According to a friend who lives in the area, my home town has more than a foot of snow or the ground and they are expecting an additional 4 inches today. Ashtabula is right on Lake Erie and is subject to “Lake Effect” snows. Ashtabula averages 85 to 100 inches of snow per year.
Growing up I can remember snow before my birthday (November 2) and snow falling as late as May 10th --I got my drivers license the spring after I was 16. So the winter I was 17 was my first year driving in the snow. My sister had also just gotten her drivers license (right after her 16th birthday). The first storm of the year had a layer of ice under the 2 feet of snow fall.
My sister borrowed my uncles car and left in one direction to pick up her boyfriend (now husband) and I left 15 minutes later, in my Grandmothers car, on some errand in the opposite direction.
Barb had tried to drive up hill and over a railroad track and couldn't make it. She slid back down and spun into a snow bank on a side road. She left the car and walked to her boyfriends and then headed back to the car with shovels to dig it out of the bank.
In the mean time, the road I wanted to take was blocked....so I made a right and ended up on the same road where Barb had left the car. You guessed it....I was giving Uncle Brock's car a wide berth and I literally slid sideways right smack into the side of it. Went to the closest house to call home (imagine doing that today). My mother answered, the conversation went:
“Hi mom, I had an accident.”
Mom- “Is everyone OK?
Me: “No one was injured”
Mom: “OK sweety, did you call the police.”
Me: “No mom I wasn't sure you'd want me to.”
Mom: “Mary Beth! You always call the police!”
Me: “But Mom, you don't know who I hit!”
Silence-
Mom: “Who did you hit?”
Me: “Barbara”
Silence-(I found out its possible to hear someone grind their teeth over the phone)
Heavy sigh-
Mom: Mary Elizabeth Broadston! 40,000 People in this town and You have to hit your Sister!
It has been my experience that when your mother calls you by your first, middle and last name you are in major trouble. I was.
No comments:
Post a Comment