Lenfants-Auto Tales

It was to be a hot date. I was in the 10th grade and was taking the car out on one of my first dates. It was not exactly my car-it was my parents car. Back then most families had only one car, and that night the family car was mine.

My date was a beautiful young lady a couple of years younger. It was New Orleans and my date had actually won the title of Ms. Pirogue. Now a Pirogue is a small boat like a canoe. See the following link http://www.acmeoyster.com/lingo.html for ye who know not New Orleans lingo.

My date had to be in by 10:00 p.m. The evening had gone well. It was 9:00 P.M. On Canal Boulevard was a restaurant called Lenfants. Behind it in those days was a paved lot where young people went to park. So as fate would have (or as the libido would have it), we headed for the back of Lenfants. We drove in dimming our lights not to interrupt the multitude of other teenagers who had the same idea.

I pull into a spot, and immediately I hear a Bam!!! and a hiss more awful than any serpent. Not to be defeated by this situation, I find a flash light, jack up the car and begin to change the flat tire to the consternation of all those about me trying to carry out their nefarious purposes. Finally to hisses more loud than the flat tire, I finally get it changed. I jack the car down and guess what. You got it-the spare was also flat. It is now 10:15. My date is late. Her father is livid.

What can I do? I have to call my family and have my date call her family from the back of Lenfants. I am sweaty and dirty. My date is in trouble, and I am in trouble.

Did I mention that I was in my family's only car. My father has to borrow a car-which he does. He then has to come out to the infamous parking spot to rescue his oldest son and to take his date home.

I think we had to take the tire and get it fixed and then borrow a car and come out to Lenfants the next day to rescue the car.

That was the end of my romance with Ms. Piroque -but it was only the beginning of a series of wondrous but often horrible auto tales that I will be telling in the future.

HarleyDad