When you're 16 years old and in high school, every encounter 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 funny things, it makes the tale even better. Throw in parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale gains in the telling. Subsequently, you should have the proper props, but it's kind of hard to drag around a wide piece of wood to illustrate your story. Therefore, your audience will just need to use their imaginations.
A Bit of Background
Before we begin our anecdote, you should be aware that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small concern named Mount Juliet. It's the home of Charlie Daniels (yes, I can point out where his house is). Mount Juliet sits atop a rise in the ground, making snowy twisting roads lots of fun on which to drive at times. It makes things miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the landscape drops a bit. The rain pools, the mud is sometimes impassable, and just going up the driveway to make it to the school bus is quite difficult.
Now, think about a couple who happen to be my parents and who both commute into Nashville to work. Their vehicle is parked at the street in front of the house most days to better facilitate a quick getaway every morn. They both work in office buildings on opposite sides of the city. One would drop the other off at work and then go to their workplace. Back at the house, as the downpour continues, the water get 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 house closer to Nashville, making it easier and quicker for them to commute to work. Consequently, 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 maneuver it. A large piece of wood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going as expected. The rain made things a bit wet and unpleasant, but we were moving right along.
The Hard Part
At this moment, the truck was full. My brother and I got in one of the cars with me driving. I was awaiting the truck to pull out of the drive, so I could follow it to the new house. We observed Dad having issues getting out of the drive, and so we walked back up the driveway a safe distance away to view the show. He attempted to rock the truck. No dice. He tried having Mom get in the driver's seat and jacking the back of the truck out of the mud. That didn't work, either. As a last-ditch effort, Dad put the long, wide piece of wood beneath the back tires of the moving truck.
The Scary Part
You should be cognizant 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 gains traction. In this case, it shot like a projectile right through our living room window. Pieces of glass were all over the place, the truck shot out of the driveway, Mom was surprised and almost didn't make the turn onto the street, and Dad stood without saying a word. My brother and I found all this extremely humorous and were laughing our teenage heads off. It goes without saying, we all got out of there as briskly 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!
