TAKE FIVE

Porsche Boxster S, Jamestown, NC

Dave Brubeck's quartet originally recorded the jazz classic "Take Five" in 1959. I was still a lowly student with maybe two pennies to rub together on occasion. But my buddies and I would drag the gut in our American Graffiti central Kansas hometown and go with the flow of that consummate cruisin' music. I always dreamed of cruisin' to Dave's anthem in an appropriate sports car as it was surely intended, but there was no discretionary cash for such an extravagance. I just watched classic '58 Corvettes cruisin' on the roads and lived vicariously through the experiences of the older guys as they related them to me. Then as life moved along and I could actually afford a "Take Five" sports car, it was never really very practical, which was fine at the time. But my bucket list always contained the dream. Now it's crossed off the list. And taking five couldn't have been sweeter than it was today out on North Carolina state highway 421 after fifty years--with Dave's classic streaming on the CD and Paul Desmond’s mesmerizing alto sax wafting over the roll bars and out into the Carolina blue sky.