When you're a teenager and in high school, every experience is a grand adventure. It's one to tell your friends about, because it marks you as interesting, someone to whom things “happen”. When they're humorous things, it makes the adventure even better. Include parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale gains in the telling. 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 have to use their imaginations.
A Bit of Background
Prior to beginning our story, you should know that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small community called 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 life miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the landscape slopes downward some. The rain puddles, the mud can be impenetrable, and just getting up the driveway to make it to the school bus is quite difficult.
Next, think about a couple who happen to be my parents and who both commute into Nashville to work. Their car is parked on the street in front of the house on weekdays to make it easier for a quick exit every workday. They both work in buildings on opposite sides of the city. One would drop the other off at work and then head to their job. Meanwhile at the house, as the rain continues, the water collects deeper and deeper in the driveway all the way up to 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 drive to their employment. 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 long, wide piece of plywood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going as expected. The rain made things a bit damp and unpleasant, but we were handling it.
The Hard Part
At this point, the truck was fully loaded. My brother and I got in one of the cars with me driving. I was standing by for the truck to pull out of the drive, so I could get behind it on the way to the new house. We noticed Dad having problems moving out of the drive, and so we walked back up the driveway a safe distance away to view the show. He tried to rock the truck. No dice. He tried having Mom get in the driver's seat and jacking the tail end of the truck out of the mud. That didn't work, either. Finally, Dad put the huge piece of wood under the back tires of the moving truck.
The Scary Part
You should 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. Shards of glass were covering the area, the truck shot out of the driveway, Mom was spooked and almost didn't make the turn onto the street, and Dad stood without saying a word. My brother and I found all this excessively funny and were laughing our teenage heads off. Consequently, we all got out of there as fast 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!
