The Invisible Car
	Dear Janice, right after graduating from high school and before finding permanent jobs there were about eight of us young men living on Ellicott Street that had the summer to enjoy before seriously getting down to business. My brother, Andy and I were helping on the family produce route by loading the family truck at the Farmers' Market. Most nights a group of us would sit on Clifford's front porch. Clifford Blair lived directly across the street from us and we'd talk and laugh until the wee hours. A lot of times we'd walk to Rentz's diner which was about two miles away on Hillsborough Avenue. They had fantastic hamburgers and French fries that really hit the spot around 1:00 in the morning. Because the diner was usually not very busy at that hour and the waitresses all knew us they said that it was alright if we brought a chess set in with us and sat at a back booth and played a few games at night as long as we stayed out of the way of the other customers. The games were quiet so there was never a problem. My God, as I tell this, we sound like such unspeakable nerds but honestly, we weren't. One night three of us were there and about 3:00 A.M. we headed home. There was Clifford and Butch Tendal and me. We had to walk about five blocks down Hillsborough Avenue to 19th Street and make a right heading south toward Ellicott Street. As we walked down the edge of the street Clifford and Butch were walking side by side and I was right behind Clifford, he and I being closer to the middle of the road. Butch was walking right on the edge of the road with an empty space behind him. We had just left the diner when we saw a man standing on our side of the road with a suitcase, hitch hiking. We said "Lets play with this guy." and when we got up to him, because we were in the formation like we were riding in an invisible car we stopped and said "Need a ride?" thinking he would...well, we really didn't know what he would do. He instantly said "Sure." and reached out and opened the invisible door handle and got in next to me behind Butch, closed his door and said "How far are you going?" "We turn right up here at 19th Street." "That's fine." he said and the four of us continued walking down the edge of Hillsborough Avenue just as natural as could be with Clifford and Butch "riding" in the "front seat" and the stranger and me right behind them in the "back seat". When we got to 19th Street Clifford said "Well, this is where we'll have to let you out. We turn here." He responded as he opened the door and got out, closed it behind him and looked in through the window "Thanks for the lift. I really appreciate it." And the three of us turned the corner and headed down 19th toward Ellicott Street and home. Clifford became a professor at USF years later. Butch (Dr. Ralph Stanley Tendal) became a nuclear physicist and I put myself through art school by driving my brother's produce truck and attended The Tampa Academy of Fine Arts and I'm not sure what ever happened to the stranger but I've wondered over the years if he ever thinks of that night and has ever told anyone the story of the invisible car. Lynn