THE ARMED AND DANGEROUS CAPER

In the previously described caper about ketchup bottles you were introduced to my friend Skip Chaddock, and how his father Clyde heaved ketchup bottles through their screen door. Skip and I had another friend Dave Minor. In the summer of 1962 I was just 15 years old until my next birthday in September. I didn’t have a driver's license, but Skip and Dave were a year older than I was, and they had their drivers license. In the summer of 1962 we spent a lot of time going to movies at the Glen Dale drive in theater. We often hid other guys in the trunk of the car. We didn’t often get caught but we had a few close calls.

After the movie was over we had a ritual of riding up to South Wheeling to Green’s Doughnuts for a midnight snack. Green’s was an institution until just recently when they finally closed their doors due to recessionary times. In the summer of 1962 Green’s was going strong and they made great doughnuts. Even three blocks away you could smell the aroma of these freshly made doughnuts. On this particular Saturday night in June of 1962 we had gone to the Glen Dale drive in to see “The Magnificant Seven”. It was a great movie and very inspirational. We also worked up an appitite for Green’s doughnuts. Dave drove his father’s Ford Falcon up to Green’s and we bought two dozen of the delicious treats. There was one particular portion of W.Va Route 2 between Glen Dale and Wheeling the narrows. In the older days the narrows had lived up to their name, but by 1962 they were now a four lane road, but the falling rocks were hazzardous. We had no problems on the way to Greens.

The return trip was a different story. We neared the narrows and we saw a car swerving back and forth across all four lanes. We knew immediately we had to take caution there was a drunk driver ahead of us. Dave creeped up closer and closer. I noticed Skip grab something from the back seat where I was setting and roll his window down. Right then Dave made his move he whizzed around that drunk, and Skip leaned out that window pointing an electric drill at that drunk driver. I still can smell that burning rubber as the drunk locked his brakes. I’ll never forget the look of terror on that drunks face. He stopped that car on a dime.

The next day Dave, Skip and I were enjoying ourselves at Glen Dale Park playing basketball. We got tired out and walked down to Dave’s house. We stopped dead in our tracks there was a State Trooper’s car in front of Dave’s house. He was talking in the driveway with Dave’s dad Dale. We quietly sneaked up to hear what was going down. We heard the Trooper saying something about a chrome plated revolver. Dave said ”Aw shit.”, and walked up to the Trooper and told him about the drunk the evening before. He opened the Falcon’s door pulled out the drill and said “Right we were going to drill the idiot.” The Trooper laughed until the tears rolled off his cheeks and left us alone.