So, I will move quickly past playing with matches under a mature pine tree with a few years worth of dead pine needles at our feet and jump to late '71 or early "72. I was 17 by then and not really a kid anymore, but my friends and I had our drivers licenses by then and were capable of real damage doing stupid stuff.
One Friday or Saturday night we were "Cruising the Creek". Think "American Graffiti" but a few years later and a few miles North and East of Modesto in Walnut Creek, Ca. ( We still were listening to "The Wolfman" though, we could pick him up at night when he was on XERB). This was before "Cruising" was banned by old fuddy duddys in charge of making City Ordinances".
I was not driving. We were in Jim's car, a "67 Malibu with a 283 small block and a 3 speed manual transmission. Jim was maybe 4 years older than the rest of us, a friend from Bethel Island where my friend Kenny's parents had a weekend home. Being older Jim had a job earning money he spent mostly on his car including nice fat tires. ( I was running retreads on my "61 Galaxy.)
There were four of us in the car. Jim was driving, Kenny had shotgun and I was in the backseat with my big mouth and another friend.
So we were going up and down South Main Street when we passed by, going the other direction a '69 Olds Delta 88 with what was probably a big block 455 and probably automatic transmission. These guys were older, out of high school, and maybe looking to impress younger females with older ladies being wise to their ways.
Words were exchanged and I don't remember exactly what I said but they replied something to the effect "we better not see you again". Well maybe one pass later we were going the same direction and more words were exchanged and I believe the words
"Yo mama" escaped my lips and the chase was on.
Fortunately we were headed North near Ygnacio Valley Road and made a quick left and then another onto 680 Southbound with a quick merge onto 24 and points west. Jim's' 3 speed had gained us some distance early but there was no way we were going to outpace a 455 big block over the long run. So, from the left hand lane doing in excess of 120 MPH, approaching the Central Lafayette exit which was a cloverleaf design, and the Olds' about 30 yards behind, Jim makes a hard right hand turn to make the exit.
I believe the fat tires Jim was running made the difference, we would have rolled over a few times otherwise and the Delta '88 didn't even try to make the turn and had to go another few miles to the Upper Happy Valley Road exit to turn around.
This excitement ended the fun for the evening and we retired back to Kens' house for a beer to (Jim could buy) calm down and to tell me to keep my mouth shut next time.
