The Mercury Station Wagon and the 4 Year Old Driver
by Susan G Holland
Revised from blog originally posted by Susan G Holland in South Jersey Kitchen Garden ©2007
The big old red and white Mercury station wagon was the only car whose door ever shut on any of my children’s fingers, and those fingers were my son’s during the years when he was still riding in a car seat. A mother cannot ever forget such an incident — it still makes me feel faint.
This is not the car, but it’s very like the car.
We routinely left the emergency brake off when we parked the cars in Pennsylvania. In winter, the brake could freeze in place, and you would be stuck in the driveway, unable to go anywhere. So, year round, we put the automatic shift in Park, and left it at that, prior to the following incident.
One summer afternoon when my little son was four years old, I took a quick shower while the children were playing in the front yard. The older two were 8 and 10, and the neighbor kids were out there too, about the same ages, with the youngest five years old, one year older than my little son.
My shower was interrupted by alarmed shouts from my daughter.
“Mommy, mommy, they crashed the car!”
I wrapped myself in I can’t remember what and rushed down the steps and outside.
The car was not where it had been parked, but down the sloped driveway and backed into a large and solid maple tree. My little redheaded boy and his five-year old brunette friend stood on the front seat crying, and a hysterical older neighbor child was running in circles, wailing.
The children were all okay. Scared to death, but uninjured, not run-over, not bruised and not twisted or sprained.
My four year old son and his little girl friend had been playing “going for a drive” in the car, and my son, the driver, had dislodged the automatic gearshift from Park into Neutral. The massive car had rolled down the hill backward and slammed into the tree hard enough to make a serious dent in the very solid back bumper (Cars had them in those days).
As the neighbor kids went tearfully home to inform their mother, I herded my own kids into the house and checked for injuries. My little boy could not be comforted. He cried and cried.
When he finally could hiccup some words he said, “Do we have to tell Daddy?”
(Clearly it was guilt and fear of consequences uppermost in his mind, not injury. )
“Of course we have to tell Daddy.”
Long silence.
”Well, can we call Daddy at work on the phone?”
(Aha! It was a paddling he was worried about — and Daddy could not reach his four year old bottom if we told him on the phone.
Well, we called Daddy and got that over with, and then had to call the insurance company and answered, while shaking my head in disbelief, these serious questions:
Who was the driver? Driver’s license number?……
..“my son, 4; no license”
Were there any passengers? Name? Address?…
..“neighbor, 5, across the street.”
Destination?………………………….
..“pretend driving”
What direction were they going on what route?…
..“backward; own driveway”
Were there witnesses? Were the police notified? Etc.
For me, it was a wild mixture of shock, relief, regret that I had not been on the scene, regret about our habit of leaving off the emergency brake, fear that the “passenger’s” parents would go ballistic, a measure of bemusement at the very weird insurance interview. And just plain frank amazement at my son’s swiftness in designing a strategy to avoid punishment.
Well, Daddy, of course, did come home after work.
I don’t remember, and my son probably doesn’t remember whether there was an actual paddling.
The neighbors forgave us. That was a huge relief. Rules were made about kids not being ever ever ever allowed in cars without grown ups present.
The big Mercury lived out its life with a tree trunk shaped indentation in its back bumper.
Maybe that was a sort of pay-back for the fingers-in-door incident. I was so glad to see that car get traded in.
Note: My son is an excellent driver now. In his town it is illegal to park without using the hand brake, thank goodness. He has children of his own.
Susan G Holland
Originally published at southjerseykitchengarden.blogspot.com in 2007 under pen name Green Thumb.
