Mad Dog 20/20, Hitchhiking, and a Date Rape Parade

A significant portion of my senior year in high school was spent in the basement at my friend Mikey's. Cory, Dave, Mikey, and I made quite a team in high school. We called ourselves the T. & A. B. D Committee.

On one particular late afternoon, there was a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 that was available for us to drink. Upon consuming it, I got a spark for adventure. "Anyone want to come with me?" I asked. Cory joined me and off we went.

At the time of this adventure, there were corn fields and woods between the neighborhood and I-34 that we had to traverse. If we made this adventure today, we would run into a huge Wal-Mart Supercenter or Menards.

Once we came upon I-34, we were tired from walking. With the much needed wisdom and guidance a previously consumed bottle of Mad Dog could provide, a decision was made to begin hitchhiking for a ride downtown. Oddly enough, someone who had just been fishing pulled over to give us a ride. We hopped in and he started driving us downtown.

As we were riding over the Wapello St. bridge, we told the driver that we wanted out on the bridge where a set of stairs led to the downtown area. Seeing that we never walked down these stairs, it was prudent that we give this a try.

We thanked the fine gentleman of a fisherman for our ride and got out on the bridge to walk down that staircase to downtown Ottumwa.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs we found something interesting. There was a police car moving slowly down the street followed by several people holding signs and chanting something. It was a Date Rape Awareness Parade. Well, up to that point in time, Cory and I had never participated in a Date Rape Parade, and so, it was very sagacious of us to join this parade. It just so happened that this parade was going in the general direction that we wanted to go. Lucky us.

One of the coordinators of the parade gave us some signs to hold so we held them high and marched along, chanting "Two, Four, Six, Eight, No More Date Rape!" slowly creeping our way further downtown. It felt like much longer than two blocks, but that was how far we were willing to go. We gave back the signs and thanked them for the opportunity to give them some support before heading to the parking lot where hoodlums like us hung out.

Whatever happened the rest of the night wasn't as interesting as how we got there, and I can't remember the rest. Most likely, it involved meeting back up with the other two and causing some further mischief.