at least not in my neighborhood. Thank the Lord. Yep, tonight I felt as though I had been transferred back through time and was living in Norman Rockwell's slice of Americana. It was wonderful...although what led me into it was a bit traumatic.Picture this. I am driving home from work. I have about five miles to drive on a 5 lane highway. Heavy traffic, going fast. If you don't do at least 60, they run over you. I had just gotten off of that and had turned onto the road that takes me home. I had only gone about a half mile when I felt my car really begin to pull to the right. A lot. The road I was on is only a 35 mph road, so I was going slow. I was about a half mile from home when I heard the unmistakeable FLOP FLOP FLOP and the steering was hard to manipulate. There are dirt shoulders on this road and I pulled over onto one.....right in front of a fenced in house, with two dogs who barked then wagged their tails like they knew me. I got out of my vehicle and walked around to check the tire, which I already knew had to be flat. The front passenger side. As I'm walking around my car, I speak to the dogs and tell them they are good and watch the tails wag even harder. As my eyes land on the VERY FLAT front tire, I hear, "you couldn't have picked a better place to stop". I look up to see not one, not two....but THREE knights in shining armor.
They are all about 40, holding cans of beer, obviously friends. One of them says....we were just sittin' around havin' a beer and we heard that flat tire when it happened. And they just started in helping me....they took charge of the situation. Took the flat one off and put the little biddy one from the trunk on. My tire is not repairable. Its all torn up....what a mess! They chatted happily as they worked, joking about being my "pit crew" and with the likes of them, I surely would come in last place. The sun was shining, the smell of freshly cut grass and lilacs filling the air. I could hear someone's lawnmower doing its job. Kids were throwing a baseball back and forth. It was small town Americana as if Rockwell himself had painted it. I thanked them with all my heart and offered to pay them but they would have none of that. I didn't have far to go to make it home and even though I cannot see their houses from mine, they are my neighbors and I'm proud they are.
After getting safely home I thought about how much different this all could have turned out if that blow out had happened when I was doing 60 on the 5-lane highway, during rush hour when everyone is in such a hurry. I'm so glad my Guardian Angel kept me going until I reached a much quieter area and into the lives of 3 great men who really made my day and helped me forget all about having to buy a new tire. I'll buy it with a smile on my face. So chivalry is NOT dead and ..... oh boy...am I EVER glad.
