I did a dumb thing today

[JRoberts]

The day wouldn't be normal if I hadn't done something dumb.
One of the worst, or maybe silliest, things was when I was still teaching and was driving my '59 Lark hardtop. It was still dark on the way to school one morning and as I took a left turn in a busy, dark, wet (yes it was raining) four lane road my right door flew open ( I assume because dumb old me hadn't shut it tight.) and my grade book and test papers slid right out into the road. I pulled into a gas station on the corner and ran out into the intersection and collected every one of them. The grade book was okay but a lot of those papers were soaked and worthless. I felt bad about that and gave each kid a 100 on that paper.

[okc63avanti]

On my 21st birthday I didn't have anything special planned and I went to the local Laundrymat to wash my work clothes late at night before going to work the next day. That summer I was working for Amoco in an oilfield south of Lake Charles, LA. It had been raining really hard and instead of pulling out of the parking lot back into the main street, I decided to drive across a field using a dirt road (that I had used before) that led to a back street so as to avoid traffic. After all the dirt road section was only about 60 ft. long. This was in the late 70's and my car then was a 1961 Lark VI Regal Sedan. Well I made it to about the half way point on the road and managed to get stuck in mud all the way up to the axles.

Turning 21 you are suppose to become a man and do wise things, well I had to swallow my pride and about midnight call an old friend of the family (my family lived in Houston) and see if he could help me. He owned an oilfield construction company and used an old truck with a huge cable wench on it that they used for moving oilfield equipment. I crawed underneath in pouring down rain and mud and looped the cable around the front cross member and he pulled me all the way out. I had to take the Lark to a hand car wash to spray the mud from underneath.

With this being my 21st birthday I really felt pretty DUMB.

[Deaf Mute]

Ever gotten that rare part chromed long before you were ready for it..... years later finished restoring the car and could not find that trim piece.... for TWO years? It was behind the spare of another car for safe keeping. Now I try (semi successfully) of keeping a list of what is stashed where. However when a mouse ate the ID tags off of the body spacers for my '53 coupe... I was not a happy camper!