by quirky » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:53 pm
I don't think I've told this story before.
My nephew who went to Iraq is also my Godson. Before he was due to be deployed, he went to Minnesota (some of his mom's side of the family live there) and bought a GTO something or other...classic hot rod car. He spent some time there with his uncle working on the car. Then he was going to drive it back home via Grandma and me. He started having car trouble in Cedar Rapids. He called and said it was the starter, but they had gotten the car started. I told him to start driving and not to turn the car off. He said "What if I need gas?" I said, leave it running while you gas up...
This was about 5 pm...so grandma and I just waited.
The phone rang about 9:30 I think and it was him. His uncle had told him that there was a car place outside of Iowa City where he could get a new starter.
So, he did that...got about a mile down the road from the place and the car died. I said I would come and help him and he said he needed a wrench set. So I went down to my uncle's and got the wrench set and headed off to where he was.
It was about an hour away down a country road. I found him pretty quick
with the town cop keeping him company.
So the cop left, he popped the hood and I gave him the wrench set.
What ensued is something straight OUT of a movie. He stuck a wrench in to, I dunnoo.....wrench something or other and there were sparks and a "ztztztzztzt" noise.
I knew it didn't bode well. All of a sudden he turned around and started to say, "Well...it's the flange adjuster...the carborator and the ....blah blah".
I said, "I don't speak auto mechanic. It's 1:30 in the morning...."
He started in again and I stopped him.
"I need to know only ONE thing...is THIS car going to be able to make it to Grandma's tonight?"
He looked down and shook his head.
I said, "Ok...well there's a hotel right over there...we'll take the car to a mechanic in the morning."
He said, "I don't have enough money..."
I said, "Well it's a good thing I do..."
So we checked in and in the morning a mechanic did something or other to the car and it made it back to Grandma's.
We had a nice steak supper and he spent the night. When he left the next morning I said, "If you break down in Illinois...call me....if you make it out of Illinois...call your dad."
He made it to Indianapolis and my brother rented a thing to put the car on and went to get him.
What was so pivotal was the fact that I accidentally put on adult shoes. It occurred to me that HE was no longer a kid and I CERTAINLY wasn't.
"When in doubt, tell the truth."
Mark Twain