Slapped Down
Do you remember being 16? Just a few weeks into having a driver license, dreaming about what your dream car could be? I wanted a back and gold Firebird just like I’d seen in the “Smokey and the Bandit” movie. I also fantasized cruising the streets in a Ferrari 308. Red. That was the car Thomas Magnum drove on “Magnum, P.I.,” and the same car a young, hot Christie Brinkley drove in the movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” You are on top of world at 16 with a car and the privilege to drive.
In May, I described teaching my son to drive on Laguna streets. He got his license a couple weeks ago and was enjoying his independence. He had started a routine of coming home for lunch. My wife and I liked that we could see and talk to our son in the middle of the school day. He is a recent Eagle Scout and getting good grades. He is also becoming a pleasure to have around the house. His grandpa had recently given him his truck as a gift for his efforts. Our son enjoyed washing the truck and putting air fresheners about the cockpit. He added some hand-selected stickers to the back window. He had done a good job of working hard and playing by the rules. As a result, life was really good …….
Saturday morning my wife went outside and his truck was gone! Where the car had been parked was a big stain on the street. I was struck by the visual of it. It reminded me of a driver’s training movie, “Red Asphalt.” It was intended in scare young drivers into good driving habits. The visual in the movie of a blood soaked street, has stayed with me 30 plus years later. Thankfully, it wasn’t blood on the street, but lots of fuel. Strewn about over many yards were the small debris of what had been my son’s truck and some other car. But where was Mason?
My wife desperately searched the house. Had he been in the car? How did this all happen? We found him in bed asleep. We are only partly relieved because we still didn’t know what happened to the truck. Mason didn’t either and quickly ran outside to see what the fuss was about. He was stunned and mystified. I wasn’t prepared for the look on his face. His face reflected having been slapped down just when everything was so up. It’s a cruel lesson to learn through no fault of his own. His car is gone. It would break any parent’s heart to see what I saw that moment in his eyes.
Heads reeling, we called the police department. We later found out that a driver had hit his legally parked truck doing 50 plus mph going up Park Avenue. It appears the truck will be a total loss.
This seems like a time to remind drivers in Laguna Beach that our irregular streets are narrow and hilly. Somehow some of us forget when we get behind the wheel. We need to drive our mean streets with 100% attention. Pause for a moment. The life you affect may belong to someone innocent.
Thanks to the careless person who injected themselves into our lives and wallets, we have to wrangle the insurance companies into action, attain police reports and replace a car. Nobody was injured thankfully because than the complications become much worse.
Our son lost his car, but in true lemons to lemonade style, our 82-year-old neighbor offered her minivan to our son should he need it. Smiling, she reminded him that minivans are mega-fun. And a cute neighborhood teen offered to drive him to school or work. Just ask, she said. I’m not sure which Mason will choose. Stay tuned.
Roderick Reed owns REEDesign Interiors in Laguna Beach. He lives in town with his wife Kathy and two sons Mason and Jack. http://roderickreed.com/.
