Turning 16 and totaling your car on your birthday is not the greatest way to start the day.
2022
In August of 2022, our youngest daughter turned 16. Audrey followed in the line of her 3 siblings and was ready to take on the world. She has been driving us around for a while and she felt like she was ready for absolute freedom. We may or may not have agreed with her, but experience has taught us that you never think your kids are ready.
My parents, on the other hand, maybe should have given a bit more consideration before handing me the keys.
1987
I turned sixteen in February of 1987 and the first day after I got my license I eagerly got ready early and loaded up in the family’s baby blue, 1971 Volkswagen Beetle with a stick shift transmission and no seat belts.
It was a chilly, misty February morning and I could not have cared less! I was embarking on the first day of a lifetime of freedom. I eased out of the driveway and off I went. A half mile from home, I began the descent of a long, steep hill that has a 90-degree curve at the bottom. I didn’t care. I got my car up to speed and actually got it up to 4th gear and started picking up speed. So, I slammed on the brakes as I approached the curve WAY TOO FAST. I began to slide and accelerate. Using my extensive knowledge of drama-related TV entertainment, I was convinced the brakes in my car were either out or had been cut. There would be no other explanation for my brakes failing.
Approaching the curve now, completely out of control, the only words I could hear from my dad were “Son, a Volkswagen’s engine is in the back, not the front. That makes them back heavy and more prone to flip on a sharp curve…so be aware of that.”
I was pretty seriously aware of that. A decision needed to be made. I chose to drive (or just steer) right through the curve into the front yard of the nice little home that sat innocently at the bottom of the hill.
“Just don’t hit the house” I said to myself
As I rumbled and bounced through their yard, my only thought was “Hmm, I should probably try to avoid running into the house” – so at the last second, while still trying to brake to no avail, I steered left to avoid the house and hoped to just skid through their yard with just some tire tracks to fix.
Little did I know, this house was a 2-story house and I was driving towards and steering away from the TOP STORY of the house and instead of plaining out in the yard, I was roaring towards the top side of a 10-foot retaining wall that sat unnoticed until this very second.
I can still remember the noise of my tires hitting the bricks at the top of the retaining wall. I can still remember the sensation of being air born and watching the lower driveway race toward me! I can still remember the sudden, abrupt stop when the nose of my now dearly departed VW Beetle hit the lower driveway and I lurched forward to kiss the windshield. I can also still remember the millisecond of balancing on the front bumper before the car fell over on the drivers side. The sounds of all of that I still remember and they are terrible.
I watched WAY too much TV
Again, drawing from my extensive knowledge of TV shows, I laid there on my drivers side door in the aftermath. I was certain that I was dead.
I began to slowly move each muscle and realized that I wasn’t dead after all. I wasn’t even hurt! I stood up and reached above my head to crank down the window of the passenger side and I pulled myself out.
Several minutes later I was with my dad, pulling into the upper driveway of the same house where my poor little car was lying in a pool or engine fluid in their lower driveway, and as of that moment, unnoticed by the owners of the house.
We pulled in just as they did, having just dropped off their children at school.
“Nice to meet you….So glad you dropped in”
The mother of the house, after looking over the scene, drew in a deep breath and exclaimed “My petunias!” I assume that the adults worked it all out. I had to keep moving, I was late for school.
The tow truck driver, later that afternoon, was overheard saying that it was a good thing I was wearing a seatbelt. The windshield was cracked where my head hit it. According to him, I would have gone through the windshield without a constraint. I don’t know if that is true or not.
My dads words helped me avoid the curve, God’s protective hands helped me survive the crash.
Now over 30 years removed from this accident, I look figuratively over the wall and I am glad that my dad’s wisdom and warnings continues to jump up into my head every time I am headed for a “perilous curve”. As a parent, I pray that even if my my kids avoid a dangerous curve just to be thrown into another threatening situation, that I can learn to trust my Heavenly Father the way I listened to and trusted my earthly father.
