Let's go to Speedway!

As always this has not been proof read.

My sister Starla was a want to be joy rider. What is a joy rider? A joy rider is a teen who doesn’t have a license but still takes their parents car for drive. I had several friends that did this, I did it, I’m sure a good number of teens still do this today. Starla on the other hand was never too successful at joy riding.

Our oldest brother, Robin, had a Ford LTD. It was built in the late 70’s when vehicles were still the size of Sherman Tanks. A real piece of Detroit iron! Robin was 13 years older than me and married with a couple of step children. His car was parked at our house and keys left on the dinning room table.

One morning I watched as Starla fiddled with the keys several times before asking Karla, my other sister, and I if we wanted to ride to Speedway. Now, Speedway was a gas station/convienence mart about 2 miles from our house. Karla declined to take the trip were I was more than happy to accompany her at the temptation of a candy bar and a coke.

Starla and I walk to the LTD and climbed inside. She carefully adjusted the seat and tilted the steering wheel. Starla inserted the key in the ignition and vehicle’s engine soon roared to life.

Now, a late 1970’s Ford LTD was a large vehicle. I said it was a real piece of Detroit iron because it was, it was huge. This vehicle was a land yacht with a 351 cubic inch V8 engine. Also, my sister Starla is not the tallest person; in fact she is really quite short. I said she had adjusted the seat and steering wheel but she did not bother to adjust the mirrors.

Starla started the car, put it in reverse and proceeded to back into the closest tree to the driveway. Upon hitting the tree she immediately full it forward back into the same place it had be prior to the start of our joy ride. We got out of the car to assess the damage, of which I didn’t care because I wasn’t driving. The entire rear quarter panel had been caved in and Starla was about to melt down. It wasn’t but a few minute before Starla had a melt down and called Pop on the phone to let him know what had happened.

A melt down for Starla included a lot of tears. Pop was the type of guy to fold when he was confronted by a few tears so Starla pretty much got out of any real trouble.