Saturday, July 6, 2013

A Sinking Feeling

Trey Smith


So, there you are. You're driving down the street in your local community and, before you know it, the earth swallows you up! That's what happened to a women on Thursday in Toledo, Ohio. An 8 foot deep sinkhole opened in front of her and her car plunged it. Fortunately, the woman was uninjured.

A similar thing happened to me, though it was far less dramatic.

I was staying with my mother in the early 90s as she battled cancer, a battle she lost in August 1992. One summer evening around 9:00 p.m., she had asked me to go to the local Safeway to get her a few items. Being the good son that I was, I trooped up to Safeway with my small shopping list. The approximately 1 mile drive was completely uneventful.

After I finished shopping, I loaded the two small bags of groceries into my car and began to head back to my mom's house. I didn't get very far. After pulling out of the parking lot, I only made it about 50 feet down the street before I heard an awful BANG. Not only did I hear a loud noise, but suddenly my little car wasn't handling well.

I wasn't sure at all what had just happened, but I did notice a wheel rolling down the street in front of my car! Odd, I thought. I quickly stopped the car and jumped out. The front of my car was was missing its left front wheel. Crap, I thought, that's MY wheel rolling down the street!

I looked around to try to figure out if I had hit someone or something. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Just then, another car was coming down the street and BANG! This vehicle came to an immediate stop and its front end had dropped into something. I ran back to see if the driver was okay -- she was -- and then saw that the front end of her car had dropped into a 2 foot sinkhole -- the same sinkhole I had hit, but somehow didn't fall into.

The other driver phoned the police, while I had to walk 2 blocks to retrieve my left front wheel. In a short while, an officer from the Hot Springs (AR) Police and a supervisor from the city Street Department arrived. They looked over the situation and, to my surprise, the city agreed to have our two disabled cars towed AND fixed. Since the other driver lived across town, the police officer gave her a ride home. Me? I had to walk home in the dark with my groceries in tow.

When I finally got back to my mom's house -- about 2 hours after I had left for a quick jaunt to the store -- I told her what had happened and then presented her with the crucial item on her shopping list: a completely melted half gallon of orange sherbet!

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