car dodging

last night over indian food and red wine i was reminiscing about something silly i used to do with my friends when we were in high school called "car dodging." it wasn't as dangerous as the name implies. but i guess sometimes it was still pretty dangerous. and awesome.

when you're about 15 years old in the burbs you become acutely aware of something you've always suspected but now know to be true. there is absolutely nothing to do in your hometown. and since you can't drive yet to go find something to do elsewhere, you have to make your own fun. we made up a game.

the only rule was that you had to get from point a to point b without letting headlights spot you. usually that meant instead of calling our parents for rides when something like soccer practice ended, we would just start walking. the routes we chose were usually windy, so you had some warning when you saw the glow of headlights approaching a corner.

basically someone would see lights and holler about it, and then everyone would dive headfirst into whatever driveway or treeline or hedge or flower bed or stream was within reach. and then once the cars had gone, we would reconvene in the street and continue walking. and you know, we probably punched each other in the arm a lot and talked about who we would be when we had the chance to be someone else and about the girls we passed in the hallway every day but never could muster the courage to talk to. it would still be about a year before i'd kiss a girl for the first time.

rarely did we arrive at our destination without someone having broken glasses because a pile of rocks looked like a flower bed, or a twisted ankle because they fell into a 4 foot ravine in someone's front yard (that was me). and one time we all ran into a driveway and hid behind shrubbery and the car pulled into that very driveway and i have never run so fast in my life. and when we'd get back to my place covered in mud and grass stains my mom always looked at us like we were retarded.

i guess it all kinda died down once we got our drivers licenses, but i know for sure we did it at least a few more times and just left our cars where they were. the bonds formed while car dodging last a lifetime, and we still talk about it whenever we get together.

i wonder if i could talk any of those guys into doing it one last time.