Say! What was that?

It was late at night. Jay and I had been out for the evening, I can't remember where or for what reason. Paul, who was about 6 months old, as I recall, was asleep in my lap. (Again years before seat belts or car seats were mandatory in cars.) We were in our 1940 Black Two Door Chevrolet Sedan. The same car that Jay had bought and taken me on our first date. The year would have been 1948 as I recall. We were living in Norwalk, California, in our first home.
This is rural country. One of the first Tract of Houses that had been built after World War II. Things were looking pretty good for us - or so we had believed at the time - I will tell you more about that at another time. First on with this bit of 'rambling'.
We had turned off the main road onto the dark side street that took us back into the tract of houses in which we lived . As we started down the road, we both saw something flash by, some distance in front of us, very quickly, and exclaimed: "what was that?" It was too dark to see even in the head lights. It had been far enough ahead of us that we could not make out just what was going on. Jay had slowed down, and we were both trying to see what was ahead. It was a clear night, so there was no trouble at seeing. Just about the time we came along side the first building to our left, there was a flash from the right. We did not have time to stop, or realize just what was happening. To our shock and amazement a hugh horse tried to jump the moving car. The front legs came down on the cross bar in the windshield - with the car moving even slowly it caused the horse to be thrown to the side of the car and slam into the back panel caving it in. The horse was stunned and went off back, from where it had come.
How greatful we were that the legs of the horse had not crashed through the windshield. It would have killed both Paul and myself trying to free itself from being caught. The car was badly damaged, and the horse was in a pretty shaken state, but not seriously injured. We had no idea how it had escaped its corral. The owner was a bit upset with us for hitting his 'jumper', but of course we had no idea that the horse was loose nor that it would be returning and try to jump a moving car.
Amazing how many auto accidents I have been in. Not one being less serious than another - yet in each instance I have come out, as did Paul
in two of them.
The car was repaired. Jay had it painted a 'baby blue', I think he regretted it afterwards, but then one has a way of making poor choices when such unexpected things happen. I learned to drive in that car. It had a 'stick shift' but I would learn to drive a 'floor shift' as well. Very important to know how, even though there are not many of them left on the road these days. Automatics are the way to go, but the old way of driving with a 'clutch' is still a good way to learn if you have the chance.

Moral - I guess we could say, if you are driving in the country it does pay to keep an eye out for the horses, they can come upon you suddenly and with the new windshields being what they are, the outcome might prove a great deal different than what we experienced. Way back then!

Written this 6th day of January 2012
by: Eileen Rosenberg