"The Summer of Luv."

When I was 18 years old I was a little odd, shall we say. I played by my own rules. I did things my way. I was a 18 year old bohemian living in a mid 1970's suburb of Cincinnati. At the time of this great adventure, I was living with my mother. During this time in American history things were a little different. At least that's my excuse...I was working at my first place of employment after dropping out of high school the year before. My dad died in 1975 so that left my mother and me. My first place of employment was at U-Haul. My job was putting trailer hitches on peoples cars who wanted to attach a U-Haul trailer and get the hell out of this "wonder years, middle American town" we called Reading, Ohio. On the day in question, I had set up an appointment with the local Chevy dealer to have a much needed exhaust system put on the 1968 Camaro that I was driving back then. The tail pipe and muffler were dragging on the ground behind my Camaro so I had to get it in that day. The service person said on the phone that if I dropped it off around 8:00 a.m. he would give me a loaner to drive to work that day. Simple. After watching my car being driven away from the service desk I asked the service fella about my loaner. Loaner? How old are you? he asked. 18 I replied. He then informed me that a person had to be at least 21 to get a loaner. I did the best 18 year old middle American kid "freak-out" I could muster on such short notice and stormed out into the parking lot of the service department wondering how I was going to get to work. The first thing I saw at that moment of destiny was a brand new 1978 Corvette. Red. The keys were in it. I could see them dangling there in the morning sunlight. Apparently the Corvette had been damaged during its transport to the Chevy dealer. The driver side window had been knocked out. I wouldn't dare believe for a second that I could climb into a red Chevy Corvette and drive it off the lot in the middle of the morning rush hour...but I could climb into the white Chevy Luv pick-up truck sitting innocently behind the Chevy Corvette... The Luv truck had the same problem as the Corvette. Broken driver side window. I nervously climbed into the said truck of Luv, nonchalantly started the engine and drove off the lot. I had to get to work! There were desperate people depending on me to install trailer hitches on their cars so they could get the hell out of this "wonder years, middle American town" we called Reading, Ohio...

For the next three months I drove that little truck everywhere. I figured that the fewer people that knew about the trucks history the better off I'd be. I came up with the following tale. I said that my cousin worked on the railway system and being that he would be working on the "rails " all summer I might as well use his truck. Perfectly simple. Just like me... I even told my girl friend (now my wife) this story. It was going very well up until one late summer evening my friend Brian and I were out driving around enjoying "nature" shall we say. I was turning right onto a neighborhood street at the same time one of Readings finest was pulling up to the stop sign as he was coming out of the same neighborhood street. Our eyes met at that split second of recognition as he pointed his finger directly at me. It was on... I remember telling Brian to "hold on." I floored the little trucks gas pedal to the floor board and made a quick left on the next street as the police officer was making his u-turn in hot pursuit. I made another right turn and told a very confused Brian that "when the truck stops...run!" I knew we had only seconds to get out of the truck and run around one of the Cape Cod style homes that lined the street before the cop cleared the corner and saw us. At about 45mph I shoved the automatic floor shifter into park. No brakes at all... Before the truck came to a complete stop I was out the door and sliding across the hood, ala; Starsky and Hutch. I picked the two nearest houses to run between with Brian right behind me. We had done the impossible. We stopped the truck, exited it and made it to cover before the policeman had come around the corner and made visual contact with us. We virtually disappeared... Just when I thought we might make it, a girls voice rang out. "Hi Brian. Hi Charlie". I had picked the one house to run behind that Terri (last name withheld) and her entire family were cooking out in their back yard. Terri had been in our class at school since Kindergarten. "Hi Terri" we said as we hurdled her fathers fence and disappeared from her obviously horrified families view. I almost forgot to mention that I was wearing bib overalls, no shirt, gym shoes and a bright orange U-haul baseball hat. Brian was less conspicuous in his blue jeans, t-shirt and a large white plaster cast encasing his right arm from wrist to elbow... That was the first and last time I ever ran from the police. It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Brian and I found ourselves on the property of the Sacred Heart Catholic School within moments. It was about 2 miles from where we left the Chevy Luv. We then trekked across a corn field and out onto Kemper road. One of us put his thumb out and the very first car stopped and picked us up. The gentlemen took both of us wild eyed teenagers down to Reading Road but he was unfortunately going to turn left back towards Reading so we excused ourselves and started walking north on Reading Road. We had traveled approximately 5 miles within ten minutes! On foot!! We didn't get far down Reading Road before an Evendale police officer drove slowly by us. "Be cool!" is what I'm certain one or both of us said to each other as the cop made a u-turn and pulled in behind us.

I remember exactly what my brother-in-law/attorney said to me on the phone from the Reading police station which is where we ended up after being arrested by the Evendale cop. He said "Charlie, you're going to prison!!!" and I believed him... They released Brian and eventually dropped the charges against him because like I said, he knew nothing about the fact that the Chevy was "stolen" per say... I went to juvenile court a month or so later and told the very nice judge that I had seen the truck parked outside a fictitious girlfriends apartment for three months with the keys in it and that I had given into temptation one night after having a few beers. "After all your honor, the keys where in it!..." The judge bought the story and said if I went and explained to the owner of the Chevy dealership how I had ended up with his truck , all charges would be dropped. I thanked her and headed off to see the dealer. He also bought the story. The truck had been missing for almost three months but I convinced everyone that after I succumbed to temptation one night and was caught driving the Chevy Luv within moments...

The dealer said he understood. He informed me that he was also young at one time in his life and wanted to know if I would be interested in buying another one of his Chevy Luv trucks being that I liked them so much. I declined the offer and left the Chevy dealership no worse for wear but with one hell of a story and a ton of great memories from my "summer of luv."

note: I'm not proud of this story. Those were different times back then and I was a little different myself...Harmless, but different. I realize now just how stupid my actions were and how lucky I was not to have gotten in more trouble than I did. It was my first and last stolen vehicle.

S. Monkey