May 10, 2019

Hey Now

Sometime in the mid-90s, I was stuck at a gas station out of Flagstaff. I thought I had enough gas but the mountains were harder on my mileage than I was expecting. I didn’t have any money and I was panicked.

I was trying to get to Phoenix where my Grandmother was in hospice and I was told that she didn’t have much time.

The area was pretty desolate, but there was enough traffic I was hopeful that I could find enough good Samaritans to scrape together enough cash for a full tank. Remember, this was when a full tank costs like twelve bucks.

Most people just did that thing where they pretended they didn’t hear you as they walked by. But I remember this one guy. Super 90s guy: Kind of chubby, goatee, silken acrylic shirt. Spiky hair, pretty sure the tips were frosted. I asked him if he could spare some change for gas.

And this guy turns towards me, makes full eye contact and says “What a concept! I could use a little fuel myself. And we could all use a little change” and then he turned to get into his car.

I didn’t think about it until a couple years later, when I heard that song. That fucking song.

No comments:

Post a Comment