Re: The Police! (Long)
Don’t get me wrong …I respect the police and the service they perform. - This is just some Corvette experience I had as a kid, which I recall, with humor and fondness. By way of background. when I was 17, my Dad told my twin sister and me that he would be willing to buy us a nice safe practical car to share – the car was a 2 door 6 cylinder Black Rambler with rubber floor mats!
You’d think I would have been grateful but the part I did not mention is that he previously bought my older brother a brand new 64 GTO when he was 18, which had set my hopes a bit higher for us.
Anyhow – the normal car crazy kid I was would not let me be caught dead in the Rambler so I negotiated. I asked him if he would help smooth out my cash flow (I cut lawns in the summer on a crew and - sold shoes too - made good money) I would like to buy an older Corvette and fix it up. My Dad was game and I bought a trashed 61 Corvette Hardtop only for $600. (Lesson learned - spend more money for a better car to start with!)
Anyway – I spent 2 years building that Corvette (my mother loved it because she always knew where I was – in the garage!) Fast forward to 1970 – I finished the car and it was a Honduras Maroon beauty – It was all stock except for the brand new 1970 crate motor LT1 which I bought from the parts counter at Baldwin Chevrolet and had warmed over by Baldwin Motion. It had headers and 67 side pipes which were tucked up along the chassis side rails behind the rockers exiting just ahead of the rear wheels. This is important to know because this is where the fun begins re the Long Island, New York police departments.
I belonged to the local Corvette club and the SCCA and enjoyed track time at Bridge Hampton racetrack as well as Watkins Glen and Lime Rock, Connecticut. It was a hot street car with 4:11 rear and was loud as hell. Because I had lots of high speed track time I was never tempted by the local boys to street race (although Sunrise Highway running East from Baldwin all the way to the end of Long Island was incredibly active every Friday and Saturday nights) – hence my frequent run-ins with the police.
I think the first problem the police had was how was it that this long haired kid was driving a Corvette like this – was it stolen? Who is it registered to? Does he have drugs? Etc – remember this is 1970. Also – the car was loud as hell so how could it be legal??
So my first funny encounter is in a parking lot of all places! It was a Saturday early evening and I had just gotten off work as a shoe salesmen at Shoetown (don’t laugh – I was the #1 sales guy and made really good money) – needed that money to feed the Corvette and pay for College myself). So as we are all merging into the exit lane to exit the parking lot – there is a police car in the lot making his way out – so as we got closer I had the option to be polite and wave him ahead or just go ahead of him – so the jerk I was I just popped out in front of him and - looking in my rear view mirror – I see I had gotten his attention – and I see he is looking at me looking at him! I make a right out of the lot with him behind me and now we are on the public street – there is a red light ahead and I make a right on red which is lawful – I see him follow me and as soon as I make the turn – boom – on go his red lights and he signals me to pull over. Now remember – I am an immature 19 year old with long hair and a mild attitude so when he pulls me over – and I know I have done nothing illegal – I am a bit miffed. He saunters over to my drivers door - and slowly says – “give me your license and registration - and also asked me – is this your car son? I say yes and hand over the perfect credentials – everything is in order. He looks the stuff over – goes back to his car – gets on his radio – does what every he does and slowing saunters back to my drivers window – he then gruffly says – get out of the car now!
I am real miffed now because I know I am absolutely clean … so with adrenaline rushing I promptly and aggressively swing open my door obeying his command – oh… did I mention he was still standing directly outside my door?? Boom --- right into his kneecap! He jumped back and was trying to hide the pain and I stood up saying --- sorry sir but you told me to get out!
I think he was doing everything possible not to show the pain so he immediately told me to get back in my car and “get out of here before I change my mind”… I got out of there pronto – bare in mind … I’m not real proud of that incident just the way it happened.
My other experiences were quite predictable because every Friday and sometimes Saturday night (If I had no date) I would head out cruising bars on Eastern Long Island. I would just head east on Sunrise highway and pick bars to stop in through the various towns and see which ones might be hot and which were not (truth be told most were not hot so I just had nice long ride out East and then back home) But… when I was out on that highway – every time I was out on that highway – I would be stopped by the police. If it was not Baldwin Police – it was Freeport Police – if not Freeport – then it was Massapequa and so on. The routine was like this – minding my own business – behaving myself – never even a chirp of the tires although I must admit that with 4:11’s and a close ratio with those side pipes – and with enthusiastic acceleration to the speed limit - everyone knew where I was within a mile radius.
So when they would pull me over I was always in good shape – even though I went to bars I would not drink much so never a problem – carried no drugs so no problem there – they would check my license – but here is the bizarre part – remember this is 1970 - they ask me to get out of the car and they would search it -- and I mean search it – open trunk – take out spare – ask me how to open the rear convertible storage compartment to which I had to explain you can not open it as the hard top is bolted down – flashlight under the dash – it was amazingly comical and since I was bored to death half the time anyhow – it was rather funny. Also – they would always start writing me up for illegal exhaust system to which I would explain that they were stock original GM Corvette mufflers (side pipes) like you would find an any of the Stingrays - most of the time we would both go down on the street and look! (remember there were a lot 65,66,67 Stingrays prowling the streets so they knew I was right).
In all fairness – the police were only doing their jobs – there was a lot of street racing going on – some pretty terrible accidents as a result. Many times after the police and I got a chance to talk – they would really get into the car and we’d have good chats about how I built it, what engine it was etc. I think many of them respected me for building my own corvette. One young guy – (older then me of course) even suggested that we both take off together to see what mine would do (he did not use the word race). I respectfully declined because fortunately – I got so much high speed race time road racing on the tracks I mentioned that the last thing I wanted to do was risk that precious Corvette on a public street.
Anyway – sorry to be so long winded but just wanted to share just some of my personal experiences with that incredible Corvette – I was so lucky to have a Corvette at such a young age.
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