Thinking primarily of your growing-up years and your early years of driving, have you ever been in an auto accident? Were you a passenger or the driver? Were you injured? How badly was the car damaged? Whose fault was it? What was the attitude of your parents toward "fender benders" and tickets? Were minor dings and scrapes a big deal? Have you ever received a traffic ticket? If more than one, 'fess up: how many? Any warnings? Has a family member or close friend been seriously injured or killed in an accident? Have you ever witnessed a bad accident and stopped to render aid or give a statement? What role, if any, did seat belts and car seats have in your early years?
I know you will think this is weird....but my mom had something we referred to as a third eye. She would have dreams....and they would come true. In one dream she dreamed that she and her friend Valerie were driving down a road in the neighborhood when a car ran a stop sign....hitting our car and killing all of us. Several days passed and my mom avoided the road in her dreams....but then she was riding down that road....Valerie was driving....and as they approached the road in her dreams....she reached out and told Mrs. Geiger to STOP! Valerie did as she was told...and a car ran through the stop sign. Another minute and we would have been killed.
My very first incident happened in May when I was 19. In 1972 I got a 1968 Plymouth Satellite 383 when I turned 18 and graduated from high school. It was flame red and would smoke anything at a red light. One afternoon I was headed home from college and traffic was heavy due to some road construction. I had to stop on Southern Blvd. to turn left into my neighborhood. The speed limit at the time was 35 because it was a residential section AND road construction was going on. I was waiting on a police car so I could turn. I glanced in my rear-view mirror and saw a VW bug plow into my rear end. The VW hit me so hard it actually knocked my gas tank out from under my car and knocked my car 186 feet. The driver of the bug went through the windshield and ended up on the back of my now crushed rear end. I broke my nose (this was back in the days that all we had were lap belts, huge steering wheels, and no air bags. I also tore my mastoid muscle in my neck, dislocated my kneecap, broke a tooth, and blackened my right eye. I had to be removed from my car with the jaws of life because the doors of my car jammed when the car hit me. I was so sad to see my baby towed to the junk yard. The insurance company totaled it.
I never had a minor fender bender. It was always all or nothing for me. I hit a deer once when I was returning home on New Year's Eve....and before you go there....I had all three of my kids with me....we were coming home from the grocery store. The deer jumped up the embankment, landed square on my front windshield, knocked the windshield into our laps, slid off the car and ran off into the woods. Two men stopped in a four wheel drive truck...and I thought how nice they are stopping to help us...but all they wanted to know was which way the deer went. Only in the South! I hit a mailbox once too...in a souped up Trans-Am....the roads were slick because it had rained and I hit a slick spot...and did three circles....the last one took out the mailbox.
In May of my twenty-ninth year I was in college. My sister-in-law and I were on our way to class for mid-terms. It was actually her day to drive....but I had gotten a new car over the weekend...so we decided to go in my new Skylark. We were stopped on 231 at the by-pass in Montgomery....waiting for the light to turn green. I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw the under carriage of a car. I grabbed my SIL's hair and threw her into the floor board of the car.....and laid down in the seat and prayed. The car actually landed on the back half of my car and crushed it. I broke my nose, pulled my mastoid muscle, twisted my left knee, was bruised, had a nice knot in the center of my forehead (I looked like a unicorn)....SIL was bruised and sore and mad cause I messed up her hair. The man was drunk, had no insurance, no license, and was running from the cops. Jaws of life actually were used this time to get us out. We were taken to the hospital and checked out. I made the ambulance driver patch a call through to Dr. McElroy and explain what was happening....because he had told us the only excuse for missing his test...was death...ours....and I had not died.
Once again....in May.... I was thiry-nine and working on my Masters Degree in Education in Montgomery I went down an embankment when another car was coming at me head on. I was on my way home from college and it was about 10 at night. I was able to pull straight out and I was not hurt. The car on the other hand had quite a bit of cosmetic damage. I began to get a phobia at driving when I was an age with a nine in it. I swore I was not going to drive at forty-nine....but I did...and nothing happened. Whew!
I have never had a ticket in all of my fifty-six years. There are several speed traps in our area....so I don't push the issue. When I was a child my parents had a bed they used for my brother and I when we were little. We sat on traincases to see out the window. After my brother died my parents finally figured out that sitting in the back seat made me car sick. From that moment on ....I sat up front with my dad. We had lap belts on our car....shoulder belts came after I was married I think.
What about you? Share your memories and link up here!
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