Where Wrestling's Regional History Lives!
 |
|
You are here: Home>Stories>Bobby Simmons>#19
|
Where Wrestling's Regional History Lives! |
|
|||||
|
Charlie Smith, Randy Cohran, Ted
Allen, and myself go to the Gulf Coast Wrestler's Reunion every
year. We look forward to it with great anticipation. We invite new
people to come every year and some do and others come up with all
types of excuses why they can't go. Charlie tells them if they don't
have thirty dollars worth of fun he will give them their money back.
A money back guarantee and the testimonies of all that go of what a
wonderful experience it is and still they won't go.
The first weekend of March is permanently marked on my calendar for as long as my mental faculties remain intact (such as they are). The official festivities are on Friday and Saturday. We used to arrive on Friday morning. Then we moved it back to Thursday, and now we arrive on Wednesday around noon. Our wives tell us each year they expect us to leave on the Saturday before, and we have thought about it. It is such a wonderful time we want it to last longer. Trust me arriving on Wednesday we are not the first alumni to arrive. I wanted to tell you about a couple of years ago when we went in two vehicles because of commitments after the reunion would take Ted in a different direction. Charlie and Randy were traveling in Charlie's van and I was riding with Ted in his 280-Z. We were following Charlie and exited at Atmore, Ala. for me to get in the van and continue toward Atlanta. We said our goodbyes to Ted and pulled out of the service station. I asked Charlie where the smoke was coming from at his feet? We stopped, raised the hood and shouted FIRE!!!!! The top of his engine was ablaze. A lady from the service station ran out with an extinguisher, I pulled the trigger and it was empty. I threw it down, ran and got another one but by the time I got back it was too late. Fighting that fire with what I had was like fighting a bear with a switch, useless. We managed to get our clothes out, but the van burned to the ground. The tires even exploded as the rubber melted from the heat. No one was hurt, clothes were saved, and Charlie tried to sell gimmicks to the fireman. Quite a cap to our reunion weekend. Oh the traveling in style ? Ted disappeared and came back with a small U-Haul trailer. His 280-Z had only two seats. Ted drove, I rode shotgun, Charlie and Randy rode in the trailer. Two hundred miles in a trailer with no lights, no windows, and keeping the door closed because it is illegal to ride in a trailer being towed. That's traveling in style.... a true wrestling trip. If only we had gotten a fifteen dollar payoff when we got home...
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
