Dream Machines

It was Friday night in the heat of summer. Woodward Avenue, the very first paved road in America, was jammed with hot rods, muscle cars, jalopies, junkers, beaters, as well as beautiful new cars and some new cars that won’t even hit the showroom till next year. This is the motor city world of Detroit, Michigan in 1965.
Four lanes each way with a large median between filled with trees and bushes, Woodward heads north from downtown Detroit for 30 miles to Pontiac. In the northern suburbs of Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham and Bloomfield hills, where many auto execs and their families live, Woodward has a light every half-mile.
Peppered along a fifteen-mile stretch through those suburbs and more, there’s a slew of drive-in restaurants complete with roller-skating waitresses, vanilla shakes and actual burger wars. On Friday and Saturday nights, Woodward is ‘American Graffiti’ times a thousand and has a bad-boy reputation as the biggest illegal drag-strip in the world.
It seems as if everybody is racing especially Johnnie, a good looking teen wearing a wild Hawaiian shirt, in his 1957 souped-up red Chevy convertible, and his rival Drake, a teen with swept back black hair wearing a white T-shirt and a black leather vest, in his custom ’51 Mercury. They, along with thousands of other hot-rodders, love to cruise the drive-ins, listen to rock ‘n roll on the radio, grab some burgers and drag race in-between the lights.
It’s Friday night and Johnnie and Drake are always out cruising Woodward and drag racing anybody that wants to race, which is an amazing amount of nice friendly law-breakers.
During a spin through the Totem Pole, a prime drive-in restaurant on Woodward, Drake and Johnnie run into each other and argue over a girl they both want to take out.
This hatred is not new, they’ve argued, fought and taunted each other for all of their life. In their senior year they were both expelled over stupid things they did to each other and their hate grew.
That Friday night, they had already drag raced each other two races and each had won one, so they were tied. On the race Drake won, Johnnie complained that Drake was cheating by taking off before the light turned green. They were especially pissed at each other and they both wanted good-looking Sue, a regular at the Totem Pole.
With these two fanatical bitter and hormonally radio-active teens, fist fights are not enough. For them, it comes down to a final decisive drag race challenge to win the rights to Sue, but also to prove exactly who, or which car, is ‘King of the Road.’
At the stoplight at 13 Mile Road and Woodward, a crowd of teens that hang at drive-ins, wait for Johnnie and Drake to show up for an announced grudge race. The object of the race, Sue, a stunning young girl around 18 years old and a couple of her good-looking friends, lean on a gorgeous brand new’66 Mustang.
The roar of high output engine power overwhelms them as Drake shows up at the light. Another ear deafening engine growl enters the scene as Johnnie, in his convertible rolls up to the light. Nobody can talk because of the engine rumbles and revs.
Johnnie and Drake show immense hate for each other in non-verbal means; they face off and give each other various versions of the infamous ‘fickle finger of fate.’
They rev their engines; the gas fumes burn their noses and everyone else’s. The light on the side turns yellow – a warning sign that the light will change within seconds.
Kids are screaming, “Go-Go-Go-Go!” The light turns green and the two hot rods jump out with tires screaming for mercy.
They roar down Woodward, bumping each other. Neck and neck they go, faster and faster.
From out of nowhere, a police car pulls out and blocks the road. Drake and Johnnie slam on their brakes. The cars screech their tires as they slide closer and closer to the police car. The cop driving and his partner brace themselves for a crash.
The two hot rods slow their slide and end up barely bumping the police car. Everyone is relieved.
Johnnie and Drake jump out of their cars and attack each other.
Drake spits as he yells at Johnnie, “You jerk! You rammed my car!”
“What? You smashed into me when you saw me pull ahead.”
“You weren’t pulling ahead. If anything you were falling behind!”
The boys hit each other bloody until the cops handcuff them.
Drake sneers at Johnnie, “Some day we’re gonna finish this race, I swear to God. If it’s the last thing I ever do in life.”
Johnnie responds, “Any day, Bozo. I’ll be ready willing and able. I’ll squash you like the bug that you are. I don’t care how long it takes, I’ll be waiting.”

Fifty years later, at a pre-wedding two family ‘get-to-know-you party’ during the annual Woodward Dream Cruise, Mattie grabs her grandfather Drake’s arm and pulls him over to Jason’s grandfather, Johnnie.
“Gramps, this is Johnnie, Jason’s grandfather.”
Jason steps in to do the other intro, “and Grandpa, this is Drake, Mattie’s grandfather.”
The two shake hands, look each other in the eyes like a man and suddenly their worlds will never be the same.
The grandfather’s smiles turn upside down to frowns as they study each other’s face.
Slowly, as they recognize each other, their handshake grips harder and harder to the point of pain. In Johnnie’s eyes, all he can see is himself and Drake, as young teens on that fatal night in 1965, giving each other the finger, just before the race.
“YOU!”
“YOU?”
“YOU?”
“YOU!”
Their lips curl into a snarl and their eyes are filled with 50 years of built-up hate grudge. They kept their grudge for fifty years and they kept their old hot rods, just in case.