Surfing through YouTube the other day I came across an old song that brought a sly smile to my face. It took me back to a specific memory. The song was Sammy Johns’ 1975 top 5 hit “Chevy Van.”
“Cuz like a princess she was laying there, moonlight dancing off her hair, she woke up and took me by the hand, she’s gonna love me in my Chevy van and that’s alright with me.”
In Chicago and the outlying suburbs, you could not tune into 890 AM WLS or AM 1000 WCFL without hearing this tale of a guy in a van who picks up a lady hitchhiker. They end up dancing the dirty hula in said van before he drops her off the next day for the walk of shame in bare feet on a dirt road main street.
However, my memory is from two years AFTER this song was a radio hit. I take you to a warm summer night at the Ski Hi Twin Drive-In Theater on Route 53 in Addison, Illinois. I was with four high school buddies and we saw a double feature that night; I think the first flick was “Kentucky Fried Movie” and for sure the second was the low budget flick “The Van.” It was about a dorky guy who cruised around in his new van trying in vain to score with women. I won’t spoil any more of the plot in case you want to check out this cinematic classic. The song “Chevy Van” was prominently featured in the movie and this was at the back end of the whole late 70’s ‘Get a customized van all tricked out’ craze.
At the drive-in, we were in Ed Bergstrasser’s parents’ AMC Pacer. Remember those cars with the funny wide back end to them? Ed and I were in the front seats, Jim Briegel and Will Costello in the back seat and Mark Fredriksen was in the hatch in the back. Besides munching on popcorn, we had a decent load of beers in a cooler which we guzzled through the night.
After draining several Old Styles, Fredriksen had to take a pee and we wouldn’t let him out of the back hatch. He was stuck there and had to go. Mark, ever the resourceful type, took one of the empty popcorn containers and gave it a good fill. We thought he was bluffing, until the unmistakable sound of a urine stream filling up a popcorn tub was heard. We laughed our asses off and then Ed let Mark out to dump the pee out on the gravel road.
Sometime before the end of “The Van,” I ended up sitting in the back hatch and that’s when the trouble started. As the cars at the outdoor theater filed out at night’s end, Ed, hopefully less buzzed than the rest of us, made his way into the slow bumper to bumper traffic going south on Rt. 53 as we headed to North Avenue.
Thanks to the beers loosening my inhibitions, I thought with this wide back window, why not moon the car behind us? Not that any of my pals discouraged me, just the opposite. ‘Yeah, drop your shorts and show something.’ So, I did just that.
We laughed when the car I mooned honked their horn loudly as we all waited at a stoplight. However, those happened to be honks of anger. This became apparent when a very large and tough looking man in a black T-shirt and jeans came barreling out of his car to yell at us. This offended dude actually looked like ‘Dugan’ who was the tough guy character in “The Van.” The guy was pissed off because his girlfriend was with him and he didn’t appreciate me showing off my vertical smile to her.
The guy pounded on the roof of Ed’s parent’s car and wanted us to get out so he could pound on us. Our doors were locked and Ed tried to make like ‘Hey I didn’t tell him to moon you, be cool!’ But this guy was still ticked off; so ticked that he kneed the driver’s side door and put a dent in it! Fortunately, the red light turned green and Ed was able to speed off from our mad as hell antagonist. Luckily this door pounding man didn’t follow after us and we were home free.
We wondered how Ed was going to explain to his folks the dent in the driver’s side door but it turns out the dent just bounced out and wasn’t noticeable. My buddies and I saw lots of movies at that Drive-in but never had quite that kind of adventure again. The 53 Ski Hi Twin Drive-in has been gone for years, and I haven’t dropped my pants for strangers in a long time.
Now let’s take another spin in a “Chevy Van.” Country star Sammy Kershaw did a good cover of the song, but thanks to this musical memory, we need to hear the original.
NEXT BLOG- My Best Kiss Ever.