In the summer of 1978 my mom and step dad took my sisters and I to Carlsbad beach for the summer, they rented a nice beach house for a month or 2, our dad had died the summer before and my sister Lynne and I were really f*cked up about everything and things were weird, we lived in Palm Springs at the time. When I was in Carlsbad I kept hearing this song Runaway on the radio and I would dream of running away with this beautiful extremely over the top girl I had met in Palm Springs and hung out with a few times, and it seemed to me on our encounters there was something there but I figured I was probably just hallucinating and dreaming because I was 16 and confused and she was 21 and amazing. So I would hear this silly song on the radio and fantasize of running away with her.
When summer was over and I got back to Palm Springs my friend Jimmy Miller and I got on his motorcycle and went to the liquor store and were hanging out in the parking lot trying to get an adult to buy us some booze and guess who pulls up? Yes it was her in her cute little blue VW Bug looking like a movie star, I couldn’t believe it, I was in love for sure. And she was so sweet and bought us the booze we so desperately needed. When she came out of the liquor store to give us our booze we talked for a bit and when she left my friend Jimmy kept saying “dude that girl likes you for sure, I can tell she really likes you, she was totally checking you out, dude I’m serious she really likes you, you should get on that “, and I was like “no way, I am a kid and she is a beautiful older woman (21 lol), and he was like “no dude, she for sure likes you, you should go for it”.
I wasn’t sure what to do but I was thinking about her night and day, and then one day not too long later she shows up at my house in her little blue VW Bug and asked me if I wanted to go to the movies, whoaaaa. I couldn’t believe it, it was epic. The problem was I didn’t have any money at the time so I said how about I take you out to dinner instead? She said OK so like a high class Palm Springs kid I suggested Denny’s for a dinner date lol. Like I said I didn’t have any money but I told her to spare no expense, get anything you want, I was ordering everything just because I could, steak dinner, shrimp dinner, moons over my hammy, cheese sandwich, breakfast lunch and dinner I ordered it all, I was trying to impress her with a good Denny’s meal. We ate like Kings and Queens and I made her laugh, it was a great date.
But then after we were stuffed like pigs from all the great Denny’s food I told her she should go wait in the car for me because I didn’t have any money so we were going to be dining and dashing and I would be running out soon so have the car running lol. That was the moment that Marianne fell in love with me, she looked at me and started laughing so hard and said you don’t have any money, this was a dine and dash date? And I said yes. It was true love.
By now the restaurant employees were onto my little scheme, Marianne was waiting with the car running and the car door open but I got stopped at the door by the manager and a few cooks with big knives and cleavers that knew I was dining and dashing, they tried to stop me but I ran like an Olympic sprinter, they were on my ass chasing me through the parking lot, I saw Marianne’s car with the door open but these guys were on my ass literally, like feet behind me, I couldn’t jump in the car they would have got me, I had to keep running and give Marianne a safe getaway. I was too fast for them, I ran into a Condo Complex behind the Denny’s and catapulted off a lounge chair onto the roof and hid for hours. Marianne kept driving back and forth honking but I was too scared to get off my hiding spot on the roof, I was sure these cooks were still waiting for me with knives and cleavers.
They never got me, Later that night I came down off the roof and made my way back to where Marianne was hanging out and we have been together ever since, true love and true romance…
Anyway I heard this silly song Runaway today and it brought back these great memories. I love you Marianne, thank you for running away with me, it’s been super fun, let’s dine and dash again one of these nights lol:
