440.
Yeah so it's been over a week since I've had a chance to write. Well that's not exactly true, since I've had a chance to blog. I've written a few more pages on my second book, catch as catch can. We just returned from what I hope is our last trip to the store, any store. Christmas, you know the deal. My wife ran into the store while our younger daughter and me waited in the Jeep. She had her Game Boy and some CD's with her. She hands me a CD and says track five. She really digs The B-52's. "Love Shack" comes crankin' through the three good speakers in our old Jeep, the opening lines get me thinking. They sing about the car, the one that is "as big as a whale". They say it's a Chrysler.
When I was seventeen and I first got my driver's license my father had a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker. That car had a big motor, a 440 four barrel with a posi rear. That car was in fact "as big as a whale". One of my sisters took out a fire hydrant with that car, dented the driver side fender only slightly. The trunk in that thing could fit several people rather comfortably, we found that out going to the drive-in movies on Route 10. There is no longer a drive-in movie theatre on Route 10, but there was one in 1979. It was a rare occasion when I was allowed to drive that car, understandably so. That car had climate control and an eight track built in from the factory, cool.
When my parents were out of town one weekend, visiting relatives in Connecticut, I took that car without permission. A bunch of us went camping up in Vermont, it was something we did from time to time. My old Ford van was down, the gas tank had a hole in it and I hadn't yet gotten a new one. We fit two large tents and most of our gear in the trunk of that car, four of us along with the rest of our gear rode up to Vermont where we met up with the rest of the crew at the camp site. It was my understanding that my parents were not to return to New Jersey until that Monday, I was mistaken. I forget how it all happened, I just know that I had to get that car back in the driveway before six o'clock Sunday night. That big 440 four barrel sure came in handy that day. We made it back with about two hours to spare. My parents thought it was nice that me and my buddy decided to wash the car for them, since we were bored and had nothing else to do that weekend.
Several months later my father asked me to take the car to work with me one Saturday, he wanted me to put the snow tires on. I had done the same for my mother earlier in that same week, it seemed like a reasonable request since I worked at a full service garage. I pulled the snows out of the rack and threw them in the trunk of the Chrysler. At the end of the work day when the boss allowed us to use the lift and the bays to work on our own vehicles, I pulled the big New Yorker into the last of three bays and opened the trunk to remove the snows. When I had the trunk open I decided to check the condition of the spare tire, make sure it held enough air. I remember removing the valve stem cover and reaching into my pocket for my tire gauge, that's when I saw it. One of my friends had apparently stashed his bong underneath the spare tire. I remember that bong being passed around the fire in Vermont the previous summer. My father had been driving around with a hand turned (in metal shop of course) solid brass bong in the trunk of his car for like three or four months. I remember when I saw it there under the spare tire, my heart stopped for a second and all the blood ran out of my fingers and toes, then I started laughing.
Ten years later, when I was a cop, me and my partner stopped a van for running a red light. An odor of alcoholic beverage emanated from the interior of the van, the operator was asked to exit the vehicle and he complied. We determined that the aforementioned odor of alcoholic beverage was in fact emanating from the breath and person of the operator of said subject vehicle. A field sobriety test was performed, it was a toss up. Keep in mind that the legal limit in New Jersey in 1989 was .10, it's lower now. Also keep in mind that we were not a traffic unit and neither me or my partner were all that interested in locking a guy up just two days before Christmas. The guy was a nice guy, a decent hard working welder who had stopped at a go-go bar with co-workers for a little Christmas cheer on his way home from work that day. He was only two blocks from his house. Anyway, we had him if we wanted him, probably. So a search of the van was justified as a search incidental to arrest, if we decided to arrest him that is. The decision to arrest him would be made depending on the outcome of the search. I know it's not text book but it's reality. We were allowed to search the area that was in the driver's control, well it's a van. The guy said we could have a look when we asked him, said he had nothing to hide.
So I toss the van. Underneath the passenger seat I find a black in color small cylindrical plastic container with a grey in color snap on lid that appeared to be a 35mm film container. My training and experience led me to believe that the container may contain narcotics. I held the container up to my nose and detected the odor of marijuana. I know what marijuana smells like because I attended a controlled burn while a recruit at the police academy, at least that's how I'll testify in court. I ask the guy, what's in the container? He looked puzzled, his initial reaction was just that, puzzled. I opened the container and observed a small user quantity of suspected marijuana, that's when the guy got angry. He said he had allowed his son to borrow the van a couple of weeks earlier. He said his son wanted to help a friend who was moving. He said that his son or his son's friend must have left that in the van. I looked at my partner, he just shrugged. It was my call and I believed every word that guy said. Needless to say we didn't lock the guy up, we didn't even write him a ticket for the red light. We had him call his wife from a pay phone and she walked the couple of blocks down from their house and drove the van home. She was not happy about it, at all.
We cleared from the stop and went to get coffee, what else? We were talking about the stop and I told my partner about the bong in the trunk of my father's Chrysler. He almost choked on his coffee he laughed so hard.
When I was seventeen and I first got my driver's license my father had a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker. That car had a big motor, a 440 four barrel with a posi rear. That car was in fact "as big as a whale". One of my sisters took out a fire hydrant with that car, dented the driver side fender only slightly. The trunk in that thing could fit several people rather comfortably, we found that out going to the drive-in movies on Route 10. There is no longer a drive-in movie theatre on Route 10, but there was one in 1979. It was a rare occasion when I was allowed to drive that car, understandably so. That car had climate control and an eight track built in from the factory, cool.
When my parents were out of town one weekend, visiting relatives in Connecticut, I took that car without permission. A bunch of us went camping up in Vermont, it was something we did from time to time. My old Ford van was down, the gas tank had a hole in it and I hadn't yet gotten a new one. We fit two large tents and most of our gear in the trunk of that car, four of us along with the rest of our gear rode up to Vermont where we met up with the rest of the crew at the camp site. It was my understanding that my parents were not to return to New Jersey until that Monday, I was mistaken. I forget how it all happened, I just know that I had to get that car back in the driveway before six o'clock Sunday night. That big 440 four barrel sure came in handy that day. We made it back with about two hours to spare. My parents thought it was nice that me and my buddy decided to wash the car for them, since we were bored and had nothing else to do that weekend.
Several months later my father asked me to take the car to work with me one Saturday, he wanted me to put the snow tires on. I had done the same for my mother earlier in that same week, it seemed like a reasonable request since I worked at a full service garage. I pulled the snows out of the rack and threw them in the trunk of the Chrysler. At the end of the work day when the boss allowed us to use the lift and the bays to work on our own vehicles, I pulled the big New Yorker into the last of three bays and opened the trunk to remove the snows. When I had the trunk open I decided to check the condition of the spare tire, make sure it held enough air. I remember removing the valve stem cover and reaching into my pocket for my tire gauge, that's when I saw it. One of my friends had apparently stashed his bong underneath the spare tire. I remember that bong being passed around the fire in Vermont the previous summer. My father had been driving around with a hand turned (in metal shop of course) solid brass bong in the trunk of his car for like three or four months. I remember when I saw it there under the spare tire, my heart stopped for a second and all the blood ran out of my fingers and toes, then I started laughing.
Ten years later, when I was a cop, me and my partner stopped a van for running a red light. An odor of alcoholic beverage emanated from the interior of the van, the operator was asked to exit the vehicle and he complied. We determined that the aforementioned odor of alcoholic beverage was in fact emanating from the breath and person of the operator of said subject vehicle. A field sobriety test was performed, it was a toss up. Keep in mind that the legal limit in New Jersey in 1989 was .10, it's lower now. Also keep in mind that we were not a traffic unit and neither me or my partner were all that interested in locking a guy up just two days before Christmas. The guy was a nice guy, a decent hard working welder who had stopped at a go-go bar with co-workers for a little Christmas cheer on his way home from work that day. He was only two blocks from his house. Anyway, we had him if we wanted him, probably. So a search of the van was justified as a search incidental to arrest, if we decided to arrest him that is. The decision to arrest him would be made depending on the outcome of the search. I know it's not text book but it's reality. We were allowed to search the area that was in the driver's control, well it's a van. The guy said we could have a look when we asked him, said he had nothing to hide.
So I toss the van. Underneath the passenger seat I find a black in color small cylindrical plastic container with a grey in color snap on lid that appeared to be a 35mm film container. My training and experience led me to believe that the container may contain narcotics. I held the container up to my nose and detected the odor of marijuana. I know what marijuana smells like because I attended a controlled burn while a recruit at the police academy, at least that's how I'll testify in court. I ask the guy, what's in the container? He looked puzzled, his initial reaction was just that, puzzled. I opened the container and observed a small user quantity of suspected marijuana, that's when the guy got angry. He said he had allowed his son to borrow the van a couple of weeks earlier. He said his son wanted to help a friend who was moving. He said that his son or his son's friend must have left that in the van. I looked at my partner, he just shrugged. It was my call and I believed every word that guy said. Needless to say we didn't lock the guy up, we didn't even write him a ticket for the red light. We had him call his wife from a pay phone and she walked the couple of blocks down from their house and drove the van home. She was not happy about it, at all.
We cleared from the stop and went to get coffee, what else? We were talking about the stop and I told my partner about the bong in the trunk of my father's Chrysler. He almost choked on his coffee he laughed so hard.
posted by Squarehead at 9:51 PM
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