Tuesday, November 08, 2016

Me, BLOOD ON THE TRACK




Tonight on JEOPARDY the answer (which is the question) was Bob Dylan, who in this case sung BLOOD ON THE TRACKS.

Instantly, I had a flashback:
In the Spring of 1975 I was driving home from working all night at the Atlanta Post Office.  I was driving  our green Gremlin north on Gordon Road in Mapleton, going under a green light at Bankhead Highway.  Suddenly a truck, running the red-light, t-boned me on the driver's door.
The crash caved the side and knocked me across to the other side.  I did not know it at the moment but the driver of the truck went through his windshield.  He lingered unconsciously for a couple of days and died.

The collision  knocked the Gremlin across a vacant field next to a McDonald's and it landed upside down.
Bob Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS was playing on the car radio.
The other man nor I had on seat belts.  I am not car seat belts even existed.  But, I lived because I did not have on a seatbelt, the car would have caved in on me, and he other guy was killed because he did not have seat belts on.
Our Gremlin was totaled but I got by with some scratches and cut glass in my hair.

Some people in McDonald's rushed to get a closer view.  I don't remember any of them trying to help me, just gawk.
I felt that called for a cigarette and somehow managed to get one out of my pocket along with my lighter.  I lit the Winston and took one draw and suddenly the cigarette was jerked from my lips.  The ambulance arrived and he medics grabbed my smoke before I blew myself up.


That was 40 years ago.  Lucky me.




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