Monday, February 14, 2005
When Not To Wear White
One of those quizzes that I posted last week had a question about if I had a scar and how I got it and I answered that the story behind it would probably make a good post so here it is!
I was in my early 20's, probably 22 or 23 when this happened, working at Fargo's Pizza Company and going to school at Pikes Peak Community College. I had just recently started dating a guy named Mark whom I met in my psych class. One night we were both invited to a birthday party for Kym, a girl I worked with. The ladies and one of the managers wanted to take Kym to Red Robin and get her snockered for her 21st birthday which she was all for but she had one request: she was housesitting in Black Forest and would one of us please drive her up there while someone else followed in her car?
I offered the services of Mark & I... Kym's car was a standard and at that time I didn't know how to drive a stick but Mark did so I would drive with Kym and Mark would follow in Kym's car. The house she was staying at was way out of the way, off any main streets and we got there through a twisting maze of dirt roads. But both Mark & I were confident that we had remembered which ways to twist to get us back home.
We hung out with Kym for a while before leaving, making it about 1:30 in the morning, maybe later. I was driving Mom's 1979 Grand Prix, talking to Mark about reincarnation... he was telling me about weird dreams he had been having where he was Billy The Kid and we had been discussing how cool that would be if he were Billy The Kid reincarnated. Suddenly, Mark yelled, "Look out!!" and I realized that the road we were on was suddenly ending. I had to turn either left or right because directly in front of me was a big field surrounded by barbed wire!!! I screamed, braked and turned the wheel hard to the right but since we were on a dirt road, the tires didn't catch and we spun out, crashing through the barbed wire and plowing out into the field!
I sat there, breathing hard, heart pounding. I couldn't believe what had just happened! I asked Mark if he was okay, which he was. So was I. We got out of the car to survey the damage; the barbed wire was strung together with those thick green metal poles that look like mile markers but they're heavier. I had hit two of those crashing through the fence. One hit the driver's side fender pretty hard, denting it so that the door couldn't open. The second pole had hit directly in the middle of the grill, came up and scraped across the hood, the passenger side of the window and over the roof. I suddenly realized how lucky we had been - what if that second pole, instead of scraping across the car had slammed through the window and impaled Mark to the seat? I still shudder thinking about it!
The worst part was the barbed wire. It was twisted around the car through the trunk, holding it captive. Mark had a pocket knife on him which he used to cut through the wire. I had to hold onto it so it wouldn't flail about after it was cut and catch one of us in the face. I ended up with cuts on every single one of my fingers from holding onto that barbed wire. The only scar, though, is on the inside of my left middle finger. It's about half an inch long it's the first thing I notice when I turn my hand over.
Somehow, Mark got Mom's car out of that field. No one ever drove by, we never saw a house or a barn or anything. I drove and drove and drove down this dark deserted road, getting low on gas and completely lost! This was before cell phones so if we ran out of gas, we were screwed! Finally, at the last minute, we came to a road - a real, honest-to-God paved road with a road sign that said Highway 24! Hallelujah, I knew where we were!!! I drove to a gas station where Mark pumped the gas while I went inside to clean off my hands. I remember the lady behind the counter looking at me weird... my hands were covered in blood not to mention I was dressed in white jeans and a white sweater, both of which were dirty from the field and bloody from my hands.
We made it home that night and Mom & Dad weren't too mad at me for wrecking the car. They got it fixed and everything was good. Until Derek wrecked it which is his story to tell if he so desires! But I'll always have that scar!
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I was in my early 20's, probably 22 or 23 when this happened, working at Fargo's Pizza Company and going to school at Pikes Peak Community College. I had just recently started dating a guy named Mark whom I met in my psych class. One night we were both invited to a birthday party for Kym, a girl I worked with. The ladies and one of the managers wanted to take Kym to Red Robin and get her snockered for her 21st birthday which she was all for but she had one request: she was housesitting in Black Forest and would one of us please drive her up there while someone else followed in her car?
I offered the services of Mark & I... Kym's car was a standard and at that time I didn't know how to drive a stick but Mark did so I would drive with Kym and Mark would follow in Kym's car. The house she was staying at was way out of the way, off any main streets and we got there through a twisting maze of dirt roads. But both Mark & I were confident that we had remembered which ways to twist to get us back home.
We hung out with Kym for a while before leaving, making it about 1:30 in the morning, maybe later. I was driving Mom's 1979 Grand Prix, talking to Mark about reincarnation... he was telling me about weird dreams he had been having where he was Billy The Kid and we had been discussing how cool that would be if he were Billy The Kid reincarnated. Suddenly, Mark yelled, "Look out!!" and I realized that the road we were on was suddenly ending. I had to turn either left or right because directly in front of me was a big field surrounded by barbed wire!!! I screamed, braked and turned the wheel hard to the right but since we were on a dirt road, the tires didn't catch and we spun out, crashing through the barbed wire and plowing out into the field!
I sat there, breathing hard, heart pounding. I couldn't believe what had just happened! I asked Mark if he was okay, which he was. So was I. We got out of the car to survey the damage; the barbed wire was strung together with those thick green metal poles that look like mile markers but they're heavier. I had hit two of those crashing through the fence. One hit the driver's side fender pretty hard, denting it so that the door couldn't open. The second pole had hit directly in the middle of the grill, came up and scraped across the hood, the passenger side of the window and over the roof. I suddenly realized how lucky we had been - what if that second pole, instead of scraping across the car had slammed through the window and impaled Mark to the seat? I still shudder thinking about it!
The worst part was the barbed wire. It was twisted around the car through the trunk, holding it captive. Mark had a pocket knife on him which he used to cut through the wire. I had to hold onto it so it wouldn't flail about after it was cut and catch one of us in the face. I ended up with cuts on every single one of my fingers from holding onto that barbed wire. The only scar, though, is on the inside of my left middle finger. It's about half an inch long it's the first thing I notice when I turn my hand over.
Somehow, Mark got Mom's car out of that field. No one ever drove by, we never saw a house or a barn or anything. I drove and drove and drove down this dark deserted road, getting low on gas and completely lost! This was before cell phones so if we ran out of gas, we were screwed! Finally, at the last minute, we came to a road - a real, honest-to-God paved road with a road sign that said Highway 24! Hallelujah, I knew where we were!!! I drove to a gas station where Mark pumped the gas while I went inside to clean off my hands. I remember the lady behind the counter looking at me weird... my hands were covered in blood not to mention I was dressed in white jeans and a white sweater, both of which were dirty from the field and bloody from my hands.
We made it home that night and Mom & Dad weren't too mad at me for wrecking the car. They got it fixed and everything was good. Until Derek wrecked it which is his story to tell if he so desires! But I'll always have that scar!
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// posted by Heather @ 9:09 AM 
