One January brought a spring thaw. I was still on days here so I started for home but I had trouble along the way. As fast as it had begun to thaw and melt down the hill on Pleasant Valley Road, it got really cold and froze up faster. I was slipping a bit but I managed to get down West road and turn on to Pleasant Valley. It was not so pleasant by now.
The hill appeared to be shear ice. I tried to get up it but I was sliding. I let it slide back down the hill. Reving up the engine I took off as fast as could. I was almost at the top of the hill when I saw a truck spread sideways across the hill. I couldn't make it but I was almost home. Before it could slide back down the hill I turned the wheel. When it slid it went side ways into the ditch. I was almost home.
I wasn't hurt but I still couldn't get up far enough to make it over the top of the hill and around the truck. I was sitting there in the car fuming. I looked around but I saw nothing helpful. Then I heard a noise. I looked up at the truck hoping it wasn't going to crash down on me but couldn't see how that was possible either.
On the other side of the truck was Dad walking. He'd come to meet me even though he knew the truck was across the road. I think one of the Taylor boys was with him. Somehow they got me around or over the truck leaving the car where it was. I think but I'm not sure that I was driving Dad's Pinto but I hated it cause it was stick shift and I'd already had a run in with it. I'll explain later. I was very cold but we all got home leaving the car and truck where they lay.
The next morning the truck was gone. My car was still there. I could have this mixed up because here I see the Taylor boys lifting up the back of Dad's Pinto and literally pushing it up the hill. It doesn't make sense in my mind so maybe I can get Sue to read this and let me know what she thinks. Maybe its two separate events? Sue says it's two different ice storms or at least two separate events.
There was another car related incident there but I was living there at the time. I was in Ohio. What Mom told me was totally different than what Sue told me really happened. You never knew with Mom what was going on her mind. I don't think she was crazy when we were growing up but how would I know? She was controlling and manipulative. She could be kind but she wasn't always that way. She could be tough as nails and she could cry buckets. She could also swear like a trooper.
This other incident happened with I was living in Ohio. Dad said it was the reason he stopped driving and why Sue had to get a license.
Dad and Mom were coming home from somewhere. They had reached the spot where West road meets up with Pleasant Valley road. How they managed to miss the turn I don't really know. Mom told me that Dad had one of those "spells" that the doctor said were TIA shocks. The easiest way I can think of to explain what that is would be a "brain freeze" but its really a lot more complicated than that.
They ended up in water and not on the road. I'm trying to figure this out because I don't remember water down there at that end of the road. There was a deep ravine and maybe it had rained and filled up with flood water. I could also just not be seeing it right in my memories.
Mom said they were sinking fast. ( I just talked to Sue about this. She said it had rained a lot and the ravine had at least 4 feet of water in it.)
Mom told me that the "local rapist," a man who had either gone to jail or just to court for getting an underage girl pregnant, even though she was willing, had pulled them out and saved them. Sue says that Mom told her it was one of Flewellings who had pulled them out. She wasn't with them so we both only "know" what Mom told us.
I think sometimes she embroidered things to make them sound different depending on who she was talking to about it. With me being in Ohio, I couldn't know what the truth was so maybe she wanted to make her story more dramatic to me.
To get back to what I said about Mom swearing like a trooper. We were raised not to swear or say dirty words. We heard those words all the time, but we were not supposed to repeat them. I really want to tell you what she would say when she hit her finger with the hammer but I can't put those words down here. For one thing she used what I call the "C" word and I hate that word and refuse to use it. You will just have to use your imagination.