The Good Samaritan

I thought it was time for another one of my Daddy's stories !!

Many years ago I decided to take the three oldest girls to Georgia to visit Grandmother and Grandpappy Crenshaw for the weekend. Gigi was about 8, Sissy was about 7 and Carla was about 5. We had the old '65 Ford Falcon station wagon, the only new car we have ever bought. That car was just right for our growing little family. I could let down the back seat, throw in a single bed mattress and off we'd go, on trips, to the beach, and many evenings to the drive-in movie. Whenever we said we were going to Georgia for a visit or to a re-union, the kids would ask a hundred times, "Are we in Georgia yet?"

On this trip to see Grandmother and Grandpappy, we had a wonderful time visiting them, plenty of something good to eat like biscuits and Grandmothers yummy teacakes. I know they were good, Sam and I loved them growing up. They were so good we would even eat the raw dough.

When it became time for us to leave to go back to Florida, Grandmother always packed us some goodies to take along on the trip. As we pulled away out of the driveway Grandmother always started to cry, she did that with any of her children or grandchildren when they were leaving.

I drove over to Interstate 75 and headed south toward home. In a little while it started to rain, lightly at first then it poured down, hard enough that I began to use precaution and slowed down quite a bit. All of a sudden there was this woman standing in the median, soaking wet from the rain and waving for someone to stop and help her. All other cars were flying like crazy passed her so I slowed down and pulled over on the shoulder of the road and backed up. I rolled down the window and asked what was wrong. She said she had hit a puddle of water and her car skidded off the road. Well I couldn't even see a car because it was a deep ravine she had skidded into.

So I instructed the kids, who were all craning their necks to see what was going on and where her car was, to just stay in the car and NOT get out and I would go see if I could help her.

Sure enough it was a deep gully with a cement ditch going down to the bottom where the rainwater would drain into the sewer. She said her mother was in the car but they were both okay, just shook up a little. The place where the car sat was like a cement box and the car only had a couple of scratches on it.

I began to try to figure out how was the best way to get that car out. So I decided the Highway Patrol should come and investigate the accident before I moved that car. I knew there was a Patrol station about five miles back north so I climbed the hill to the north bound lane and flagged down a road department crew and asked them to send down a Patrolman.

I went back to the bottom of the ditch to think on the situation a little while longer. I got the idea that I could drive that car out of that ravine if she wanted me to. So I asked her what she thought of me trying to drive it out. She said yes, it would be all right. So when the Highway Patrolman finished his investigation, his suggestion was to call a wrecker. I told him that I thought I could drive it out and he said go ahead he didn't care.

So I got in the car and started it. I had enough room to back up a few inches and pull forward a few inches. After awhile I maneuvered around in that cement box to get the front end headed upward with the wheels on the left side of the car in the cement ditch for traction and sure enough I drove right the top of that ravine. When the traffic was clear I whipped out across the interstate and off the road.

When the Patrolman got all the info he needed, she got in the car and took off south on 75. Never even said thank you. The Patrolman told me it wasn't her car but a company car where her husband worked and she was not really supposed to be driving it and was worried about the trouble she and her husband would be in.

Well anyway, I had done my good deed for the day, so I climbed back in the old falcon and in about twenty minutes we crossed the state line and were in the State of Florida, with the kids asking, " when are we going to get home daddy?”