Prompt

We All Crammed Into My Small Car Then Couldn’t Drive Up the Hill

We never thought of the most obvious solution to get home!

Having failed my road test twice, it left me depending on friends for rides. After finally receiving my license, I invited my friends out for a night, but circumstances quickly turned into chaos.

I’m finally driving

My first car was a small English Ford, which I had purchased from a used car dealership. It sat four people comfortably, including myself, and maybe a fifth one in the middle of the back row. It ran on the lowest 4-cylinders possible, but was amazing on gas.

Up to that point, my friends had been picking me up and driving me to one of our hangouts, which was usually a dance of some sort, roller skating, a picnic, or a day at the beach.

It took a while to become familiar with the car and comfortable enough to drive friends around, but eventually we started sharing the driving as most of us like to show up at our hangouts together.

Roller skating

One night, I asked a friend of mine, Richie, a guy who I was crazy about, if he would like to join us at the roller rink. Although he had never skated before, he was happy to join me and the two friends I had invited.

As the rink was in the opposite direction of his house, he was to meet me near my home, then I would swing around and pick up my friends.

When I met him at the designated spot, he had another friend with him. So far, so good. There would be the two guys — me and my two friends. It will be tight, for sure, and the two guys were not that small, but we could make it.

My friends, unbeknownst to me, had two more friends with them, and I felt there was not much I could do about it at that point. But, how did I expect to get seven people in my tiny car that barely fits five?

As we were heading to the roller rink, which was about an hour away through hills and back roads, I was getting a little nervous.

Too many in a small car

We managed to squeeze everyone into the car with some of the girls sitting on the guys’ laps, but we were probably going to look like one of those clown cars when we all tried to get out — you know, the ones where there are more clowns coming out than could possibly fit inside.

Aside from that, the total weight of all of us turned out to be more than the car could handle and was acting a little sluggish — it was only a 4-cylinder, after all.

The way to the rink was fairly easygoing except that I couldn’t stop the car fast enough to avoid a rabbit crossing the road. I was sure I hit him, but the guys in the car said he was fine and made it into the woods.

Looking back now, putting all those people in the car, sitting on top of each other, not having enough brake power, was an extremely dangerous thing to do, but we were young.

There weren’t a whole lot of car rules in those days — no seat belts, we drove with dogs and other people hanging out of the windows — and no one thought twice about it.

Reached our destination

We made it to the roller rink, and all of the girls skated while the two guys sat there drinking soda, watching us go by but not participating.

I was crazy about this guy — I always had been. I met him through a school friend of mine years earlier, when my mother said I was too young to date.

She did allow me to meet him once or twice at the movie theater as friends, but that was it. Now here I was free and older, and I had my wonderful friend with me, hoping it would blossom into a real relationship.

What happened on the way home was so embarrassing, it’s a wonder any of my friends ever spoke to me again.

I was the only one with a tiny car. If I had thought it through, even though I owed my friends a ride, I shouldn’t have allowed them to pile into my car at the same time.

The car was moving so slowly we could barely get up the small hills. I think we could have pushed it faster than it was going under its own power.

We’re never getting home in this car

Then, on the way home, I see the rabbit that I thought I hit, right where I was sure I hit him, lying on the road, dead. I cried. I cried right in front of my friend Richie, who probably thought I was a real basket case losing control over a wild animal.

Then we encounter another small hill, and my car can barely get to the top. It seemed to be running out of steam. Still, it was a car, it was still running, and it should get us there.

We somehow managed to make up for that one and the next one — it was the next one that was the problem. I guess I didn’t realize we were driving downhill most of the way to the rink, and now we’re going up!

Halfway up the hill, the car started to stall. I threw it into second gear, but we still could not get up the hill. At Richie’s suggestion, I rolled backward in the dark with very small tail lights on my very small car and tried to get a running start as fast as the car would let me go, but it just couldn’t get to the top.

If we could have just navigated this one hill, we would have been home free. Panic was starting to set in. None of the seven of us knew what to do.

If I had it all to do over, I would have asked half of them to walk up the hill while I drove the other half of us to the top, but no one thought of that.

Instead, we turned the car around to find a phone booth on the road so I could call my father.

Time to ask for help and a lecture

I knew if I didn’t call my father, we were not getting home that night.

Why didn’t I have a few of my friends walk up the hill, especially if I unloaded the two guys, who were actually quite large? I didn’t think of it, of course, because I was only 17 and had only gotten my license a month or so earlier!

My father was furious — absolutely furious, as he was already in bed for the night.

He came out and found us about half an hour away from home, took half the kids in his car, and dropped them off at their homes. I brought the other kids back home or to their cars.

My father did not let me live that one down for a long time, and neither did my friends.

Woe is me!

My father punished me from roller skating for a month and from hanging out with my friends for weeks. I had to swear I would never drive more than two others in my car ever again because I did not exercise common sense.

He was right — I did not

I knew better, and I should have turned some of them down, but peer pressure got the better of me, and I didn’t want anyone not to like me.

What crazy things we do when we’re young!

Oh, and Richie — the guy I was crazy about — thought I was too immature, and we never did start dating.

Thanks so much for reading. If you enjoyed my story, here is another you may like — me and that crazy car again. To be added to my mailing list, click here. Feel free to reply to any of my stories. Happy reading!