For almost 4 years I've written a newsletter for the ladies out at Levy Forestry Camp that several from our church's prison team go to minister to every week. To hear some of the stories from the ladies that come to our Bible Study is something else....their backgrounds, childhood, etc. I am truly blessed to have had such a fun, memorable childhood...thus my reason for loving to write about them from time to time.
Our family didn't have much growing up, like the ole saying goes, "We didn't have a pot to pee in". Two adults and five children in a little Fiat. I don't know what we went to next except that up above the back seat, we had enough room to lay down and look out the back window. Sometimes we would take turns between that and lay over the "hump" in the back floorboard. We didn't even think of using seatbelts. Eventually we graduated to station wagons with all of our "caravan". I was one that suffered with motion sickness. I didn't like the nausea (who does?), but from time to time I would get to sit up front and let the air conditioner blow in my face....that seemed to help a little bit. I cannot count the times on vacation when in the Smoky Mountains, my grandparents always wanted to take us for rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well, if you aren't familiar with the Parkway, the scenery is beautiful, but the roads are like hairpin curves...continuously. I promise you I am getting sick just thinking about it. I would literally cry and beg for us not to have to go....I never won.
In the mid 70's we were up in the much higher elevations of NC around Christmas time, and the first grandchild/my first nephew was born. This trip may be the main reason I'm not too fond of snow, other than to look at in pictures. As we arrived in this small town (much smaller than Williston), we missed a turn and daddy applied the brakes and we spun around in the road...looked like something you'd see on TV. A few days after the birth, my (then) brother-in-law, Mike, was driving us around looking at the snowcapped mountain scenery and took us down a little one-lane road. We looked as though we were riding in "Deliverance" territory....a little like the Hatfields & McCoy stomping grounds. As we were making our way back up the mountain, we had the side of the mountain on one side of the road for viewing, and the other side was Elk River running down in what looked like a canyon...way, way down there. Mike, my mother, and baby sister Ginger were in the front seat, while Wes, myself (sitting in the middle), and daddy were in the backseat. Wes and I had just quietly commented to each other as we were making our way up the mountain and fixing to go around a curve, "I sure do hope no one's coming around the corner". Well, the mail carrier was out delivering the mail and ran right smack into us as she came down the mountain. Quick-thinking Mike steered into the mountain as we hit....that's better than the river below. It was so bitterly cold outside. Wes, Daddy, and Mike all set out for walking up the road a piece, to warn any other drivers that may be traveling down the same road of the accident ahead of them. The rest of us sat inside the warmest place we could get, inside the vehicle. Pam literally had to sit on my feet to keep them warm which the day before had been frozen from my wet tennis shoes (from the deep south we aren't accustomed to being in the snow). It was a little nervy as we could feel and hear the car shift on the icy road. After waiting on a deputy, we made it out of there safe and sound without any bump, bruises, or scratches to us. The front side of our new Chevy Caprice was smashed, but still drivable.
We oohed and awwed over the baby, and was ready to head home after about a week of cold weather. The roads were icy the morning we left, and it was in the low 20's which I managed well with my brand new midi-length coat I got for Christmas. I was so proud of it. I was sitting in the backseat next to the door, only I could feel a bit of motion sickness coming on. I told daddy I was sick on my stomach and he just told me to "hold it" till he could find a place to pull off. Not exactly an easy thing to do when you have drop offs on both sides of the road. We rode a little further and the nausea became worse. "Daddy, I'm gonna be sick...please stop". Daddy kept saying, "I can't find a place to pull off!" So here we are with the front end of our car dented in the front, and a car full of people with one of the occupants sick on her stomach. Finally Daddy spotted a service station ahead and said, "Here, I'm gonna pull off...now run inside quick, where we can get back on the road". The owner/attendant was out sweeping his driveway off and as we're rolling in, I swing my door open, stick my head out and let her fly....by that I mean...vomit. Poor ole fellow didn't know what hit him as we whip right out as quickly as we arrived. All I could say was, "I told you I was getting sick..." Our next stop hours later, I found that the belt to my new coat had been slammed in the door and frozen stiff from the ice. Our past week looked like something you'd see on National Lampoon's Southeast Vacation, if they had one entitled that. Most all of our trips were memorable...something we could all sit back and laugh at in years to come.
We were so happy to get back into Florida. After all the commotion and stress from the week, who'd have ever thunk that this would be the very weekend my father would go to bed in a drunken stuper, fall under conviction during the night, and give his heart to the Lord before the sun came up the next morning. The very beginning of our family coming to know the Lord.... the Lord works in mysterious ways, huh? There's a purpose for everything we go through in life...wrecks, motion-sickness and all.
6 years ago
