolen after the first show! In the second week we ended up getting a police escort out of the hotel. Fun times!....when I hear some kind of small life form near me make some kind of noise and that's when it all hits me...I am thigh deep in a Florida swamp...at like midnight. There's alligators in Florida. There were probably alligators that lived in this swamp I am mired in.
Alright DW members redeemed themselves-some great stories!!!!! I've never believed in ghost however I've had some strange things happen I can't explain and had a weird feeling of being watched back in college days living in old 1800s homes. Now in 70s a friend and I were riding down the road-in a slightly altered state-when this solid white horse bolted in front of us and started running down highway for quite while then suddenly bolted and just vanished. We said nothing driving some 55-65 miles an hour on road till after it vanished and at same time asked "Did you see that f#$@ing horse?". He thought it was a ghost-I said it was a real horse-looked real to me LOL. Animals can quickly vanish if they like-I remember being late for class driving 100mph to class-I went around a bend and saw this big tail coming out of a huge trash bin on side of road. I thought it was a dog but it stood up and it was a big cat (looked just like the Colorado mountain lion my Dad had stuffed on a big rock in his trophy room)-it was huge. It jumped and cleared to middle of road, next jump into other side of road that had just been cleared so just light brush and it just vanished. Now when I was a kid and either when I drowned or when I got electrocuted and was out I had a weird vision too long to detail that was super freaky related to some of my dead relatives I didn't know. My Mom was very intuitive of peoples intentions-she was gracious to everyone but she'd "get a feeling". I never believed that crap but dang if she wasn't right in all instances-she'd warn my Dad and bros and I of people we should be wary-which of course we all ignored that silly crap LOL.