When you're 16 years old and in high school, each experience is usually a grand adventure. It's something to tell your chums about, because it marks you as fun, someone to whom things “happen”. When they're absurd things, it makes the tale even better. Involve parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale gains in the telling. Subsequently, you should have the correct 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 Little Background
Prior to beginning our anecdote, you should know that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small town named 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 in the winter. It makes life miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the ground drops a bit. The rain puddles, the mud is sometimes impassable, and just walking up the driveway to get to the school bus is quite a job.
Now, imagine a couple who happen to be my parents and who both go into Nashville to work. Their car is parked at the street in front of the house on weekdays to make it easier for a quick getaway every workday. They both work in office buildings on opposite sides of Nashville. One would drop the other off at work and then proceed to their job. Meanwhile at the house, as the downpour continues, the water pools 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 found a home closer to Nashville, making it easier and quicker for them to get to work. 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 backend as close to the side door steps as he could squeeze it. A large piece of plywood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going without a hitch. The rain made things a bit wet and unpleasant, but we were dealing with it.
The Hard Part
At this point, 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 noticed Dad having problems moving out of the drive, and so we walked back down the driveway a safe distance away to view the show. He made an effort to rock the truck. That didn't work. 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. 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 aware that if you're going to use a piece of wood to get your tires out of the mud, you need to examine which direction the wood will go when your truck exits the scene. In this case, it shot like a projectile right through our living room window. Pieces 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 silently in shock. My brother and I found all this extremely humorous and were laughing our teenage heads off. Needless to say, 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!
