We called him Tommy Mac, and I loved him too. He and I were particularly close in the 10th and 11th grades at East, having grown up together in Mint Hill, his family and my family were distant kin, and lived close to each other. Before he and I started seriously dating beautiful ladies in Mint Hill and about the Queen City, he would pick me up in his classic 1952 green two tone Chevy, with skirts, and we would motor in and out of Babe Maloys, South 21(74) and Shoneys on Morehead. Remember that? It is funny now, but looking back, we were a little timid and the gals were too, when Mac would back his Chevy into a slot, next to them. We just wanted to "talk"! Knowing now, what we learned during all that peacocking, was "no" was only one answer to a complex question, that, later, we both learned was silly, be more frank, lay it on them. Mac and I got to visit for a while in 2008 at Mint Hill Madness, while we watched the Poor Souls, he and I got caught up after about 35 years or so. One of our stories went like this. Remember the Holloween night we crused to Matthews, and a gang of boys stopped the "Mac Chevy", and several theatened us two innocent cats from Mint Hill. Mac had a short temper, but I reminded him that we were seriously outnumbered. One of the ring leaders spotted the results of a fight would mean the cops would come and disperse the crowd. I can still see him vividly telling the crowd to back off, I think his last name was Alexander. But, after we settled our nerves on some fine spodie odie, we realized how lucky we were, but Mac only worried about his prestine Chevy, like C. Clay, I was worried about my pretty face. Such memories. Here's to "Tommy Mac, the one and only". D. Denny
D. Denny Allen
We called him Tommy Mac, and I loved him too. He and I were particularly close in the 10th and 11th grades at East, having grown up together in Mint Hill, his family and my family were distant kin, and lived close to each other. Before he and I started seriously dating beautiful ladies in Mint Hill and about the Queen City, he would pick me up in his classic 1952 green two tone Chevy, with skirts, and we would motor in and out of Babe Maloys, South 21(74) and Shoneys on Morehead. Remember that? It is funny now, but looking back, we were a little timid and the gals were too, when Mac would back his Chevy into a slot, next to them. We just wanted to "talk"! Knowing now, what we learned during all that peacocking, was "no" was only one answer to a complex question, that, later, we both learned was silly, be more frank, lay it on them. Mac and I got to visit for a while in 2008 at Mint Hill Madness, while we watched the Poor Souls, he and I got caught up after about 35 years or so. One of our stories went like this. Remember the Holloween night we crused to Matthews, and a gang of boys stopped the "Mac Chevy", and several theatened us two innocent cats from Mint Hill. Mac had a short temper, but I reminded him that we were seriously outnumbered. One of the ring leaders spotted the results of a fight would mean the cops would come and disperse the crowd. I can still see him vividly telling the crowd to back off, I think his last name was Alexander. But, after we settled our nerves on some fine spodie odie, we realized how lucky we were, but Mac only worried about his prestine Chevy, like C. Clay, I was worried about my pretty face. Such memories. Here's to "Tommy Mac, the one and only". D. Denny