MARRIED... Winter woes Part 49l)

There was very little traffic on that road, especially at that time of morning. The first two cars that came by did stop and when they saw my car in the field they couldn’t believe it made it down there without touching the side of the hill or without flipping. The guy who originally stopped suggested that we go back to the gas station and see if the owner lived in the house right behind it. Just as I knocked on the door it opened. I was greeted by an old man with a beard down to his mid chest and it was his gas station. I told him my plight and he said the nearest wrecker was in the town where I went to college. He said he’d call and the guy who had stopped said he had to get going. I thanked him for his help and I still remember his parting words... ”Good luck but you probably won’t need it because you have a guardian angel hovering above you.“

It took almost two hours for the wrecker to get there. When it did the operator said he’d have to call the State Police to shut down the road for him to pull my car back up the hill. What a process!. There was about 15 to 18 inches of snow on the ground and when the car was being pulled up the hill it acted like a snowplow. It took a good 15 minutes to get it to the top. Once over the edge and back onto the road I saw the big dent in the middle of the drivers door where I'd hit the mile marker. I was going to try and start it but the the wrecker operator told me that there would be snow packed up tight under the hood. He was right. I opened the hood and saw nothing but snow and the cover for the air cleaner. The wrecker towed me back to the gas station where he, I and the bearded old man pushed, poked and beat as much snow out of the compartment as we could. When I finally tried to start it I was actually surprised that it did.

I had less than $10 cash on me and told the wrecker operator that I’d have to get the money got him once I was back at school. He wasn’t happy but he had all my information so he finally drove off. I figured I better give something to the old guy so put $4 worth of gas in the car and let him have the extra dollar. It was just after mid day when I arrived back on campus, I went to the Ad building first thing. I’d missed three classes and I was paranoid about losing my unauthorized ”cuts“. After showing them the bill for the towing of the car they agreed to make them authorized absences. When I showed up at the farm Mrs T was really upset when she saw the car. I assured her that I was fine but I refused to do what she wanted me to do and that was to call Elle. That was the last thing I needed to do at that time.

Everyone who saw the car wanted to know what happened. The door was stove in right to the frame rail. Because the door was no longer tight a fair about of air got in and I ended up using the towels that I kept under the seat for Elle to stuff in the openings. I knew that my father hadn’t canceled the insurance so I called his agent. I’d met Mr K a few times and when I told him what had happened I asked him to not say anything to my father until I got home in just over a week. He reluctantly agreed and told me that there was a $100 deductible with collision insurance. I had no idea what that meant. When he told me it was a shock. I was saving all I could to make the last payment to Elle’s doctor for the delivery of the baby and taking that much from that ”fund“ would a real problem. I also knew that driving the car that way was not good either.

When I got home and Elle saw the car she was upset but at least she could see I was OK. She also thought that the damaged car would mean that we wouldn’t be going home so she could meet my grandparents. No so. Even though I’d originally told Harry that I'd work the whole week I was off from school and going home would mean giving up some of those paydays. By then I knew we really had to do it. The situation was like a big boil just waiting to burst and left far too many unanswered questions for the future. I wasn’t looking forward to it but it was something that had to be done.

To be continued...