I guess it helped that myself and most of my friends, had our own phone line. Before I got mine in April 1978, we relied on Jana to do our ‘sneaky’ calling for us. She had a 2-way phone, those boys never knew what hit them. However, we did get into A LOT of trouble for doing emergency ‘break-in’s’ … We thought it was an emergency ! Just when all the phone calls, every night, got a little mundain, we started getting our drivers license’.
My 16th birthday fell on a Monday and the Georgia State Patrol in Lawrenceville, was closed on Mon-Tues. So Holly and I went to Memorial Drive on her birthday, (mine is January 8th and hers is January 9th… love it ). So I go first, but failed for not following directions, shocker.
Holly had to use my car to take her test because hers had a expired registration. Yep, she passed. Grrr… I got mine the next day and I took my daddy for support. So the world was introduced to the Caprice Classic. Yikes. If that car could talk, a lot of people would be in trouble.
The car was usually packed full with me, Nici, Joy, Cathy & Tonna. Holly and Celeste would join us sometimes, but she had her black Cutlass. It seemed like every weekend we would find ‘some’ mischief to get into, from rolling, to egging, to turfing someone’s house/yard. Now mind you, we did this to other friends, not to be ugly, just kinda like, “Hey, we were here.”
My house had 4 huge trees in the front and 2 small ones in the very front. A few boys (I guess I shouldn’t say their names), rolled every thing one night. That included my car, my mother’s car, (not big Hugh’s truck) and the lawnmower!! Pay back to ALL of them wasn’t a problem.
One particular night we decided to “sign” Coach Alexander’s yard. We ‘borrowed’ a few 4 sale signs, real-estate signs, pink flamingo’s and of course 1 construction saw horse, with the flashing light. Well I was stopped at the red light at 78 & 124 and Geoff Jacobs, Snellville Police officer pulled up beside us. He yelled out his window, “ Hey Snell, what’s in your trunk”? I answered, “Nothing…..” he calmly said, “then why is your trunk blinking”? As I readjusted my rearview, I saw it too! Uh Oh… He laughed. Whew. We were all very lucky to not be in more trouble than we were. More next year!!
Mandy Snell is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about growing up in Snellville and its history. Have any 1970 stories to share from Snellville? Comment below!
