BILL CADY Word Count: 149,227 - At My Friend's Place

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 113
anything with a key, an engine and four wheels is practically a limo, but it was as tacky
as anything the rest of us drove. Like any kid‟s car, there were times it wouldn‟t start.
“T” would turn the key and hear a whine, but the car wouldn‟t start. Sometimes he‟d turn
the key and hear nothing. He used the same solution in each instance, and it worked.
“T” would clean out the glove box, tighten up the license plates, and start the
damned car! Unreal, but I‟ve seen him do it.
There was a time we were in his car in downtown Lansing. “T” and I were
especially close around my age eighteen, which would‟ve made him twenty. We were
together seven days per week for quite a while, until I started my trips down south.
It was a scene from a TV show, I swear. “T” was driving, an experience in and of
itself. Based on his incredible inability, “T” could‟ve qualified to drive taxi in New York
City, Chicago, Hong Kong, or Hanoi. That man was the second worst driver on earth.
He was superseded years later by a woman to whom I was engaged, but never married,
Cammie Shelton.
We were headed east on a cross street, can‟t recall which one, south of the
downtown section. We stopped at a sign before crossing Washington Avenue, the main
downtown drag, north and south. “T” was running his mouth the way he did at times.
He was sort of a crossbreed. He had an irreplaceable smile and laugh, much like Paul
Newman, and was often like Newman‟s characters in the way he acted. There were times
you couldn‟t get a word out of him. Other times, he did his Stevie Wonder imitation and
left his mouth on idle, so you didn‟t need the radio. You‟d be lulled into a stupor as his
mouth went on and on and on and on. I‟m not sure if he didn‟t also drive like Stevie.
However, I have to say, a blind man could probably drive better than “T”.
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