Fun times on the road . . . way back when
I attended an urban college in Philadelphia in the late 70's early 80's. On the other side of the State was Pittsburgh, birthplace of my Dad. I had family there and family friends that included several daughters my age, in the ritzy neighborhood of Sewickley, just west of Pittsburgh. You see, as a youngster our family summer trips from our home in Maryland always included a stop at in one particular Sewickley house, the home of Aunt Jan and Uncle John and their 3 daughters. Not actually familial, Uncle John and my Dad were childhood pals, and went to boarding school together. During these family trips through the late 60's and early 70's I watched with fascination as Uncle John's and Aunt Jan's daughters "grew" into their swim suits around their backyard pool.
So it was natural that in the spring of 1980, just done with my second year of college, as soon as finals were over, that I would try to get to Pittsburgh and on to Sewickley as I knew that Uncle John and Aunt Jan had a cruse planned and that the daughters had the big house (and early open pool!) for three weeks. Now I had no car but Philly and Pittsburg are connected by the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A guy on my dorm floor could get me to Bedford, 2/3's of the way, and I figured I'd hang around the rest stop there, look for cars with Ohio plates and hitch the rest of the way. Any place near Pittsburgh and one of the girls would come and get me.
At the rest stop dropped off just past Bedford I only had to hang out for an hour or so before I met a nice elderly couple with Ohio plates heading west willing to take me. Good that I got a ride, bad that it is now late afternoon. Good that they have a Plymouth station wagon with lots of room, bad that the sky is getting dark with storm clouds. We get back on the Turnpike and head into the storm, just starts raining like crazy. After an hour or two, the elderly couple start taking about stopping for the night. I ask them to just let me out at the next rest stop, but they won't have any of that. Before I know it we are through the tolls and off into rural PA while they (lightly) argue about how to find "your brother Frank's house". We drive into a semi-suburban community east of Pittsburgh near Monroeville. I'm too far to call my "cousins" for a pick up, and couldn't tell them where I was anyway. We pull into the driveway of a rancher house. The elderly couple, and me, hurry through the rain to the front door. After the quick "we are on our way back to (suburb of Cleveland) and we decided to stop" there are greeting-hugs all around between the elderly couple and 'Frank and his wife'. I am introduced as "and this young man is Dave, we picked him up on the Turnpike". No hugs for me, but nice smiles. Frank and his wife younger than the elderly couple, maybe about my parents' age. Once in the house, Frank yells into the basement "your uncle and aunt from Cleveland are here!" and he tells me, "the kids are down there, go ahead."
I go down into a classic 1970's basement den, wood paneling, large console TV, "hi-fi" center, sofa and lots of bean bag chairs. Teen boy, 14ish, teen girl, 16ish watching TV. They barely look up, but at the first commercial, the girl, bored, says "so, you're a cousin?"
"Nope. Hitchhiker."
And I thought my little brother and I invented the "Fart Game".
