From: pez@manhattan.com (Gizmo) Subject: The Adventures Of Smacks Past (Part 15) Hey, You Gotta Get There Somehow! Date: 1996/09/24 newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard THE ADVENTURES OF SMACKS PAST (PART 15) "HEY, YOU GOTTA GET THERE SOMEHOW!" Well as memory serves me correctly, it must have been around 1967 when this little adventure took place. I was strung out to the tune of about $80 a day. The dope was clean and strong and readily available just about anywhere in New York City. At the time, I had a great connection named Manny, who lived in the Southwest Bronx. For those of you with memories that go back that far, this was the University Ave, Ogden Ave, Nelson Ave & 168th Street part of the Bronx. I got started early that day. I drove my little 1966 Volkswagen from the Northeast part of the Bronx and headed over to the Bainbridge section. After parking around 206th Street & Bainbridge Avenue, I headed down 206th Street until I reached the park section of Moshulo Parkway. This was a nice little local hangout for humanity's lowest and worst. The neighborhood, like many parts of the Bronx back then, was mostly middle class "Archie Bunker" type folks. But the 60's psychedelic movement had a huge fallout into hard drug abuse. So, this area was frequented by hippie dropouts and older hard core junkies. I got into a very cool thing of bringing twenty to thirty $5 (pound bags) to this local, and it didn't take long to sell whatever I had. So for the better part of the afternoon, I sold off all the dope I had. By the time I was done, it was about 6pm in the afternoon. I had about $350 now, and I proceeded to call Manny to go and reup. I got him on the phone and we agreed to meet in about one hour. So I piled into my car and headed North on Moshulo Parkway, down Van Cortland Avenue to pick up the Major Deegan (I-87) expressway heading south. Even before I reached the highway it started to rain. And rain, and rain. By the time I got on the highway it was coming down in buckets. I was particularly stressed out from selling dope all day, and I just wasn't in the mood. All I wanted to do, all I ever wanted to do back then was get more dope. Anyway, I'm heading South on the highway, and it looked like forty days and forty nights of floods. You couldn't see two feet in front of you. Also, this was the winter and it was already dark out. My headlights were for shit. But being in the state that I was in, I plowed ahead. I was in the left lane doing about 50 miles per hour like a complete ass. As I cleared the Fordham Road underpass, I was unprepared for what happened next. No sooner did I clear the underpass that I saw HEADLIGHTS FACING ME!!! All this now happened in a flash. I realized that someone had "spun out" before I got there and had his car stalled in the left lane facing traffic. Probably it happened a few seconds before I reached the underpass. With no time to even brake, I simply braced myself against the steering wheel and pinned myself against the seat. WHAM. CRASH. UNCONSCIOUSNESS... I must have been out for about 15 minutes or more. When I "came to" I realized fully what had happened. I hit the stalled car at 50 miles per hour in a Volkswagen. Some of you may remember that Volkswagens had the engine the rear. So the entire front of my car was squashed right up to the fire wall. How I didn't get killed is beyond me. The windshield was broken where I hit my head. Fortunately no one was hurt. The owners of the car I hit had already gotten out of their vehicle! When I recovered enough, I saw the cops. This one officer came over to my window and asked if I was all right? I told him, "I thought I was." The first thing on my mind was, "Oh shit, I'm gonna be late for my connection." My watch confirmed that I was indeed late. I checked my top shirt pocket. The $350 bucks and the two bags of dope I had left were still there!! But I needed to leave. Two bags of dope was not gonna get me through the night. It became clear that leaving the scene of the accident was going to take awhile. You know. You gotta go through all the usual exchanging of license and insurance info. This took about another thirty minutes. When it was over, I wondered how the fuck I was gonna get to Manny's house. It was still pouring rain. I had no umbrella. Fuck. And then it struck me... "Excuse me officer, but I was on my way to visit my Uncle when this misfortune struck. Do you guys think you can drive me to 168th and Ogden Avenue?" And thanks to New York's finest I got a nice safe ride to the connections house. Hell, there were enough times when they drove me to the slammer. See, sometimes cops can do you a real favor! Copyright 1996 Gizmo