What I see from my room

I have been admiring the beautiful red leaves on the neighbor's tree. I decided to take a picture this morning. Richard sent an e-mail reminding me of how car tires used to be in the day of intertubes. Your tire didn't go down slowly like they do now. It would just sound like a gunshot when the tire blew and very difficult to control your car. I have had several blowouts in my life and I always managed to get to the side of the road. You could not go very many feet on a blown-out tire. I always had a big tank of a car full of kids so I never lost control like you would in a lighter car.

The time I remember the best is when I got a blowout coming up Eli Hill in this huge Pontiac. It was about 10am and I had just bought groceries at the Thriftway Store at the bottom of Eli Hill. I always did my shopping in the morning so that I would be home when the older kids got out of school. That morning I had the usual ones not in school yet, Richard, Debbie, Darrell and Dan.
I was part way up the hill when I got the blowout. I just had to leave the groceries in the car on the side of the road. I started walking home with the kids and was hoping I might make it before the other kids got home. It was probably at least 4 or 5 miles to the house but the problem was that I had to carry Darrell and Dan. Dan was not walking yet and Darrell could not walk very much. I had Richard hold Debbie's hand and kept them in front of me so I could see them the whole time.

My guardian angel was watching over me. I had probably walked about a half mile and one of the neighbors we had when we lived in Buckley drove by. She thought I was just out for a walk with the kids. She said she got up the road a bit and then got to thinking something did not look right that I wouldn't be out for a walk carrying two babies. She turned around and picked us up and we got the groceries and she took us home.

Now you are wondering why I did not just change the tire. I have never changed a tire in my life. Any time anything happened to a car that I was driving I would just leave it on the side of the road and when your dad came home he would rescue it. I know how a tire is changed but I have never done it. The biggest problem we had with tires was that we ran them until there was hardly any tread left and we almost never had a spare tire or even a jack in the car I drove. Your dad always had that stuff. He probably figured I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

There were many times in Bonney Lake when your dad would be gone for a week or more that I did have to figure things out for myself. This has always been hard for me to do. All my life I have been around men who would do things for me (until I met Clayton) and whenever there was a problem they would take care of it. I am still that way today. If I can get someone to do things for me I am happy. If I have to figure something out on my own I will but it is easier to let someone else do it.