American Graffiti-Our Boar and Castle

American Graffiti

One of my all-time favorite movies is American Graffiti.
This is not going to be the subject of this month’s rant.
I made it the title mostly to get your attention.
I wanted to draw you to the fact that kids today have
nowhere to hang out unless you count the tattoo parlor
or maybe one of the wing joints in town. It does not
matter to me if the kids choose to hang together.
It does concern me that kids are sporting tattoos
that won’t wash off. However, that is another rant.

No love for the automobile may be a reason that kids
do not migrate towards hangouts like we did in my
teenage years. Now, I know that times are different.
I know that what my father liked and what his father
liked are two different things. I just do not have
a way to share my feelings about the way life used
to be and make the kids of today appreciate it.
My wife says I am starting to sound like my old man.
As much as I love him, I do not want to become him
in my old age. But where is the fun in staying home
on facebook, or playing some computer game against
someone in China, or playing Guitar Hero alone?
I just don’t get it.

Our American Graffiti hangout was a drive-thru in
Greensboro, North Carolina called the Boar and Castle.
You could not eat inside, but bar hops brought your
food to the car. The food was cheap, delicious,
and featured a sauce concocted by the owners called
‘Castle Sauce.”

Even though the Castle closed down in the eighties,
people still talk about it as if it were still located
on Market Street. I met my first wife there, but
that again is another story. I do not have enough
paper to tell that story, even if the lawyers would
give me permission. My main purpose is to make you
understand the camaraderie of the teenagers of my day.
Everyone cleaned up their cars, got dressed in
their finest casual clothes, and drove to the Castle.
The object was to be seen, to meet girls or boys,
and to date. There was a lit up side where everyone
ate and hung out. If you were lucky enough to meet
someone, you took her to the other side, which was
dark and romantic. This sounds mischievous or
somewhat evil, but really it was just good clean fun,
with some kissing or necking as we used to call it.

You knew all the car hops by name and they knew you
and your date’s name if you were going steady.
This is another old term that people do not use anymore,
but for us it was a sign that the person you
dated belonged with you and only you. Seems to me
that today everyone dates in groups, or at least
meets their date out somewhere. When I asked someone
about this they said, “It’s safer to meet this way.”
Safer from what? Is everyone afraid that their date
may be a killer? Have we become so callous as to
worry about who we are dating?

I am sure no one wants to go back to the good old days.
But, if the days when cokes were a nickel, gas was
thirty cents a gallon ,and a cute girl would meet you
over on the dark side of the Castle and smooch for a
while, or at least until her curfew could be resurrected
at least one person around here would be happier.

I guess I couldn’t construct enough word on this page to
bring back the idea of young people getting together for
fun instead of sharing tattoos. Of course I am from
another generation and maybe I need to get a tattoo
that says, “I Love Mom,” then maybe this would turn
out to be more fun than I thought. The wife says just
try it and she is out the door. Could someone please
send me the address of a good tattoo parlor?



Seth Bradley

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me at: seth.bradley43@gmail.com

Classmate Response

Larry,
Thanks for the info on the "Castle Sauce". I want you to
know that I really enjoyed reading your blog. It brought
back so many memories of things I had almost forgotten.
You are a wonderful writer.
Mrs. Dickinson would be so proud!

Anne Hussey Winn

Castle Sauce

Thomas Gourmet Foods in Greensboro, North Carolina
is now distributing a product in the same size bottle
as Boar and Castle sauce called just "Castle Sauce".
The ingredients are close to the original, but the
sauce is a little bit more of the hot spice flavor
than the Boar and Castle Sauce that we loved so much.
Don't get me wrong. I like it. Since buying 12 bottles
on Monday we have consumed two bottles already and this
is just Thursday. We purchased the Castle Sauce at Bessemer
Curb Market in Greensboro .Go by and try a bottle. It is
better than the alternative, which was zero.
Let me know how you like it.
Larry

CASTLE SAUCE AVAILABLE

Got this email from Pam and also Brenda Jones.
Have not checked it out yet , but certainly will
today.






OH YES OH YES Hope you know by now Bessemer Curb Mkt. has it for $2.99 a bottle and Harold says he'll do his best to keep it in stock!!! Lets Hear it for Larry and Harold....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:O)))))))))) PAM

The Vick S. Castle Story

I had a friend Vick S.(I am using initials to
protect the innocent) He had a 1964 Chevrolet
Impala SS with a large engine 327 HP. It was
fast and Vick drove the car fast. One night
at the Castle Vick decided that everyone at
the Castle needed to see just how fast Vick
was. The Castle had a light side and a dark
side. You would meet a girl on the light side
and then later take her to the dark side to
talk. I guess Vick thought he could pick up
a girl by showing off. You came into the
entrance and slowly(I reiterate) slowly
drove toward the back and either parked and
ordered or sit and chatted with friends. If
you were not going to eat or chat, you
simply made a U-turn in the lot and slowly
made your way out to the exit, which was
the same as the entrance. On this particular
night, Vick came in the entrance smoking the
tires, smoked the tires around the circle,
and then proceeded to smoke the tires upon
leaving. We headed toward Monroe's, another
hangout up the street, and as we headed back
to the Castle, we met several police cars,
coming toward us with their red lights
flashing and sirens blaring. Vick said to me
I wonder what's going on that that many
police cars would be flying up West Market
Street that fast. As we pulled into the
Castle,all of our friends ran up to the
car and told Vick that those cops were
after him. Vick parked the car at the
Castle and ran. I hopped out of the car and
got into someone else's car. The cops came
into the Castle parking lot and surrounded
Vick's car. After asking everyone around
who's car was this and where was the driver,
everyone at the Castle said they did not know.
So the cops said fine we will just have the
car towed and impounded and when the driver
comes to retrieve it, we will arrest him.
Someone went over the wall into the next lot
where Vick was hiding and told him that his
car was fixing to be towed away. Vick came
back to the parking lot and innocently went
to his car and proceeded to get in and try
to start the car. The cops ask him what do you
think you are doing and Vick said I am going
home. After questioning Vick for 20 minutes
they arrested him. Vick's story was that he
had been off with someone else and someone
must have stolen his car, spun around the
Castle and then brought it back and parked it
in the parking lot. Cops said that story won't
work. We were sitting under the canopy eating
supper,when we saw you spin in, and we saw you
spin out. Needless to say he was arrested, the
car was towed in and I had to find another way
home. If I had thought about it then, I should
have written this story down and I could have
written American Graffiti before Spielberg.

Castle Story -#1 wife

We never saw her in the car. All we saw was the
rent-a-cop telling our high school friend to get
into the car. The rules at the Castle were that
you could not hang outside the car, but must be
inside the car to stay there.(This was 1964) Once
our friend got inside,my friend Tom and I proceeded
to go over to the car and throw a cherry bomb firecracker
beneath the car. (My friend is not here to defend
himself , but he is the one that threw it.) When
it did not go off, he and I casually strolled over
to the car and I distracted them(there were three
girls and our friend in the car),while Tom looked
under the car to see why the cherry bomb had not
gone off. They wanted to know why Tom was looking
under their car and since we did not know them, except
our friend of course, we told them Tom had dropped
some money and he wanted to look for it. They all wanted
to get out of the car and look for it too, and meanwhile
here comes the cop and wants to know why the six of us
were out of the car. He made us all get back in, and
our friend who was trying to pick up one or all of the
girls,was forced to introduce us to the girls.They attended,
Page High School, at least two of them, and one of them
was a sister of Linda and she was in Junior High. Mom had
made them bring her so the other two girls would not get into
trouble. In any case I was introduced to Dianne and she
told me to call her "Dare", which was her nickname, and
I told her she could call me Fred , even though my name
was Larry. I assumed she was putting me on so I just
played back. She ask me where I was from,and that I
talked with an accent, and I told her I was from New York
City since the song the "Boy From New York City" by the
Adlibs had just played on the radio.Tom ask Linda out and
I ask Dare out, which was her real nickname, and the rest was
history. I married her four years later in 1968. Later
in my life I did live in New York City. I never considered
myself from N.Y. I have always considered myself from
Greensboro, North Carolina, home of the Boar and Castle..
and the place I met my wife "Dare".