When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #57

57-My first car wreck – oops!

Wait until you have your first accident, whether it is your fault or someone else’s fault, it’s pretty scary!

One day I was going out of our drive in the little car and I was on cloud 9! I just got off the phone from being asked out on a date! Yippee! I can’t remember who it was with, but I remember being quite excited! I jumped into the car and was headed out the driveway when ‘wham!’ I got hit! I remember the time precisely! It was 3:55p.m. Just half a block past our house to the right the road divided into a ‘Y’and there was also a small curve to the road. I forgot to stop at the drive before entering the roadway and I also forgot to look to the left. I knew the gal who hit me. She graduated from H.S. about 3 years earlier. Her name was Bertilla Brusuelas. I was so shocked and scared when I got hit. She was in a maroon, four-door sedan, the car size was like a Chevrolet Impala. I was in a little bitty bug car, a little Renault; the color was a pale aqua blue. Bertilla had swerved to the left and caught my rear fender and tore in half way back. I was so scared. I knew my dad would be home in less than an hour and boy I knew I was in big time trouble!

Bertilla jumped out of the car and started swearing at me. ‘You dumb kid what were you thinking!!!’ I apologized. When I looked up at her I said, “Oh Bertilla I am so sorry.” By this time my mom was out to the street to see if I was hurt and what had happened. She called the police chief and his name was Julian Martinez. He was about 6’ tall and thin and about 55 years old. Well, it turned out Bertilla was related to the Chief of Police. Bertilla was driving way too fast down that road. It’s a miracle I wasn’t killed. Had she not tried to slow down she would have hit my driver door and I wouldn’t be here today.

Police Chief Martinez checked everything out and no tickets were issued and everyone went home. By this time my dad had arrived home from work. I couldn't drive the car and the fender blocked the left rear tire. He pulled the left rear fender of my car back and I was able to drive it up into the driveway. That accident had me so scared that I was afraid to drive for awhile.

I had explained to everyone that it was my fault that I had not stopped and looked left and just pulled out. Well it was also Bertilla’s fault for speeding way over the 25 m.p.h. limit. We think she was doing 40 to 45 miles per hour.

My Dad grounded me for two weeks. I was not allowed to drive and my date was cancelled! Darn! That’s the only thing I was really sad about. But two weeks later I went out on that date! My dad fixed the fender on the car and other than the welding scar, it was fine!

This reminds me…
of another story…
I taught all five kids how to drive. Poor Michelle, our oldest, was the first to learn. I was so paranoid about accidents. I would reach over with my left hand and squeeze her right thigh just above her knee if I thought she was going too fast. One time she put the gas on instead of the brake and the car jumped up onto our lawn and went into the hedge. We didn’t’ drive that day. We were both upset. She did have a heavy foot. (Took after her mother, hmmm.) She liked to put the gas pedal to the metal! If I thought she was going too fast I would ‘snap’ the key off in the ignition. It gave immediate results! Not to her liking either! I would get nervous teaching her to drive. Her dad was too busy. He thought that driving around the parking lot at church and pulling into a parking spot was good for a driving lesson. None of us agreed with that. She did get her driver's license.

All the kids did really well. But by the time I got through the 5th driver, I was done. I don’t want to teach anyone else to drive. The older kids helped the younger ones at times to drive and I really appreciated that. However, one day Michelle decided she was going to teach Julie how to drive. Julie was 10 years old for goodness sake! Michelle had a little Ford Escort. It was a fun little thing to drive around.

…This is what Michelle recently (2008) told me what she remembered about this incident…. I (Michelle) just remember thinking it would be fun to teach Julie how to drive. My car was a stick shift and getting it into reverse was always a little tricky. I put it in reverse and told her to just press on the gas. Nothing happened and we didn't go anywhere. I told her to press it a little harder and it lurched forward over the flowerbed and into the front of the house. Luckily it hit below a bedroom window and not hard enough to do any real damage. It bowed the wood on the front of the house though I remember that. It also left some black smudges from my bumper and tore up the flowerbed a bit. I remember grabbing a bucket of water and sponge to scrub off the black marks and I think I sent Julie for a rake to fix up the flowerbed. I remember being scared out of my mind that I was going to get so busted. I do remember saying we were washing the car but I can't remember if you found out then or later about actually hitting the house. It hit right under the bedroom window to the right of the front door (if you are facing the house). I don't know what I was thinking! I guess I wasn't and that was the problem!

…Well, I (mom) am in the house and I see Michelle and Julie coming in and they have a bucket and a sponge. They told me they were going to wash the car. I thought to myself that was rather surprising that they would wash the car without being asked. I said something like ‘Oh, okay.” I dismissed it and went on about my business with whatever it was I was doing in the house. Michelle later asked me if I had heard a noise outside. I told them that I hadn’t heard anything.

Julie told me just recently (2008) what she remembered of that incident. She told me that it happened in such a flash, it was like a half second and it was over! She remembers that when the accident happened she heard someone inside the bedroom and she thinks it was Doug. I’m sure he was wondering what had happened just then! Julie said that she told him to ‘Shut up and don’t say anything to mom!’ Well…the ‘car they were going to wash’…was Michelle and Julie scrubbing a black mark off of the front of the house. There was no damage to the house and all was well. It sure could have gone badly and they might have ended up with the front of the car ‘in’ the bedroom wall and they could have been injured! They were lucky! That was the end of Julie’s early driving lesson from her sister!