Seeing the light snow falling the other day reminded me of the time when I decided to take my brother’s, Rick’s, car out for a drive. It was in December on Christmas break from school. The Vietnam war was ragging on and my brother Rick was in the navy on a sub tender and I was turning 15 in January.
Before he left for duty, to my surprise, he handed me his keys to his cool 56 Chevy convertible
then said to me, “Could you start my car up once a week and let it run for a few minutes?” With a big grin I said, “Sure!”
Rick giving me the keys to his car was a big honor, but asking me to start it up….well, it made my day!
As the weeks passed I could hardly wait for each Friday so I could go out and start his car, but before I knew it, temptation, and then, well you know what comes next. I was doing more than just starting up his car, I was driving it back and forth in the driveway, just like I did in my 34 Chevy when Mom and Dad were gone.
As time past I drove Rick’s car a little further and further, before long I was driving his car all over town, I would even dress up in his coat just in case some of his friends saw the car and think it was him driving by instead of me.
This December day, like I said at the top of this post, it was a cold day…. I drove Rick’s car over to my friend Don’s, picked him up and off we went, driving all over the place. The next thing I knew we were on the freeway driving to the Lloyd Center Mall faster than I had ever drove before, when suddenly it started snowing.
I was just starting to master shifting the gears let alone trying to drive in the snow! So I decided to get off the freeway and drive back home.
As I got off the Freeway and onto the side streets there was so much snow that the tires on the 56 started spinning and sliding all over the place! The car became very hard for me to drive and that’s when it happened! As I turned the corner I was going a little to fast and the car spun out of control. We started spinning in a circle around and around and around until we smashed into the curb with a big jolt and the engine dead.
Don and I jumped out to see if I had wrecked anything. When I got to the curb I just stood there starring at what I did. It seemed like forever. That’s when I started saying to myself, “If only I hadn’t driven the car!” or if only I hadn’t this or hadn’t done that!. But I did, and now Rick’s right front wheel was all bent up and his trust in me went out the window too.
Now all I could hear was Don saying over and over again what are you going to do. We both got back in Rick’s car, it took forever to get the Chevy started again but to my relief it finally started and wouldn’t you know, the snow had stopped and was now melting off the road. As I pulled away from the curb I drove Rick’s car like a Sunday driver, slow!
After dropping Don off I was now finally back in my own driveway. I was home but not off the hook. For the next few hours I hammered and filed and hammered and sanded till I got that wheel back in shape. It was now as good as a kid could make it. I then found some paint in the basement and hand painted it to match the color of the wheel, then put the wheel back on the car. Little did I know the paint I used was water soluble and would dissolve with soap and water.
Months passed and Rick was finally back home, and of curse the first thing he did on that quite, sunny day was to wash his car. Like I said It was a quite day until he started washing the right front wheel . Suddenly, the water in the bucket turned into the same color as his wheel, and my repair job was now exposed! I was in my room when I heard him yelling my name from the driveway and I knew I was in big trouble.
I went out to face the music. The next day I could tell how mad he was by the big bruises all over my left arm and shoulder. I never did that again…until he bought his 58 Corvette.
