1 Samuel

This has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone named Samuel. But I will pretend it does so that bob can be traught.

Friday was a sorely trying day. It shouldn't have been. I only had one task for the day: to gather my children from their grandparents' house. They live a 6-hour drive away, but I was leaving early, I had a 5-hour book to listen to, and there would be no screaming 3-year old in the back seat on this leg of the journey. I left at 9:00 AM.

At 1:30, I was going over a narrow bridge entering a very small (miniscule, even) town. There was a rather large truck coming the other way and I moved a little to the right (American roads, dontcha know) to give it more room. I moved a little too far and bumped the curb. I pulled off next to a farm stand on the other side of the bridge because it the tire sounded wrong.

The rim was bent and the front passenger side tire was completely flat. I went to the farm stand lady and waited for her to complete her sale of squash before I asked where I could go to get my car fixed. She pointed to the house next door, where the owner of the farm stand lived, and told me I could go there and ask to use the phone. I didn't get as far as the phone, because the owner met me in the driveway and told me that if I had a spare and could get it on that there was a garage about 5 miles up the road, "in town."

The last time I changed a tire... well, I've never changed a tire. But, what's to be done. So I headed back up the driveway to my car. To keep from feeling too sorry for myself, I told myself all reasons why it wasn't so bad. I hadn't driven off the bridge. No one had been hurt. There hadn't been a real accident.

Just as I thought that last one, I saw another car that was at the farm stand back into mine.

"Until now," I added. Walking up to the car I saw that there didn't appear to be any real damage, just some scrapes. And if I had been changing the tire at the time, the car would have been rammed into me. Chalk up another for procrastination.

The car was driven by an elderly couple, Sam and Velma. Sam felt badly about hitting my car, and asked for my jack. Since I had no idea what I was doing with a jack, I gave it to him. I tried to get the lug nuts off the tire when the car was up, but it wasn't going to happen. (Note to self: Start lifting weights.) Sam was able to do it, even though he is turning 87 later this month.

Sam changed my tire, and then he and Velma followed me to the garage to make sure I got there OK. They parked across the street, and when I got out of the car to explain my dilemma to the mechanic at 1:50, Sam was at my side. The mechanic looked at the tire and its bent rim. He told me that "you can't bend back those aluminum rims," and that he would go call Vince. Vince, the owner, was not on the premises, and was not reached until 2:10. At that point, he said that he would come pick up the rim to see if he could find a match and he'd be there in "a few minutes." Thirty minutes later, Vince arrived.

Vince took my tire and told me at 2:45 that he'd be back in thirty minutes. Velma told me I might as well go their house and wait. So I waited with Sam and Velma and they told me about their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. They told me about how the town had changed since they moved there in 1944, and how when the town had a high school there were graduating classes of 13. Now there isn't even a high school in the county, and they send the few high schoolers to various other towns, possibly even out of state.

At 3:15, Sam told me he thought Vince's half-hour estimate was too optimistic. At 3:30, Velma started calling the garage to see if they had heard from Vince. At 4:00, I was starting to feel rather awkward about taking up their whole afternoon and began to think of ways I could gracefully leave. I was saved when Vince finally called at 4:15 to say that I was good to go. Sam drove me back to the garage, mentioning as he backed out of the driveway that he only had one good eye. Could that have had something to do with backing into my car, I wonder?

Vince showed me my car with a used tire and my rim-- which had been bent back. "We couldn't find a rim," he told me, "so we bent this one back. It will be fine." I asked him if he was sure, since I had been told earlier it couldn't be bent back, and he assured me it was all right. Which begs the question, Why didn't they try to bend it back two hours ago? I didn't ask. I was just ready to go. I was finally on my way again at 4:30. Pleasant though my hosts were, I could have done without the 3 hour break.