Athens, GA, 1975

People who know me know I like to travel, and, often, off the beaten path. To paraphrase Hank Williams, Jr., “I like to see places I’ve never seen.” But that didn’t start until I was around 40. Before that, growing up in Savannah, when we took a family vacation it was to visit other family in Florida. When I left home for the Army, I only got as far as Washington, DC. For college on the GI Bill, I went to UGA in Athens, where this photo was made, at the start of what might be the most consequential trip I’ve ever made.

The dude on the left with the “antlers” is yours truly, known then and now to the others here as bd. Continuing L-R are Lynn, Bob, Nancy, Miriam, and TR. On the Thursday before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) Nancy, Miriam, and I had walked to lunch at a small place in downtown Athens, and there was a guy with a backpack sitting near us telling someone he was on his way to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

We looked at each other and said why not? We went back to the Red & Black office (daily student newspaper) and asked if anyone else wanted to go; got three more. I had a little Triumph two seater, and Miriam had a car that she knew wouldn’t make it. So a friend, Rick (a saint), who wanted to go but couldn’t, offered up his Firebird convertible.

Six of us piled in on Friday morning intending to drive straight through, but had car trouble soon after starting. Made the repair and kept going. Six in a convertible with bucket seats in the front, all of us poor and tight on cash. We carried a cooler with a big jar of peanut butter to eat and save money. We strapped a tent on the luggage rack so we could sleep under an overpass if moved to do so. At one point we put the car top down and managed to jam the mechanism with the (now broken) jar of peanut butter.

Driving into NOLA Friday evening I had an accident, turning left into an oncoming car that crushed Rick’s driver side door, requiring all in/out for the car through the passenger door for the rest of the trip. Because I had an out of state license the police had to arrest me and take me to the jail, so I rode around in the back of a squad car on the Friday night of what may be their wildest weekend annually. Then they took me into the jail through the holding area. You can imagine the weirdness of that show.

By then my friends had made it to the station and once I paid a $10 bond I was free to go. We were so tired, Miriam had a Shell card that could be used at Howard Johnson’s. We got a room and encouraged the desk clerk to look the other way while we all piled in with sleeping bags.

The next day we hit the Quarter, watching lots of parades, fighting in the gutter with ten year olds for cheap plastic beads, and then later in the evening, dancing and drinking until early Sunday morning, at which point our designated driver Nancy loaded us up and headed home.

We got back in time for the Sunday night staff meeting for The Red & Black, and were totally obnoxious about our impromptu adventure. For me, personally, something changed, an internal dam started breaking, and like Jimmy Buffett said in “Migration”-‘…figured it’s time to have a little fun.’

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index/G0000LwBdd2qMK.g