The Henney-mobile

I think that when I was in High School my parents must have stayed home a lot, because I got to drive the family car quite a bit. In fact, I used it so often that my friends called our vehicle the Henney-mobile. I actually think mom and dad were pleased that it got used so often to transport huge numbers of high school buddies around the city of Madison, WI. My friends and I were mostly athletes and cheerleaders, so we would pile in the Henney-mobile and go off to games, meets, matches,... If we were paricipating, of course, we would be bussed by the school, but we also went to other high school's events or events for sports that we weren't involved in.

One of the reasons the Henney-mobile was so popular was that it was a full-size 1965 Dodge van and I could carry a lot of kids. We once got 22 guys and gals into the van on one of our excursions.

You know what, though, there are disadvantages to having a popular vehicle. A small group of us used to do "commando raids." Started off with toilet-papering trees and houses, and then we would get a little more creative. We once saw a friend's little Corvair parked at his girlfriend's house. So, we picked up his car and moved it so the front wheels were resting on his girlfriend's front porch and the car was facing toward the front door. Then we rang the doorbell.

So, the problem was that many people in the neighborhood recognized the Henney-mobile and it was difficult to get away with stealthy exploits while driving the Henney-mobile. We put a cherry-bomb in a kid's mailbox once and blew it up. When we came back around to inspect the damage, the guy and his dad saw us and the kid recognized us immediately. Resulted in a late-night visit from the police department. My dad was of course not happy with my actions, but he also said that I should have known better than to use that van and expect to get away unnoticed.