Coming home from my weekly visit to see Mom and Dad, with the threat of icy roads in the forecast, I felt a little wary when we drove down and up the dip in the road just south of their house. I remembered the many times my dad would get out of bed to help people who had gotten stuck there in ice or snow. Even We Girls would get in on the act of sounding the alarm, as we’d be trying to sleep with a car’s tires whirring round and round as the car in question was stuck on either side of the dip. “Dad! Someone’s stuck, again!” He’d get dressed, grab a shovel and head down to the dip.
We lived out in the boonies at that time where, at that time, the neighbors were few and far between. No cell phones were available, either, so when people got in trouble, the friendly neighbors were the ones who came to the rescue. Dad and Mom lived on one side of the dip and Ben lived on the other side. Ben was a truck driver, though, so wasn’t always home to help. It fell to Dad to be the Good Samaritan and he always was.
Dad would dress warmly and help the stranded traveler by throwing dirt from the side of the road under the stuck car’s tires. He, also, had a very long chain and he would, sometimes, pull the car up to the top of the dip with our car. The traveler would just have to go back home another way after being rescued.
Of course, I was young, never getting out of bed to help Dad with the stranded motorists. I’m not really sure how he managed to help people stuck in the dip, but I don’t ever remember a tow truck having to come save the day. That was my daddy who did that, saving the day. If it wasn’t the middle of the night, we’d gather around Dad, tell him what a hero he was and bring him a coffee to help warm him up.
These days, Dad’s too frail to help with stuck motorists, but I reckon Dad has played the Good Samaritan enough in his life. Driving through that dip yesterday, I was proud of the treasure of a man my dad always has been, helping anyone who needed help.
MDT/Diana Bowden Moore
Picture from: https://english.stackexchange.com/…/what-do-you-call-a…
