Misadventures Along the Road

This could turn out to be the first in a long series. There have been many misadventures along the way. So, there may be many such posts - the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

I was inspired - if you can call it that - by Lisa's recent misadventure with a punctured tire. I've lost count of the times I have had car trouble of one kind or another.

I did not learn to drive until I was about thirty years old, married and mother of three. It had become inconvenient not to be able to shop much or take children to the doctor's office without depending on a neighbor or waiting until my husband came home from work, so I decided on driving lessons at Adult Ed in the high school. They were an adventure in themselves. This was most apparent when one woman had her turn at the wheel. She was a complete ditz. If she was told to turn, left or right, she would bless herself - up-down-left-right - in order to remember which direction was left or right. At one point she drove down a road which ended in a cross street, and just kept driving across the street and onto the lawn of the house straight ahead. The instructor couldn't believe what she was doing, and temporarily froze, sputtering at her. She just looked at him wide eyed and said, "Well, you didn't tell me to turn." this gal gave us all some bad moments in the car. It didn't surprise me too much. I knew her well as a neighbor. She had six children - two girls, and four boys who were the bane of the neighborhood. Out of control! She used to look at my kids and say wistfully, "I wish mine were as good as yours. How do you make them behave?" I told her that sometimes I said "No!" She told me, "I do, but they ignore me." She was a person who could never make a decision, and just let things happen.
Anyway, I passed my test with flying colors. Ditzy never did get a license, for which we were all very grateful.

Adult Ed class had continued into autumn, when days grew shorter. I should have realized then that I had a problem with night vision. Since the problem had existed all my life, I guess I just thought it was normal for everyone. I didn't catch on to the fact that it was just me until a night much later, when I was driving and Ralph was in the passenger seat. He suddenly yelled at me and grabbed the steering wheel. He wanted to know why I didn't move away from the boys with bikes on the side of the road. I never saw them. That incident put the fear of God into me, and I stopped driving at night. Over the years I have asked a few ophthamologists about my problem. None have found any reason for it, nor cure for it, but I still have trouble finding my way in the dark. I just never drive after sundown.


We covered a whole lot of miles by car during our marriage, from New York to Pennsylvania, to New Jersey, to Delaware and Connecticut, visiting relaives or friends. More than once, we had to return home in a rented car. We threw a rod in the Phymouth in Delaware.

And then there was the time we were coming back from Delaware just before Christmas. We had my mother with us, plus three kids and a large dog. We got as far as Metuchen, New Jersey on the Turnpike. I don't remember now what the problem was that time, but the car died. A police officer drove us to a repair shop. They said they would tow our car to their shop, and rent us one to take home. When we got home and went to the rental place at that end, since it was a Sunday, the man there waved us off and said they would send us a bill.

We enjoyed our Christmas. My uncle came to take my mother home a few days later. Then we started calling Metuchen to see if our car had been repaired yet. They kept putting us off. Finally, the morning of New Year's Eve, Ralph was really getting angry. No answer at the repair shop. He called the Metuchen Police Department and was told - are you ready for this? - they were closed because it was a Sunday. Ralph told me he was going down there. How? He'd hitch-hike. He got there, found the shop closed, but our car was sitting outside. He checked it out. Yes, it had been repaired. BUT all decent parts, including a battery we had purchased a short time before, were replaced with junk. But it was running. He got in a drove it home.

We never heard from them again. Nor were we ever billed for the rental.