Look out, I'm on a roll!

Jack Lobdell was my hero. First, his real name was John but he was so cool they called him Jack. He was two years older than me and his dad was an officer so he lived in officer’s housing. HE HAD A CAR! I was a freshman, he was a junior. I had never been allowed to go anywhere with another kid driving. All of a sudden the people next door had two nieces show up to spend a couple of weeks in California. Naturally one of them was my age, one was his age. We were a small community so new girls always got noticed. Jack figured since they were staying next to me, I was the one to set him up with the older one in a double date. I had never been on a real date, why count on me? This was one of those times when Dad was out of town on a trip to school in New York. I didn’t see the real problem, so I asked Mom if I could go to town with Jack and the two girls to “get something to eat”. ( oh yeah, it was dark) She looked at me like I was from Mars and said “I knew you were going to do this when your father was gone”. The way she said it I knew I had created a stressful situation and it was a real toss up as to whether this was going to fly or not. After a couple of minutes looking around the room she relented and we got to go to Oxnard (6 miles) to Shoney’s for French fries and a coke. I cannot tell you the name of either of the girls today, but I do remember fries and a coke and that was the night Jack taught me to balance a salt shaker on its edge. I later graduated to being able to balance a sugar dispenser. Ta Da!
Unclewesty, over and out.