If you are not an author...you should be! What a descriptive narrative
of a necessity turned a pleasure!
David F. Darby wrote:
>
> Ladies and Gentlemen:
>
> Fortunately, the Voyager (Plymouth minivan) had a flat tire (tyre, or tar)
> this evening when I set out to drive a load of folding chairs to our studio
> in preparation for a special function tomorrow. I say fortunately, because
> it hadn’t dawned on me to haul chairs with the MGA, but it would really be
> much better suited for the twenty-two mile round trip over the snaky,
> hilly, forest route. Right?
>
> But how does one fit ten Samsonite chairs into a, how should I put it, less
> than Samson-like conveyance? Well, if you want to follow along and try this
> at home the trick is to take the passenger seat cushion out. Seven chairs,
> folded and stacked, filled the space from floor to instrument panel, the
> last one encouraged in by opening the door and going at it sideways. I
> tried to leave a little room to reach the handbrake, just in case. One
> chair, folded in the tonneau cover, fit transversely behind the seats --
> its gray tube frame suggesting a very optimistic, low-profile roll bar.
> That left two chairs for the luggage rack. These I strapped on with a piece
> of kernmantle shock cord.
>
> Dusk was insinuating itself over the Ozark hills as I switched on the
> lights and rolled up our lane to the highway. The waxing moon perched very
> nicely about a gearshift lever’s length above the left corner of the
> windscreen as I steered out onto the roadway. The night air was cool, the
> asphalt still warm from baking in the day’s sun as the tires bit the road
> surface. The highway was completely deserted.
>
> I loafed along enjoying the sound of the engine while watching for owls and
> whippoorwills alongside the road. I did see a wild turkey hen with a few of
> her young poults crossing the road behind her. They were out awfully late I
> thought, no doubt flushed off of the nest by some hungry, marauding
> quadruped.
>
> I reached my destination, off-loaded the chairs and turned back toward
> home. I picked up the pace a bit as I now didn’t have to worry about the
> prospect of a chair coming unattached from someplace, clattering over the
> sheet metal and grinding itself across the roadbed behind. The moon was
> even brighter as the first stars were making their evening debut. The
> familiar asterism of the Big Dipper emerged, its cup stars pointing to the
> Pole. Overhead was Arcturus, Spica, and the Summer Triangle was rising in
> the East. All a clear sign that the high days of summer are here with their
> promise of many other enjoyable if not necessary drives ahead.
>
> May you, too, have safe and happy drives this summer and if you have any
> chairs to deliver, I just might be available.
>
> Regards,
>
> David F. Darby
> Interior Highlands, Missouri USA
|