Happy International Children Books Day!

Today is International Children Books Day.

Back when I was a child comic books like TALES FROM THE CRYPT was banned   Dr. Fred Wertham said they were a bad influence on children.  Then all the most adults jumped on the bandwagon, without actually looking at the comics in a unbiased way and got rid of them.    Finally, after there were rules and laws put to limit the creative imagination of the comic book community Dr Werttham's beliefs have been proved wrong and actually some of those comic works that he crtiticzed have been proven to be great works of literature.   

Adults have a terrible influence on children. 

Do Nice Guys Always Finish Last?

The other day we were on the other side of town and something came up that we had to change our destination.  We made the first turn and reversed our direction.  Up the road was the new wide straight-a-way road going to Bells Ferry  Road.  I was trying to turn right onto the new road and cars coming from the other direction turning left in front of me, and me being a polite driver, let them have their turn before me.

We were probably delayed about one car lenght.

Just as we were about to turn left off the new road onto George Busby Parkway a jeep came speeding down the parkway, running the red light and smashed into the car in front of us.  The jeep hit the back seat area of the car.  I don't think anyone was hurt, but probably pretty pissed off.

It is possible because I was polite enough to let a car cut in front of me at the beginning our car didn't get hit.

Who says, "Nice guys always finish last"?

It Is Always Something

Back in January of this year we had a wreck on Canton Highway in Marietta near the Kyrstal. A truck plowed into our rear end while we were waiting at a traffic light. It knocked us into the car in front of us. I think three insurance companies had a field day or whatever opposite of a joyful easy day is.
Our car was totaled and we bought a new Honda – or new to us, anyway.

This past Wednesday, in that same almost new Honda we drove into our credit union’s parking lot and got hit by a Cadillac backing up. We had plans to park in the marked space beside the Cadillac. As we drove by the Cadillac about to make our turn beside it we saw the backup lights on and before we could say it was about to back up onto us it did He backed right into the Honda’s door. BAM!

Anna said, “It is always something.”

The man jumped out of his Cadillac apologizing. He admitted he was in error. We swapped insurance information. And now it is left in the insurance companies’ hands.

The man left. He had errands to run. We did too. The first one was the credit union. When we went back out into the parking lot another car was parked where the caddy was parked. And you won’t believe this – that car backed up and another car was driving up behind it. We jumped out waving our arms and the drivers saw us and everybody halted. We prevented a dent!

A funny little continuation with the insurance company: A lady from the insurance company called me this afternoon and I gave the phone to Anna. She knows more about this than I do. Then, about 30 minutes later she called again and asked for Mrs. B. (it was the name of the guy that hit us). I said Mrs. B. didn’t live here. The insurance lady said she just talked to her at this number and in fact, I was the one that handed her the phone the last time. I said my name was Edwin Hunter and I gave the phone to my wife Mrs. Hunter. She more or less realized her error and said, “Oh.”

The Wreck That Never Was

The Invisible Man has a wreck.

January the 5th of this year we were involved in a wreck. While in a stopped position in traffic when a truck hit us with speed and we were knocked into the car in front of us. Our car had the most damage, it was totaled.

Anna called the Cobb County Police and they sent an officer out, a swat team member. He wrote up the accident, got statements, and gave the guy that hit us from behind the ticket.

He told us the case number and told us in five working days to go to any Cobb County Police Precinct and pick up a copy of the accident report.

It has been three weeks and I have been to the precinct the officer worked out of once and they told me they did not have anything yet, why don’t I just call to save myself a trip. Now, I call almost daily and still nothing. They also told me the officer who wrote off the report has not been to work since two days after our wreck, he is in training, they said.

Yesterday when I called the lady connected me up with the desk sergeant's voice mail so I could leave him a message of my concern.

Being me, I am used to being ignored or just lost in the cracks of the system, so I almost want to say, “I understand.”

WHAM!

We were driving south Canton Highway yesterday. We were about in front of the Kyrstal when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. I slammed on my brakes and came to a quick stop just behind him. He stopped because people in front of him stopped.

Whew! I felt like I just avoided a rear end collision.

Then the next moment:

WHAM!!

Anna instantly asked me was I OK. And I asked her the same. Apparently neither of of us are hurt. That is the most important thing.

We were rear-ended by a truck.

The impact of the truck made us hit the car stopped in front of us.

We three drivers got out, looked it over and decided it was best for us to pull over in the parking lot of the shopping center across the street to let the traffic continue to flow. We drove into the parking lot.

We got out again. It was raining. What happened to my cap? My bald head was getting wet. I looked in front seat of the car and it wasn’t there. Then I went to the curb and looked where we were standing at the spot of the wreck and it wasn’t there. I told the man I hit I didn’t know what happened to my cap and he said look in the back seat. I did, and there it was. That is a little experiment with inertia energy.

The man that hit me said he just couldn’t stop in time. He was driving a laundry truck.

I looked at the car that I hit and our front bumper. Neither one had too much damage. Then I looked at our back - it looked like an accordion. And the guy that hit me, his laundry truck didn’t look too bad.

Anna called the police from her cell phone. They were on their way.

The policeman came in a black car. Cobb County Police cars are generally white. Black police cars are members of the Swat Team. I suppose they are black so they will stand alone in recognition, that way they can get trough to the center of trouble quickly. The policeman also had a patch on his shoulder that said “Swat Team”.

After he started interviewing us suddenly he turned around quickly and asked an elderly gent nosing around his black police car could he help him. I think he had keen senses to even realize the guy was there, it must be the Swat in him. The man said could he do something about a car that is parked sideways over two handicapped parking places. He told the man he would get to him in a minute. He was staying focused.

When I told him I was hit from behind and then hit the car in front of me he said, “A ricochet huh?” Up until then I didn’t think of it as a ricochet but he was right. It took a marksman to put in terms I understood.

He took each of our insurance card and our drivers license and retired to his car and wrote it all down and ran it in the computer in the front seat with him. He came back and handed out licenses and insurance papers back to two of us but the guy that hit me he told him to step over to his car with him.

From our point of view it looked like he filled out a form on a pad and pulled a copy off and gave to him. I think he got cited. Or you might say he got "sighted" by a Swat Man.

He said we could go. Our car is not drivable. Well, it drives but the right rear blinker does not work, and well, the car looks like a wreck….. get it? A wreck? Stick with me, I got a million of ‘em!

As soon as we got home Anna got on the phone and talked to our insurance company and adjusters. They were very polite and congenial.

Here we go again.

Beep!! Beep!!! Eeekk!!!!

Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers and his page-a-day calendars always have interesting facts, statistics, or a clip about a bizarre incident.

Today’s calendar is no exception. It told of a truck driver in the United Kingdom that hit a small compact car and drove with it for two miles. The tiny car was wedged in of his semi and did not know it was there. No one was hurt or killed.

The story reminded me of an incident I was in back in 1967.

I worked at Sinclair Refining Company in Atlanta. Sometimes at lunch I would drive about two or three miles to a hamburger joint and sit in my car eat and listen to the radio – which is what I was doing in this event.

My car was a red Spits two-seater Triumph – I think it had Mark II on it. It was a nice day – I had the top down. I was sitting there eating my hamburger and listening to the music when I noticed a big dump truck was backing up – I haven’t noticed it before – and it got closer and closer… I started blowing my horn when suddenly WHUMP!!!
The truck’s big metal bed crashed over my car and was completely in my view with nothing else.

I was inches from big steel metal thing looking at me. The dump truck driver did not hear me beep the horn and begin to go forward and dragging my car and me with him. I blew and blew but the roar of the engine, I suppose, drowned out my little naked high pitched sounding “beep beep”.

A man, also sitting in his car in the parking lot saw the accident and ran out waving his arms at the driver. The driver stopped to see what he wanted. Saved.

My hood was warped and peeled upward. My windshield was broken. But the engine seemed fine. The driver just didn’t see me and admitted it. He called his boss and the boss told me he preferred to not make it official with the police and all…..(I wonder why).

It was many years ago and I am not sure if they furnished me some type of rented car or not. He had me take the car to a place he suggested and they had it back running looking new in about a week.

Although, I didn’t realize then, but not long after that the car had transmission problems which I think was probably caused by being pulled with the car in “park”.

To be continued.

No Wreck Rocky

On the other hand, Rocky has not had a wreck. He has had a couple of rocks fly up and hit his car or truck's body and windshield, but has been lucky (knock on wood).

However, when he worked in the heart of Atlanta one late evening after dark he found someone broke his windshield and stold all his CDs. It was cold. He had to drive home with freezing wind hitting him.

When he was learning to drive he got too close to a road-work drum marker and it knocked the rearview mirror off the our van. I told him maybe that will be his one wreck that everyone is destined to have... if so, I told him, then he is getting off easy - consider it a good learning experence.

Adam's Wreck

Here is Adam and his wreck. As you can see it was more scarer than mine.

He went around a curve and slid on some leaves and turned over. It threw him out and broke his leg.

We are very lucky a broken leg is all it did.

He is still alive and kicking and I can prove it. He made a response to my blog entry "No place To Go" (or something like that).

Speaking of Vehicles

This is the Gremlin I was driving under a greenlight and at the same moment a driver in a pickup truck was driving under a redlight. The driver went through the windshield and died.

I didn't have my seatbelt on either and was knocked to the other side.

Wait! I already blogged this accident.

Surveying the Waiting Room

Last week a van rear-ended my truck. I got out and the lady got out. She was very nervous, I suppose she thought I was going to give her a good chewing out and sue her. I saw no damage on either vehicle, so I told her to forget it. We didn’t even swap names or insurance companies.

Then Monday at the post office parking lot a man came up and told me my tail light was out. The first thing I thought was the lady that hit me, that sudden jar must have knocked it out.

Then I promptly forgot about it.

I was reminded when my wife was talking about carrying her car in for service. So, early this morning, before I forgot again, I took the truck in to the Chevvy dealer to have the tail light replaced and the oil changed, it was about time anyway.

They told it would be about 45 minutes. I brought a Stephen King book along expecting a stay. So, I went to the waiting room, poured myself a cup of coffee and hunkered up for some uninterrupted reading.

After a while I began to look around me in the waiting room. Curiously enough, there were 4 men and 4 women sitting there. One woman was on her cell-phone getting some of her office calls out of the way. One woman had an old fashion ringed notebook, making entries and more entries, I don’t think she stopped. Two of the women had laptop computers or maybe one or both had those electronic notebooks I heard about, but either way, there were working while waiting. Three of the men were watching TV and I was reading.

That makes four women that brought their work with them to do while waiting. And it makes four men that did not.

Although to give us males a little credit, it looked as if all four of us were retired. We have already been turned out to pasture, so no more workee.

When my kids were teenagers I used to wonder why they dressed like they did, like a certain type of uniform for their certain group of friends. One son dressed preppy with name brands, very yuppish. The other one wore a lot of black, pants drooping, and hair down to his neck. Both of them were wearing clothes they found pleasing to their peers.

So, here I and three other men, probably all retired, with our certain look. As far as I know none of us knew either other. We each had on tight-ass Levis, sweat-shirt or tee-shirt with a light jacket, and a baseball hat that mostly covered the forehead.

I was just as guilty as my two sons, “dressing the part.”