Home » Living » A Miami Vandal Remembers Cruising Broad Street In Globe: Part 3

A Miami Vandal Remembers Cruising Broad Street In Globe: Part 3

This interview with Miami alumni, Randy Chapman, was conducted and transcribed by Joyce McBride as part of our Centennial coverage planned for Globe High School in September of . Here, Randy picks up from describing the long line of cars which would snake from one end of Broad Street to the other.

“It was,” he said, ” American Graffiti.” Joyce McBride continues…. 

14JM:  It was like a dance, but with a machine.

 

RC:  Yes!  Yes, you would waltz your automobile down the street to the turnaround, turn around, come back up, head the other way, and perhaps you would run alongside another automobile that looked like they wanted to challenge you.  You would rev your engines and then you would tango!  Or jitterbug for a block!  And then you would again, relax and waltz.

When the movies let out, you often tried to pull off so you could see who was getting out.

 

15JM:  Who was who on a date.

 

RC:  Well, more important, who wasn’t with anybody and then you window-shopped.  So you’d kind of watch folks and if there was somebody you were interested in you’d watch what car they got into, and then you’d start cruising and follow, trying to catch up with them and establish… yeah!  Stalk! Yeah, stalking them.

But the street, the street was alive with the smell of burning oil because not everybody had a brand new car. Rock and roll music, 8-tracks, and you always had your windows down and your music loud, shouting from one car to another.

Everybody that owned a car in high school, you washed it once a week anyway, whether it had paint to wash off or whether you just simply rinsed off the primer and rearranged the rust in some places, you always did that before you cruised.  Everybody’s car was always clean on the inside too.

 

16JM:  Do you remember Thanksgiving week, when you were not supposed to be over there?  The week of the year that Miami was not supposed to come to Globe and Globe to Miami?

 

RC:  Yeah, what a crazy thing to ask!  What was the administration thinking when they gave that clouded decree?  You know, where they said, “Oh! Don’t go there.”  I mean, why didn’t they just say, “Go on!  Go on! Do it! Do it! Do it as good as you can!  Make it a masterful experience!”  That was just encouragement.  Absolutely, positively 98% of the people that heard that message paid no attention to it.  Now you have the danger of invading enemy territory, plus you’re a rogue on your own.

 

17JM:  If you get caught, you can’t go to the game.

 

RC:  Yeah, it’s like Mission Impossible, like oh please! We live in a mining camp!  There’s no way possible you couldn’t climb a hill and watch the game!

 

18JM:  FREE!

 

RC:  Free!  Absolutely!  What you did miss, by sitting on the hill, was you missed the camaraderie in the stands.  The snack bar, but you could always stop at Knoffles on the way and buy a candy bar and some Cokes.  Yeah, that was an idle threat telling someone they couldn’t go to the game if they were caught.

It was obvious when you drove up Globe Hill.  I mean, where in the heck do people think you’re going?  You know, at that time of night, other than going so.  High school kids are high school kids.  If you’re not wearing green and white sweaters, letterman sweaters, they don’t know who you are, most of those folks, so.  Often you would have a designated driver that stayed in the car, kept the car running.  One of the best ways to do it was to just get a couple tires and a gallon of gas and spread those in the tires.  And you could throw those down, light them and run!  Or you could lay them down, light them and run, so.  It makes a real mess.  It’s a real guerrilla operation.  You hit quick and get out.

 

19JM:  Everybody can see you up there doing it.

 

RC:  And there’s only two ways out.

 

20JM:  And they’re coming at you from both ends.  So you graduated in ’67?

 

RC:  ’67.  That’s when the old Vandal field was down where the Rod Plant is now.  Well football was serious business!  One of the occupations that must have a high suicide rate would be a small town football coach.  Be it Hereford, TX or Shebachee, Maine, if you’re in a small town and you’re the football coach and they have a bad season.  It’s a small town.  Where do you go to buy your groceries?  Every place you turn you’ve got advice. 

If you won the Turkey Day game, you had a winning season.

 

JM:  And you had a winning season.

Part One

Part Two

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