the crack in the windshield

Blog Every Day In May day 18.  Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt..

I'm not sure why this picture was taken at such a severe angle. At any rate, this is us around the time of my story.

i am a terrible story teller. i can't even share a movie synopsis without looking like a deer in headlights. how do i properly convey the emotions and describe the details in a timely manner while being witty?

it just.. doesn't happen for me. i, however, an not opposed to a challenge..

many years ago, when i lived next door to the gee's, i would play outside for hours with my childhood friends josh and caleb. I am still friends with them and see them often. on the particular day in this story, i was playing with only josh. my family had recently purchased a golf-cart, which was a big deal for us kids. if you had a golf-cart, you were cool. i was under the strict instruction not to let any of the other children drive the golf-cart, for safety purposes. wise, right? you have no idea. we were fond of building ramps, on the empty lot between our houses, to launch off of in that poor little cart. that golf cart lasted for years! i have no idea how it made it. 

so, on this day josh requested to drive the golf cart. since i was not allowed to let anyone drive the golf-cart, i promptly came up with the perfect solution... let him drive it, but i'll keep my hand on the wheel. it was perfect. technically i was still driving. why i genuinely thought this was a brilliant idea, i do not know.

josh had never driven a golf-cart before and honestly, was not a good driver at all. i still love you josh. as we were blazing across the empty lot toward my house, josh was overcome with the impression that we were on a race track and lost all ability to comply with the idea of safety. as we raced up my driveway, i insisted that he hit the brakes so we didn't drive into the garage door ahead of us. nothing. i quickly snatched the wheel to the right, closed my eyes as we barreled down the mini hill next to my driveway, and slammed on the brakes. we stopped suddenly. not because i had braked, something had halted the golf-cart. i opened my eyes and josh was missing. the impact of crashing into my father's work van had catapulted him out of the golf-cart. and now i was beginning to feel pain. the tires had turned suddenly upon impact, wrenching the wheel in my hand and snatching the skin off of two of my fingers. that didn't hurt quite as much as the very large crack now stretched across the windshield of the golf-cart and the delightful dent in my father's van.

tears. apologies. band-aids.

everything worked out all right. my parents are very loving, gracious people and i do not remember being punished beyond receiving a talking to. josh recovered from the shock of being unseated and planted in the grass. my hand healed. we learned our lesson.. for a little while. 

we went on to have many more accidents, including that time i was run over by the golf-cart.

but that's a story for another day..

what childhood story would you tell? < happy saturday! >