No, THIS Story. . .

So, in as much as we're still snowed in, Brenda's going to make cocoa for everyone and I'm going to tell the story she really asked for. Maybe someone would make popcorn as well. Snow cream would be nice too.

This happened almost twenty five years ago. It was summer time and John was at work in Asheville (back then he owned a power equipment store.) The boys and I had gone shopping and I had gotten a fair amount of birdseed and dogfood and such that would have to be put in the basement. 

So I drove our jeep through the front yard and up the narrow grassy strip that led to the basement door -- a maneuver I'd performed without incident in the past. Only this time, trying to stay well away from the lower side of the road that dropped away rather sharply,  I managed to drive the jeep's two left tires up on the bank on the upper side of the road and the vehicle began  to tilt-- perilously, it seemed to me.

At that time, the roadway was a good bit narrower than it is in the picture below and I feared that the car was going to pitch over  and roll down the steep slope on the other side of the road.  Trying to sound calm, I told the boys to get out of the jeep -- on the upper side -- and go call their father and tell him what was happening. 

The thing is, I was totally convinced that it was only my weight, there on the upper side of the jeep, that was keeping it from rolling over -- and I was afraid to try to back the car off the bank. 

 

Soon the boys came out on the porch to say that Dad was on his way home and to ask if they could they make some popcorn.  Which they did.

They even brought me some -- handed it in through the car window and returned to the rocking chairs on the porch to wait and see what would happen next.

It was just over a half an hour later that I heard John's truck roaring up the road and coming up through the front yard.

"I broke all the speed limits getting home," he told me later.  "I wasn't quite clear on what the situation was. And when I was coming up the road, I saw the kids on the front porch and their hands kept going up to their faces. It looked like they were crying and I was sure something terrible had happened.

 "Then as I got closer, I saw that the car was still there and you were still there. . . and they were eating popcorn."
 

(And what about the teetering jeep? 

No tow trucks, tractors, chains, or come-alongs were needed  -- John took a look at the jeep, shook his head, and told me to get out. He climbed in, backed the jeep down off the bank, and very kindly didn't tell me I was an idiot.)