That was where I lived after High School. Out on Blue Star Highway RIGHT on the Coloma and Covert Township border. In the heart of nowhere, just a few miles south of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in South Haven. A studio apartment with a separate bathroom, and another apartment attached to it in the same building. It was made of large stones, with part of the wall inside made up of the same said stones. Hence the name we gave it. Stonehenge.
Now, some of you will remember partying out there. I know this because EVERY weekend we would throw the BIGGEST parties, and everyone would show up. It didn't matter who you were, we let anyone who wanted to have a great time come out.
The origins of Stonehenge were simple. My good friend Mark Williams was renting the place, and he had found a rental closer to town. He needed someone to take over the lease, and since I had been out there before hanging out after work, I was familiar with the place and liked it. (Mark was such a good friend of mine that later when I worked as an on-air DJ, I used his name as my radio name.) My friend Jason Kwader and I moved in a week later on a rainy afternoon. The legend was born.
A recent picture of the legendary Stonehenge. David Adler is seen here. Probably taking a crap.
We had a neighbor that was a COMPLETE psycho. He lived in the other apartment, and God help you if you knocked on the wrong door. Now, he was a nice guy when you talked to him, but if you approached HIM, he would flip out. A couple of my friends came out one night, and came to the wrong door. He slashed at them with a knife thinking they were assassins coming to get him. If I remember right, they were not hurt but it scared the CRAP out of them. We tried to avoid him at all costs.
Stonehenge was 20' x 12' in size. In that space, there were the usual appliances. The bed was actually in the wall, and it pulled out. Made for a GREAT time scaring the hell out of people. You would be standing there talking and suddenly the bed would fall out of the wall with someone on it. Yeah, it was awesome.
Now think about the size. It was SMALL. But it didn't matter. We had a HUGE driveway and parking area where the parties always spilled over to. We would regularly cram 50 people in that little space, and one occasion even had a live band inside! Yeah, a LIVE BAND stuffed into that small space. So many parties.That was all we did out there, and never once did the police come out for noise. That was the advantage of being in the middle of nowhere. But in the same sense, there was alot of things that happened because of where we were located. I remember someone shooting a pellet gun at me from across the road. I could never tell where it was coming from because the weeds were so high, and I had to have the police question the people across the way. (Turned out later it was their kid that was doing it. We caught him ourselves, and "took care" of the problem). There were also some guys who had a marijuana field down the road. David Adler was coming out after work one night and he had the KILLER 1971 Caddy. It was all primer, and we had all written stuff all over it. It was THE ride. Anyway, he had these lights on the side of the front fender that lit up when you turned on the blinkers. The covers were gone from them, so when they lit up, it was like a spotlight. Well, Dave decided to flick on the blinkers while going by the area where this guy's growth operation was. Just in time to light up an area where one of the growers was walking up the ditch with a shotgun. He took a shot at Dave, and missed JUST over the roof of his car. He hit the gas and drove like a bat out of hell to Stonehenge. He ran inside, killed the lights and locked the doors. Of course we were all drunk, and wondering what the hell was going on. He told us and we all thought he was screwing around. Dave and I were looking out the window when suddenly an old Cutlass slowly came into the driveway. It pulled up behind Dave's Caddy and he was carrying a frigging shotgun! I freaked out, and we slowly pulled away from the window. I grabbed the phone and dialed the police. The guy lingered for almost 5 minutes before he left. The cops showed up 5 minutes after that. The county and both township officers showed up and investigated. They questioned all of us about the incident. And Dave, that glorious jack-ass somehow stole one of the officers Mag-Lite right out of his car. They never caught the guy that shot at Dave, and for the rest of the time that I lived out there, I feared that the guy would come back to get us one night.
Part 2 of The Legend Of Stonehenge continues tomorrow. I'll tell you all about how it's demise came to be, and who the leader of that band was. (His name was Mike!)
See you tomorrow!
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