McGee: Dodge Demon sparks recollection of friend

I saw a 1972 Dodge Demon the other day. It reminded me of an old high school friend, Mark Woolferd.

Woolferd was more my buddy Catfish's friend than mine. On any given Saturday night during those high school years he and Catfish would roll up to my house in Woolferd's shiny, black Demon with its glossy silver mag wheels, jacked-up rear-end and racing slicks. Then we'd drive off looking for girls in cars to talk to.

I had my very first big-time crush during those days; on Rhonda Sue, the preacher's daughter.

"McGee has a crush on Rhonda Sue," Catfish told Woolferd while we were out one night.

Woolferd hit the brakes.

"I swar," said Woolferd. If you don't understand Southern, "swar" means "swear." He said "I swar" in about every sentence. "I swar McGee, a crush? On 'Monster Woman'?"

"Monster Woman?" I asked.

"I swar," Woolferd continued. "Sixth grade, I'm mowing a lawn and she comes runnin' out of a house with an iron skillet and wangs me upside the head, I swar."

Well, much like the dog that chases the pickup and wouldn't know what to do with it if he caught it, I never went out with Rhonda Sue.

But I did get to talk to her. I asked her about what Woolferd said.

"He deserved it," she said. "When we were in elementary school I developed faster than the other girls and he was always making fun of me. So here he is mowing the lawn next door to this house where I'm babysitting and he's yelling things at me. I got madder and madder so I grabbed a skillet, went outside and smacked him upside the head."

Woolferd isn't around anymore. Through "The Great and Powerful Internet" I've learned that Woolferd has "gone on to glory."

But I remember those days when I see a Dodge Demon.

Or an iron skillet.

Grant McGee is a long-time broadcaster and former truck driver who rides bicycles and likes to talk about his many adventures on the road of life.

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