When you're 16 years old and in high school, each and every experience is a grand adventure. It's one to tell your chums about, because it marks you as fun, someone to whom things “happen”. When they're absurd things, it makes the adventure even better. Include parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale gains in the telling. Subsequently, you should have the right props, but it's kind of hard to carry around a wide piece of wood to illustrate your story. Therefore, your audience will just need to use their imaginations.
A Bit of Background
Prior to beginning our story, you should be aware that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small town called Mount Juliet. It's the home of Charlie Daniels (yes, I know where his house is). Mount Juliet is situated atop a rise in the ground, making snowy winding roads lots of fun on which to drive sometimes. It makes life miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the ground dips a bit. The rain puddles, the mud is sometimes impenetrable, and just getting up the driveway to make it to the school bus is quite difficult.
Next, think about a couple who happen to be my parents and who both go into Nashville to work. Their vehicle is parked at the street in front of the house most days to better facilitate a quick getaway every morn. They both work in buildings on opposite sides of Nashville. One would drop the other off at work and then head to their workplace. Meanwhile at the house, as the rain continues, the water pools deeper and deeper in the driveway until it reaches the side door steps of the house. This is an important point to remember in this scary tale of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) moving.
What Happened
My parents had bought a house closer to Nashville, making it easier and quicker for them to drive to work. Consequently, they rented a moving truck, and we were loading it. It had been raining for weeks, it seemed, and the yard was one heaving mass of mud. My Dad had backed the truck down the driveway, with the back as close to the side door steps as he could maneuver it. A huge piece of wood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going without a hitch. The rain made things a bit damp and unpleasant, but we were handling it.
The Hard Part
At this moment, the truck was full. My brother and I got in one of the cars with me driving. I was standing by for the truck to pull out of the drive, so I could follow it to the new house. We observed Dad having problems moving out of the drive, and so we walked back up the driveway a safe distance away to observe as the events unfolded. He made an effort to rock the truck. No dice. He tried putting Mom in the driver's seat and jacking the back of the truck out of the mud. That didn't work, either. Lastly, Dad put the large piece of wood underneath the back tires of the moving truck.
The Scary Part
You must be aware that if you're going to use a piece of wood to get your tires out of the mud, you need to pay attention to which direction the wood will go when your truck gets unstuck. In this case, it shot like a missile right through our living room window. Shards of glass were everywhere, the truck took off out of the driveway, Mom was surprised and almost didn't make the turn onto the street, and Dad stood trying to grasp what had happened. My brother and I found all this excessively funny and were laughing our teenage heads off. It goes without saying, we all got out of there as briskly as we could and never went back.
Moving is no fun sometimes, but there are days it can be very comical and other days it can be downright scary. What's your horror story involving DIY moving? We'd love to hear it!
