I know a guy whose father swears that when he was 16 years old he was hitch hiking to Raleigh when he got picked up and hit on by some legislator. This was back in the 70's and his trendy long hair and bell bottom hip huggers made him target for half full cans of beer from time to time as he stood roadside stoned and anxious to jump in a car, any car as he bummed rides from strangers. As he tells the story he was on Hwy 421 in the middle of nowhere with his thumb out when a white Lincoln with a State House of Representatives license tag pulled over and stopped. The 16 year old opened the door nervously to sit in the important persons car and accept his offer to take the him all the way to Raleigh.
During the first few tepid minutes driver and hitch hiker sat quietly then the driver with his effeminate posturing asked if the hitch hiker followed politics. The legislator talked about his job in the House and how it is good to have someone accompany him on the long drive. The two became chatty, Nixon or whoever the devil was at that time became a focus of conversation. Soon this driver asked if the hitch hiker was a liberal. "Sure" replied the hitch hiker, "Absolutely." The driver smiled and asked real queer like, "You know what liberal means?"
Now this hitch hiker knew a thing or two about homosexuals. He was often hit on by truckers and other men as he hitched around the state, so he knew where this conversation was headed, but he also knew he didn't want to walk from Cherry Grove to Raleigh either so he played along.
"Yeah liberal means you are against the war, you smoke pot and resist authority."
The driver laughed, almost giggled at this 16 year old's answer.
" A liberal is a person that allows others to be free to be themselves. It is about sharing new experiences, exploring all aspects of life."
Such a clever man, no wonder he is a politician thought the hitch hiker. "Want to get high?" he asked the driver.
"I've never smoked marijuana" the clever politician said. "You ever let a man suck your dick?"
The 16 year old readied his clenched fist. He had punched one or two drivers before, not because they were homosexual but because they scared the shit out of him. John Wayne Gacy or someone had just been in the news where bodies of hitch hiking teens were found under his house and the hitcher wasn't going to go without a fight. But this man wasn't like the truck drivers or the traveling salesmen that smelled like bourbon and had that look about them that scared you the second you saw them. No, this man was a lawmaker, a statesman and maybe to a paranoid mind might call the highway patrol after letting you out telling them you had drugs and a 16 year old might get thrown in some hicktown jail to end up getting buggered and killed anyway, so hitcher decided to be nice.
For the next 45 minutes or so the hitcher had to endure silly sexual innuendos and slight of hand self stimulation as the driver made his way to Raleigh. The hitcher thanked the driver and thanked God for not being molested and they departed company.
The longtime public servant RC Soles of Tabor City has recently become something of a silly old man lately as boys creeping from the closet have come out to harass the elder statesman with threats of going to the WWAY reporter Ann McAdams and political opponent what's her name, Betty Fennel with tales of sexcapades that would make Boy George blush.
RC Soles political career was created by the Tabor City newspaper as a favor to the old man Soles. Then as time goes by Soles becomes more and more influential. But RC is something like 80 and his dad's close to 100 (not really but close) and soon that piece of the puzzle won't be worth much anymore. Besides Soles has been getting out of hand lately with all the arsons and boys gone wild running from courthouses and stuff have made him sort of a joke in the barbershops and hallways. His last election was by all accounts a squeaker and this newest one may turn out to be just as tough.
The newspaper man that created RC has money in the Boseman campaign. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm serious. The Carter family is a huge supporter of Senator Boseman. Now is Boseman RC's replacement as the puzzle piece in the Senate? She going to tote the mail for power brokers in Southeastern North Carolina?
I wonder if RC ever drove a white Lincoln. I wonder how many hitch hikers there are or have been over the past 30 years or more. I wonder how the FBI was able to target RC in the COLCOR operation and why did they think he would appreciate a thin gold bracelet as a token of appreciation. And I wonder if there was a gold bracelet wrapped around the wrist of the driver to go along with "girlie" finger nails the hitch hiker remembers so vividly. I'm sure there was at one time down the road.
(COLCOR or Columbus County Corruption took place while Governor Mike Easley was the District Attorney of Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus County in 1983)
