When you're 16 years old and in high school, each and every experience is usually a grand adventure. It's something to tell your buddies about, because it marks you as adventurous, someone to whom things “happen”. When they're amusing things, it makes the adventure even better. Involve parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale becomes worth repeating. Subsequently, you have to have the right props, but it's kind of hard to carry around a wide piece of wood to illustrate your story. So, your audience will just need to use their imaginations.
A Bit of Background
Before we begin our tale, you should be aware that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small concern named 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 twisting roads a challenge on which to drive sometimes. It makes things miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the ground dips a bit. The rain puddles, the mud can be impassable, and just going up the driveway to make it to the school bus is quite difficult.
Now, imagine a couple who happen to be my parents and who both go into Nashville to work. Their car is parked on the street in front of the house on weekdays to better facilitate a quick getaway every morning. They both work in buildings on opposite sides of Nashville. One would drop the other off at work and then go to their workplace. Meanwhile at the house, as the rain continues, the water get deeper and deeper in the driveway until it reaches the side door steps of the house. This is an important item to remember in this scary tale of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) moving.
What Happened
My parents had bought a residence closer to Nashville, making it easier and quicker for them to get to work. Ergo, 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 get it. A large piece of plywood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going without a hitch. The rain made things a bit wet and unpleasant, but we were dealing with 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 waiting for the truck to pull out of the drive, so I could follow it to the new house. We observed Dad having issues getting out of the drive, and so we walked back up the driveway a safe distance away to view in order to see what would happen next. He tried 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 exits the scene. In this case, it shot like a rocket right through our living room window. Pieces of glass were all over the place, the truck shot out of the driveway, Mom was surprised and almost didn't make the turn onto the street, and Dad stood silently in shock. My brother and I found all this exquisitely humorous and were laughing our teenage heads off. Consequently, 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!
