The Ride!

It was a beautiful Summer day, a Thursday or Friday I believe, and Gene and I were sitting outside watch the goings on in downtown Boise. Looking back more then forty years I am not sure what motivated me to suggest what I did I am not a big risk taker but for some reason I was sure that if I had access to one of those canes which were just laying round everywhere especially with a rubber tip, seriously do you think I am a fool.
a rubber tipped cane would be much more safer then a non-rubber tipped cane.

I told Gene my idea, the Fury was a push button dry, no levers to move round, I had enough hand function to keep the cane on the gas or brake peddle when needed . Really should be a piece of cake. Actually, Gene was older and often he was the better thinker of the two of us Gene was pretty solid compared to my whimsical mind. Perhaps the thought of escaping the care facility and taking back your life was worth the risk.

We rolled out to the parking lot and starred at the vehicle; we could feel the machine’s power just waiting to be used I got the driver’s side door opened and looked at the controls, then the buttons and figured, “yeah, I could do it.” I next actually transferred in the vehicle and Gene passed me the keys and I turned the beast over and the Fury rumbled to life like Stephen King novel. . I turned the car off and transferred back into my chair and we pushed back to Gene’s room to consider this excitingly deadly option.

Gene ordered a pizza and we planned. The later afternoon changed to evening and the late summer night held off as we talked one of the orderlies to help Gene into the passenger side of the furry and I loaded myself into the driver’s seat.

Again, thinking back I cannot understand why the orderly first did not bring this plan to the nursing homes management folk and two, loaded to pretty severely disabled teenagers into a loaded Plymouth Fury, but they did.

I of course had never driven a vehicle with power steering—what vehicles I had driven were a cub International tractor, and a 1950 something Studebaker, pick-up truck oh yeah the driver’s education vehicles. I was surprised at how simple driving the was as I launched us out of the care facility’s parking area I was crawling using what every power the vehicle’s idle would render. We turned out onto Jefferson heading west We had decided we would drive west out to the West side and go to the Fairview Drive-In. When I was further downtown Boise I turned South on to Main Street and headed West, the drive to theater was pretty much straight line driving. I was amazed at how easy it was. Traffic was light for Summer Thursday evening and I was “granny” driving but I was driving.

Oddly, we got away with this adventure. We did not have any wrecks of any kind. I sort of lost control when we came back to the care facility after the show. The cane slid off the brake and I could not restore the tip of the cane to the brake. Luckily we were crawling and the shrubs in the front of Gene’s parking place took absorbed the impact of the Fury when it came to rest in the shrubs.

We had gotten home safe and relatively sound.

Management never said a word, no one said anything, we got away with it! That was the last I drove for a couple of years. Gene had been bitten and with in he had gotten hand controls installed to the Fury and was driving himself. We shared a couple more adventures over the years before I graduated and we lost touch with each other but no adventure is as sweet as the first