When you're 16 years old and in high school, each experience can be 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 humorous things, it makes the adventure even better. Throw in parents, rain, a muddy Tennessee day and a moving truck, and the tale becomes worth repeating. Subsequently, you should 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 need to use their imaginations.
A Little Background
Before we begin our account, you should be aware that just outside Nashville, Tennessee is a small town called 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 sometimes. It makes life miserable, though, when your house sits off the road where the ground slopes downward a bit. The rain pools, the mud can be impenetrable, and just getting up the driveway to make it to the school bus is quite an undertaking.
Now, imagine a couple who happen to be my parents and who both go into Nashville to work. Their vehicle is parked at the street in front of the house during the week to better facilitate a quick getaway every workday. They both work in buildings on opposite sides of Nashville. One would drop the other off at work and then proceed to their workplace. Meanwhile at the house, as the rain continues, the water collects deeper and deeper in the driveway until it reaches 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 home 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 maneuver it. A long, wide piece of plywood was used as a loading ramp. So far, the loading of the truck was going smoothly. The rain made things a bit damp and unpleasant, but we were moving right along.
The Hard Part
At this point, the truck was loaded. My brother and I were piled in one of the cars with me driving. I was waiting 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 trouble getting out of the drive, and so we walked back up the driveway a safe distance away to watch the show. He tried to rock the truck. That didn't work. He tried putting Mom 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 large piece of wood under the back tires of the moving truck.
The Scary Part
You need to 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 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 took off out of the driveway, Mom was startled 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!
