By Brad Gallagher:
Hitch-Hiking. Does anyone even do that any more? Walking backward down the street facing the oncoming traffic with your right arm extended, your fist clenched, and your thumb sticking straight up in the air. You hope as you walk that a driver will stop and give you a ride either as far as you are going, or at least as far as they are going. Of course with the latter you need to start all over again once the car stops and try to catch another ride the rest of the way. It is not an easy way to travel, but back in the early 1980’s I did this quite often.
I graduated from high school in the late 1970’s and soon found myself in college. I didn’t have much money, and the bucket of bolts car I owned was constantly breaking down. I could hardly afford gas let alone repairs, so I relied on hitch-hiking more often than not for my transportation. Of course the world was a much safer place back then, especially around a small rural college town, so I wasn’t concerned about safety, and I got to meet quite a few interesting people. This is the story about one of those interesting people that I met while on the road.
As The Story Goes:
It was the spring of 1980 on a beautiful day in New England and I had been visiting my sister who lived two towns over from the college I attended. It was such a nice day, I had decided to walk the whole way to her house that morning. The walk wasn’t terribly long, in fact it only took about 45 minutes to get there. However, while visiting I completely lost track of time and suddenly realized that I had a class in half an hour. “Well Sis, I’ve gotta go” I said, and I started my walk back to the college at a faster pace than the walk there. As I walked I would quickly turned around and stick my thumb up in the air every time I heard a car approaching from behind. After about 15 minutes a little pick up truck slowed down and stopped right next to me.
I jumped in and sat down in the passenger seat next to the driver who looked to be about 10 or 15 years older than my father at the time. He said “Hi, where are you headed?” I told him I was headed back to the college, and ironically he was going to the college too. We had a little chuckle over that, and we started talking. “Small world”, he said. It turned out he was one of the professors who taught at the school, however we had never previously met, but I did have a few friends who were attending his classes.
We talked about the different people at the college that we both knew for a few minutes to pass the time during the drive, and after that topic had dried up he pointed to the cassette player in the dash and said “That’s my nephew”. The music had been playing so softly that up until that point that I hadn’t even noticed that it was on. My first thought when he said that was, “Wow, this guy thinks the cassette player is his nephew”. So, I just said “What?” He replied, “No, really. It is”.
So, I politely asked him who his nephew was, and he replied, “Boz Scaggs”. “Really??”, I said with probably a little too much astonishment. “Yes”, he said. “This is his newest album. It hasn’t even been released in the stores yet. He was visiting us over the weekend and he gave me a copy”. I was a fan of Boz Scaggs back then (and I actually still am). My brother had a copy of his previous album, “Silk Degrees”, and I loved it. Now I was listening to his newest album before it even hit the record stores. This was cool!
Once we arrived at the college I thanked him for the ride and went on to class. I don’t think I ever spoke with him again, but it was an experience that has stayed fresh in my mind for over 40 years. Now, I don’t know for sure if he was telling the truth or not, but then again, why would he lie to a hitch-hiker who he had never met before? I believe that his story was true. After all, how many people get to hear a famous artist’s music before it is release.
The album we were listening to was called “Middle Man”. It was released in April 1980 and it peaked at #8 on the Billboard top 200 album charts that year. I don’t recall which songs from the album played on that cassette player during our brief journey together, but I like to believe I heard “JoJo” and “Breakdown Dead Ahead” (the two biggest hits from the album). One of which reached #15, and the other #17 on the Billboard Top 100 charts. That would be super cool if I really did hear the album’s two biggest hits in that truck that day, but at that point, of course, I wouldn’t have even known that they would become hits. What I do know is that it was a once in a lifetime experience to catch a ride with the uncle of Boz Scaggs.
Listen to JoJo – click here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-GDD8yFyo
Listen to Breakdown Dead Ahead – click here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0r4Zg7h2c
Well, thank you for reading my ramblings about a day in my life many years ago. And come back and see me very soon right here on As The Story Goes.
Did you know that you can have my blogs delivered straight to your inbox? Just visit my home page and sign up. https://as-the-story-goes.com/home/
AS THE STORY GOES 