The Bridge Part II.
In my previous story I told of how I was almost killed by a carload of people on the bridge. These people purposely tried to hurt me. Four years later and just about in the exact spot I was almost killed again, but this was by accident.
My first new car was a little Ford Pinto. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of something I was buying than this. After having only a 10-speed bicycle for a long long time, that little Pinto was like a dream. Back in the early 70s I had to move away from my hometown to start college. I had started at a nursing school because I wanted to go into anesthesia, and at this school there were no dorm rooms for males. So when I moved I had to find myself a very cheap apartment, buy a car for transportation and I had to work full time to afford school and the necessities. I look back at the cost of things then and I just cringe sometime. My car payment was $86.00/month, my apartment was $100.00/month and the rest of my paycheck was spent on school, food and the other stuff you have to have to live. To say I wasn’t living the life of luxury would be an understatement.
It was during Christmas break that I went home to see family and friends. I was meeting an old roommate (OR) of mine over at a mutual friend’s house. We had sat around talking, and my OR said that there was still some stuff of mine that he had found in the cabin. He was leaving and asked did I want to come over and pick my stuff up. I said sure, I would drop by in a little while. As I’ve told everyone before, it hardly ever snows down here. In the time my OR left and when I finally got ready to leave we had like a mini-blizzard here. I didn’t think anything of it and proceeded to head to my OR’s place.
It was dark as I approached the bridge, but I could see a county truck on the bridge with two guys behind it shoveling sand on the bridge. I slowed down and stopped waiting for a chance to pass them and head on. I’m sitting and waiting, when all of a sudden a car crashed into the back of my Pinto. The force of the impact was so hard that it broke my seat and I was basically lying on my back pumping the breaks and trying to see over the dashboard. My car was approximately 10 yards from the sand truck, but the impact propelled my car toward and under the sand truck. I can remember seeing the two guys shoveling sand jump out of the way just before my car went under the truck. I can also remember while going under the truck that a 18-wheeler passing by on the opposite lane. It took me a number of moments to collect my wit and to see if anything was broken. I was extremely lucky in that nothing was broken and not a scratch on me. However, my poor little Pinto was totaled.
After the dust settled the two sand guys came running to my car and got me out. Then an old man approached me, and I could see he was extremely shaken. He was the driver of the car that hit me. After checking to see if I was all right, we looked at his car. I forget what make of car it was, but it was one of those early 70s behemoth cars. We looked at his car and the only thing wrong with it was a part of its grill was broken. The man kept apologizing and in between apologies I got his insurance info and found out a few other things. He told me that he was on his way to work and something like this had never happened to him. I asked him what type of work he did, and he told me he was a Greyhound bus driver.
So my car was towed off the bridge and it was as I said – totaled. What really got to me was I only had three more car payments until it was paid off. I won’t even go over how I was screwed over by the insurance company, or how I came to acquire another new car with the payments being twice as much as my old one. After this incident it was pretty much down hill from there for trying to work full time and go to college.
Was I very lucky in not being killed a second time on the same bridge? Well of course I was. If you remember about Pintos, the gas tank was a big problem. When hit from the rear, they had a tendency to explode and catch fire. Was I very lucky that the gas tank didn’t explode and catch fire? Obviously that is a resounding yes!
So you can see, whenever I have to cross this particular bridge, there is a little bit of apprehension given my track record on this path of doom. OK it’s not a path of doom, but………..
My first new car was a little Ford Pinto. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of something I was buying than this. After having only a 10-speed bicycle for a long long time, that little Pinto was like a dream. Back in the early 70s I had to move away from my hometown to start college. I had started at a nursing school because I wanted to go into anesthesia, and at this school there were no dorm rooms for males. So when I moved I had to find myself a very cheap apartment, buy a car for transportation and I had to work full time to afford school and the necessities. I look back at the cost of things then and I just cringe sometime. My car payment was $86.00/month, my apartment was $100.00/month and the rest of my paycheck was spent on school, food and the other stuff you have to have to live. To say I wasn’t living the life of luxury would be an understatement.
It was during Christmas break that I went home to see family and friends. I was meeting an old roommate (OR) of mine over at a mutual friend’s house. We had sat around talking, and my OR said that there was still some stuff of mine that he had found in the cabin. He was leaving and asked did I want to come over and pick my stuff up. I said sure, I would drop by in a little while. As I’ve told everyone before, it hardly ever snows down here. In the time my OR left and when I finally got ready to leave we had like a mini-blizzard here. I didn’t think anything of it and proceeded to head to my OR’s place.
It was dark as I approached the bridge, but I could see a county truck on the bridge with two guys behind it shoveling sand on the bridge. I slowed down and stopped waiting for a chance to pass them and head on. I’m sitting and waiting, when all of a sudden a car crashed into the back of my Pinto. The force of the impact was so hard that it broke my seat and I was basically lying on my back pumping the breaks and trying to see over the dashboard. My car was approximately 10 yards from the sand truck, but the impact propelled my car toward and under the sand truck. I can remember seeing the two guys shoveling sand jump out of the way just before my car went under the truck. I can also remember while going under the truck that a 18-wheeler passing by on the opposite lane. It took me a number of moments to collect my wit and to see if anything was broken. I was extremely lucky in that nothing was broken and not a scratch on me. However, my poor little Pinto was totaled.
After the dust settled the two sand guys came running to my car and got me out. Then an old man approached me, and I could see he was extremely shaken. He was the driver of the car that hit me. After checking to see if I was all right, we looked at his car. I forget what make of car it was, but it was one of those early 70s behemoth cars. We looked at his car and the only thing wrong with it was a part of its grill was broken. The man kept apologizing and in between apologies I got his insurance info and found out a few other things. He told me that he was on his way to work and something like this had never happened to him. I asked him what type of work he did, and he told me he was a Greyhound bus driver.
So my car was towed off the bridge and it was as I said – totaled. What really got to me was I only had three more car payments until it was paid off. I won’t even go over how I was screwed over by the insurance company, or how I came to acquire another new car with the payments being twice as much as my old one. After this incident it was pretty much down hill from there for trying to work full time and go to college.
Was I very lucky in not being killed a second time on the same bridge? Well of course I was. If you remember about Pintos, the gas tank was a big problem. When hit from the rear, they had a tendency to explode and catch fire. Was I very lucky that the gas tank didn’t explode and catch fire? Obviously that is a resounding yes!
So you can see, whenever I have to cross this particular bridge, there is a little bit of apprehension given my track record on this path of doom. OK it’s not a path of doom, but………..
posted by Family Man | 3:18 AM
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