Crashing Cars-A Long One
(Still having problems posting images...)
At the end of the day I was working with my two favorite students and one of them requested some Motown. I had been cruising the internet radio channels looking for just the right music for this class and figured, why not? What a flashback to my days of youth. We were singing the songs, dancing, and painting. It was a riot to see 17 year olds groove to something I listened to back in the 70's. One of the students said that when she blasts the music in her car, she nearly runs into things. I laughed, because I had a flash back to being 19, driving, and having a few car crashes of my own.
Because of the nature of the "circumstances of the crashes", you are going to have to fill in the blanks on how some of them might have happened. Some of you will never guess, some of you will groan and say OH NO, YOU DIDN'T. I don't know if any of my present readers remember me from this period. I think one or two of you do,. but never knew about some of the events that I write about. (hey, are you still my friends now that you know what a nut I was..or did you figure that out years ago?)
My first car crash came on my birthday, November 10th, 1976 to be exact. I was driving to school and it had snowed about 4". The college was not closed, so I headed out. I had never driven in the snow before, and my father told me to test my brakes to see how the car reacted once I got onto the highway. I pulled out onto Route 28, got to about 35 mph and slammed on my brakes. I go into a spin and into the ditch. I was mortified! But I was more terrified that my father who was not far behind me would find me in the ditch and think I was an idiot. I don't know how I did it, but it was one of those super-human strength events, I pushed the car out of the ditch and headed to a friend's house where I had a mini-breakdown.
The next crash came after a romp with one of my boyfriends early in the morning. We were heading to my mother's house for some reason, and I was driving without paying much attention to the speed limit or the road. All of a sudden I hit a patch of gravel on a curve and my little Toyota flipped into a phone pole. We were lucky to get out unscathed. We had to be pulled from the car as it was on its side. What was worse was that my boyfriend's father HATED me as he considered me a freaky hippy girl who had seduced his only boy. I had to face him...that was the last time he had anything to do with me. The father that is. The next week I had the worst case of poison ivy all over and had to travel via bicycle till my car got fixed.
Then there was the time I drove into the farmer's fence. I was alone and totally not paying attention to the road, that is for sure. I can't tell any more except that I was freaking out that someone had seen and would find me before I could get my act together and get the hell out of there.
I calmed down a bit after this till the night I had a big fight with my fiance at the Hurley Mountain Inn. He was hanging out with some chickie poo (who I still see around to this day and have to be reminded of that night......) I am not someone to be reckoned with when I am angry and partying, so I took off and left him there and drove home like a tasmanian devil. Don't ask me how it happened, but I crashed into a car on a one way street. With my front right quarter panel dragging on the ground, my windshield cracked (and this time I did get hurt)I drove the car home and parked it along a row of bushes. I "cleaned up" the apartment a bit and walked outside to find the police searching the neighborhood. I walked out and gave myself up, invited them in for tea, and told them that I left because I was afraid that the people who's car I hit was going to hurt me (they were really bad bad boys too). The funny thing is that the guys ended up coming to harass me, I called the cops, and THEY, not ME, got into trouble.
That shook me up enough to stop all this shenanigans while driving. I came close to getting into A LOT of trouble (for many, many reasons, thank God it was the early 80's) and I knew I was not going to be so lucky forever. Besides, my insurance was starting to skyrocket.
I stayed safe till 1984 when my little toyota finally got hit and put to the graveyard. I was 5 months pregnant and had my boss in the car. A car pulls out into me, leaving pieces of my car all over the road. She pulls off the road and asks if she hit me! You want to see someone rip someone up one side and down the other?!!!! Fortuanately we were OK. It was the last time I drove without a seat belt. (no laws at the time)
Since then I have a perfect driving record. I consider myself to be a very safe driver. I have had a few people hit me from the rear, but their cars got the crunch, not mine. I don't talk on the cell while driving, I know my radio by heart and load all my music before I take off. I know my car's ability, and know that certain things don't mix with driving.
I am glad to have survived all of this, some didn't. But I sure get a chuckle when I remember it.
Drive safely this holiday season! Patti
At the end of the day I was working with my two favorite students and one of them requested some Motown. I had been cruising the internet radio channels looking for just the right music for this class and figured, why not? What a flashback to my days of youth. We were singing the songs, dancing, and painting. It was a riot to see 17 year olds groove to something I listened to back in the 70's. One of the students said that when she blasts the music in her car, she nearly runs into things. I laughed, because I had a flash back to being 19, driving, and having a few car crashes of my own.
Because of the nature of the "circumstances of the crashes", you are going to have to fill in the blanks on how some of them might have happened. Some of you will never guess, some of you will groan and say OH NO, YOU DIDN'T. I don't know if any of my present readers remember me from this period. I think one or two of you do,. but never knew about some of the events that I write about. (hey, are you still my friends now that you know what a nut I was..or did you figure that out years ago?)
My first car crash came on my birthday, November 10th, 1976 to be exact. I was driving to school and it had snowed about 4". The college was not closed, so I headed out. I had never driven in the snow before, and my father told me to test my brakes to see how the car reacted once I got onto the highway. I pulled out onto Route 28, got to about 35 mph and slammed on my brakes. I go into a spin and into the ditch. I was mortified! But I was more terrified that my father who was not far behind me would find me in the ditch and think I was an idiot. I don't know how I did it, but it was one of those super-human strength events, I pushed the car out of the ditch and headed to a friend's house where I had a mini-breakdown.
The next crash came after a romp with one of my boyfriends early in the morning. We were heading to my mother's house for some reason, and I was driving without paying much attention to the speed limit or the road. All of a sudden I hit a patch of gravel on a curve and my little Toyota flipped into a phone pole. We were lucky to get out unscathed. We had to be pulled from the car as it was on its side. What was worse was that my boyfriend's father HATED me as he considered me a freaky hippy girl who had seduced his only boy. I had to face him...that was the last time he had anything to do with me. The father that is. The next week I had the worst case of poison ivy all over and had to travel via bicycle till my car got fixed.
Then there was the time I drove into the farmer's fence. I was alone and totally not paying attention to the road, that is for sure. I can't tell any more except that I was freaking out that someone had seen and would find me before I could get my act together and get the hell out of there.
I calmed down a bit after this till the night I had a big fight with my fiance at the Hurley Mountain Inn. He was hanging out with some chickie poo (who I still see around to this day and have to be reminded of that night......) I am not someone to be reckoned with when I am angry and partying, so I took off and left him there and drove home like a tasmanian devil. Don't ask me how it happened, but I crashed into a car on a one way street. With my front right quarter panel dragging on the ground, my windshield cracked (and this time I did get hurt)I drove the car home and parked it along a row of bushes. I "cleaned up" the apartment a bit and walked outside to find the police searching the neighborhood. I walked out and gave myself up, invited them in for tea, and told them that I left because I was afraid that the people who's car I hit was going to hurt me (they were really bad bad boys too). The funny thing is that the guys ended up coming to harass me, I called the cops, and THEY, not ME, got into trouble.
That shook me up enough to stop all this shenanigans while driving. I came close to getting into A LOT of trouble (for many, many reasons, thank God it was the early 80's) and I knew I was not going to be so lucky forever. Besides, my insurance was starting to skyrocket.
I stayed safe till 1984 when my little toyota finally got hit and put to the graveyard. I was 5 months pregnant and had my boss in the car. A car pulls out into me, leaving pieces of my car all over the road. She pulls off the road and asks if she hit me! You want to see someone rip someone up one side and down the other?!!!! Fortuanately we were OK. It was the last time I drove without a seat belt. (no laws at the time)
Since then I have a perfect driving record. I consider myself to be a very safe driver. I have had a few people hit me from the rear, but their cars got the crunch, not mine. I don't talk on the cell while driving, I know my radio by heart and load all my music before I take off. I know my car's ability, and know that certain things don't mix with driving.
I am glad to have survived all of this, some didn't. But I sure get a chuckle when I remember it.
Drive safely this holiday season! Patti
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