{"id":23383,"date":"2023-02-16T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T21:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23383"},"modified":"2023-02-16T16:44:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T21:44:53","slug":"episode-741-the-53-nearly-flipped-over-when-dad-zig-zagged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23383","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 741 THE 53 NEARLY FLIPPED OVER WHEN DAD ZIG ZAGGED"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 741     THE 53 NEARLY FLIPPED OVER WHEN DAD ZIG ZAGGED   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan  skeoch<\/div>\n
feb. 14, 2023<\/div>\n

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To Dad those little pot holes were a challenge.  He tried to avoid them and failed.   If we had gone deeper into the swamp, the story<\/div>\n
would not be funny   Mom did try to get out the passenger side.  Imagine that.   That\u2019s cousin Ted Freeman with the tractor<\/div>\n

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This is the Fifth Line\u2026in the far distance is the swamp below the hill that rises to Frenk Freeman\u2019s farm.<\/div>\n
Not as full of holes as it would become when that snow melted .<\/div>\n

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2)  Car story 2::  The 53  Meteor had an exciting life at our place.   Take the day Dad almost flipped the car<\/div>\n
on the fifth line when we had planned to visit Uncle Frank and Aunt Lucinda .  Their farm is just a few minutes f<\/div>\n
north of our farm,  We could be in their lane in less than ten minutes on a normal day.<\/div>\n

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But it was March and the gravel road was peppered with pot holes all of which Dad decided to avoid.  He had already <\/div>\n
made a fool of himself getting to the farm from Highway 7.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhy are you rolling the window down\u2026..it\u2019s cold.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI have a reason.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat reason?\u201d<\/div>\n

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(pause as we pass farm house close to road)<\/div>\n

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\u201cFix your Goddamn road\u2026FIX YOUR ROAD!!!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDad, road repairs are done by County \u2026 not farmers\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care who\u2026FIX YOUr ROAD!!!\u201d<\/div>\n

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The Fifth Line was a mess\u2026 potholes were raising hell with the shocks<\/div>\n
of the 53 Meteor\u2026and the car cried to us with each crunch.  The smashes<\/div>\n
were louder than dad\u2019s yelling. <\/div>\n

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And things got worse.<\/div>\n

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We were getting close to Uncle Frank and Aunt Lucinda\u2019s farm.  Passing through<\/div>\n
a very swampy area.  Dad decided to zig zag.  But still managed to hit every<\/div>\n
pothole,  Sometimes at right angle to the road as he twisted and turned\u2026.swore<\/div>\n
in his melodic way.   Dad could make swear words sound like poetry.   <\/div>\n

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THEN THINGS WENT VERY WRONG\u2026THE SWAMP<\/div>\n

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Then Dad swerved sharply.  The Meteor hit the soft shoulder and then down<\/div>\n
towards the swamp.  Bad luck with good  luck to the rescue.  The undercarriage<\/div>\n
of the car ground into the shoulder and the car hung there.   It happened so fast<\/div>\n
that Dad did not even have time to swear.<\/div>\n

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MARJORIE and I crawled out through the drivers side passenger door\u2026now at a 45 degree<\/div>\n
angle to the road.   Dad did the same.  <\/div>\n

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Mom did not move.<\/div>\n

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\u201cElsie, get out of the car!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t, Red\u2026can\u2019t move.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGet out\u2026in case it turns over.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Dad was worried.  We knew that because he called mom, Elsie, rather than his<\/div>\n
favourite name, \u201cMethuselum\u201d, the name of oldest person in  the bible because mom<\/div>\n
was a year older than him.  So the use of Elsie\u2019s proper name was startling.)<\/div>\n

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\u201cGet out, driver\u2019s side like I did\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPinned here.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPinned?\u201d  <\/div>\n

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We all worried mom was badly inured.  But that was not  the case\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cOh, Red, you fathead.  My high heeled shoes went through the floor <\/div>\n
of the car when you hit the ditch.   Cannot move.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTake the goddamn shoes off and crawl out barefoot.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Dad was relieved.  We knew that because he started to swear again.<\/div>\n
Soon he would be blaming either the road or the 53 Meteor for our trouble.<\/div>\n
He had one final remark though as Mom crawled out the driver\u2019s side.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cElsie, pull down your skirt.  We can see the top of your nylons.  Hardly lady like.\u201d<\/div>\n

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That was not the  end of the adventure.  Dad sent us up to Uncle Frank\u2019s<\/div>\n
to get the Massey Harris 55 and a chain.   Cousin Ted got the tractor revved<\/div>\n
up and pulled us out.   Dad turned the key and the Meteor revved into life<\/div>\n
as usual.  <\/div>\n

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To  save face I think Dad tried to give Teddy five bucks but Ted, amused, refused.<\/div>\n
Ted liked my Dad in spite of his cantankerous nature.  How do I know that?<\/div>\n
Because one day I was out with Ted alone and he lit up a big cigar\u2026a White <\/div>\n
Owl Invincible\u2026the kind Dad smoked while leaning out the back window <\/div>\n
of our house.   Mom put her foot down.  No smoking of cigars in the house.<\/div>\n

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Only once did she put her foot down hard enough to go through the floorboards<\/div>\n
of a 53 Meteor.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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Dad, teaching our boys how to smoke a cigar.  Both boys never smoked except when we<\/div>\n
told stories about dad.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 741     THE 53 NEARLY FLIPPED OVER WHEN DAD ZIG ZAGGED    alan  skeoch feb. 14, 2023 To Dad those little pot holes were a challenge.  He tried to avoid them and failed.   If we had gone deeper into the swamp, the story would not be funny   Mom did try to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}