Here is another Oak Creek Apartment story from around 1972 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Same girl as in the Guess Who is coming to dinner but my turn to turn the tables.

    I was dating a girl in my apartments for a while. She was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian with a temper to match. It was not a serious relationship but given her nature, it had its moments. After the Guess Who is coming to dinner incident, I felt the need to get even.

    One day she told my brother and I that she had invited a guy over for dinner and we should not call or drop in that night. It was our custom during those days to just stop by and visit neighbors without calling ahead. It was way before cell phones. What the heck, if you want privacy don't move into a singles apartment.

    I would not go so far to say it was all like a family but it was close to a commune, as I would ever see. Long before Alan Jackson wrote, "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" it was party time somewhere at Oak Creek pretty much 24-7.

    In any event, because she had made such a point of telling us that we were not allowed to come over due to this important date, it became almost a dare which none of us were ever able to resist. Remember Marty McFly's reaction when someone called him "Chicken." Well it was possible that ole Marty lived at Oak Creek or at least the writer of "Back to the Future" did.

    My brother had an old 90CC Yamaha 2cycle motorcycle that he kept in my dad's basement. It was old in 1972 but served the purpose to give Jim something to ride when he was in town.

    We got the bright idea to take the motorcycle to JoAnn's apartment and make a grand entrance while she and her date were having dinner. There was a slight problem with this plan, as JoAnn lived on the third floor of her building. The apartment had an open foyer plan with each apartment opening up to common square walkways.

    Normally that would present a problem, but with the addition of some alcohol, it was not an insurmountable problem. We decided to haul the bike up the three flights of stairs. It took a while be we finally got it to her front door.

    I am not sure if there were helmet laws in effect at the time but we only had one helmet, so I decided to wear a spaghetti colander as a helmet. I strapped it on and Reggie knocked on the door.

    When she opened the door, I cranked and drove the bike into her living room. The dining area was just inside the door. JoAnn started into one of her rants and Jim said, "If you say one more word, he is gonna do wheelies on your rug" The 2 cycle motorcycle created a bunch of smoke

    Maybe for the first time since I had known JoAnn she shut up. Her poor date just sat at the table with his plate in front of him and eyes wide open. We considered the point made and left. Of course, we had to haul the motorcycle all the way back down the three flights of stairs.

    I do not remember how long it took JoAnn to speak to any of us again, but the incident was just one of many from the Oak Creek Days. By the Way, Jim was 32, I was 27 and Reggie was 25 at the time, which proves that you do have to get older but you do not necessarily have to grow up.