Since we are on the subject.......

Dark and early one morning he wanted to lecture me. At least that was what I thought while he was trying to convince me I was about to do something stupid.

It was a winter Saturday, ice had formed over the roads overnight and I needed to leave for my half work day. That great position I managed to secure at the ripe old age of 19. Filing checks at a bank for $2.45 an hour.

Do you remember how much smarter you were at 19 than you are today?

So I ignored my father's advice.

I hopped into my brand new 1978 baby blue Monte Carlo that I bought only four months previously. I loved that baby. It looked like this.

Well, at least it looked like that when I left my parent's driveway that morning.

In 1978, front wheel drive did not exist.  Well, it might have, but every car on the road was not front or all wheel drive like they are today.  Probably nearly anyone under 40 has never driven a rear wheel drive car. 

So, let me do the math here.  I was heading down Greenwood Road to earn a whopping $9.80 for the day. 

The road was mostly flat until you reached a fairly deep crevice.  At the top I remembered something my dad taught me when learning to drive (see, I DID listen occasionally).  I did not alter my speed.  I was driving slow because the roads were completely iced over.  Not snow, ICE.  I did not tap my brakes, he had told me that was always a bad thing to do on ice.

I had no fear at the top of the crevice.  As I eased downward, the back end of my precious blue baby swiveled a little.  I turned the wheel, corrected, well looking back, I over corrected.  I was now heading to the other side of the road.  Corrected/Overcorrected again as I am now in a vehicle that is like a sled with no runners.

Back and forth, back and forth heading down a big embankment, the car gaining gravity momentum.  One side was straight down probably 30 feet, the other side was as deep, lined with trees and brush.

I remember still fighting the wheel as I was desperately trying to straighten this sudden death trap from going straight down.  The car managed one more correction and then I was at a 90 degree angle heading for the side with the trees and brush.

I knew then I was helpless.  I slowly just lifted my hands from the wheel, heard my dad's ignored advice and distinctly remember thinking, "Well God if this is my time, so be it." as I left the pavement.  I KNEW this was the end.

I remember alot of crunching sound and being tossed around a little.  Back then, seat belts were not the law and they weren't shoulder belts.  In either case I wasn't wearing one.  Amazing how many things can run through your mind in the time it takes a car to leave the road and get wedged ten feet down between the trees and the embankment.

As I lifted my head at the end, I was shocked that I was still alive.  Honestly, I was not expecting in that five seconds to live.  I looked over where my left hand was, up by the driver's window and found it missing.  NO, not my hand, the window.

Then I had another thought.  I knew the car was badly damaged and I imagined the gas spilling and decided I better get out of that thing as quickly as possible.  I hopped out the window and I made my way back up the slick embankment, grabbing the trees and brush on the way.

I made it to the other side of the road and was about to head up to a house when I saw a co-worker try to drive past.  She could see the top of my car and almost lost control trying to stop.  When she finally was able to stop she rushed out and asked if I was ok.  I said yes and then she said, "Where are you bleeding?"  She held my left hand up which had blood running all over it.  I did not feel a thing, so I did not know I was bleeding.  I took both my hands and palmed my face thinking I was bleeding from some gaping wound.   I wasn't, it was only my left hand fingers that had apparently helped to break the window during the crash.

I got to work, called my dad, who called the police and a wrecker.

An hour later, dad picked me up at work and took me to the emergency room and then on to where they were towing my car so I could retrieve what little I had in it.  As we pulled up, I saw my precious baby blue baby mangled and I cried like a baby.   (Yes I know there were three babies in that sentence.)  One of my dad's friends walked up to our car to make sure I was okay, thought all my boohoo'ing was because I was hurt.  They told dad they had to get two wreckers to unwedge my car from between the trees and the embankment.   My very first new car was totaled after only four months.  I have pictures somewhere, but locating them and scanning them in would take me forever.

I may not have heard my dad that morning, but I sure hear him every icy day since then even though he passed away 19 years ago, just a few weeks after his 60th Christmas birthday.

Some people still laugh at me when I play it safe and refuse to drive on icy days.  I can do snow, I refuse to do ice.  No amount of money, not $9.80 or thousands of dollars is worth risking my life over.  The people that laugh at me never took that out of control roller coaster ride where I knew my life was ending and all because I wouldn't listen to my dad's sage advice.

Oh and btw, he never said, "I told you so."


H/T to Hoosier Boy  and
Ed for starting and expanding this conversation.