This is one of those “you had to be there” stories, but I think you’ll be able to relate. There’s going to be no great punchline or dramatic ending, so hang in there.

Last weekend, I was scouting golf locations for a possible Designated Writers Invitational in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas (A side note — I was easily the youngest person in that zip code.)

Four of us made the way to HSV for the classic guys golf weekend, with 72 holes in three days. However during the trip there, our driver discovered air conditioning problems in his vehicle. Knowing that golf was still the most pressing issue, we went ahead and knocked out 18 holes Friday and then 36 more on Saturday before tackling the AC problem. First things first.

We had just finished dinner at a pizza joint after the golf marathon and had just enough time to find an auto parts store to buy a can of freon. It was a warm Saturday evening, but it was that time of day when the sun is down but the sky is still a hazy shade of dark blue. Set amongst the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, it was a beautiful night.

Because we had no AC, we all rolled the windows down and began the drive. It was Saturday night and suddenly we all felt like we were 17 years old again. You could hear the constant hum of the tires on the pavement. The crickets were chirping it up in the fields. We dodged the occasional varmint. If you were once a 17-year-old boy, you know what happened next.

I put my hat on backwards.

Basically, it was four guys in a truck, driving around the back roads of small town Arkansas and doing what guys do … if they were 40 years younger. I suggested we cruise through the Sonic and rev the engine a few times to see if any chicks noticed, but the three married members of our entourage weren’t as wild about that idea.

So we went to Wal-Mart and alternated between pricing freon and goofing off. (I did none of the first and plenty of the second.) After that, being of AARP age, we immediately got in the truck and went back to the house and sacked out for the night.

But for 30 minutes, it reminded me that you are never too old to roll the windows down. You never know who you might find.