We built our house in 1975, 5 years after we were married. Being young and not having extra money for what we thought was a luxury, we decided that we could do without an electric garage door opener. Our garage is oversized and so is the double wide door and at that time we could only afford a wooden garage door.
It was so heavy that it was all I could do to raise it by hand on a good day. And since my husband traveled for his job it was up to me to get it up in the morning to get the car out and in the evening when I came home from work to put the car inside. I got used to lifting the door after I figured out the best way for me to lift.
About 2 years after we built the house my husband was gone the week of Thanksgiving from Monday until Wednesday night. They were finishing up a job and staying out of town. This was the first experience that tested my ability, or not, to lift the door.
On Tuesday before Thanksgiving an unexpected snow storm rolled in during the early morning hours. When I left for work I had to work to get the door unstuck. By late afternoon the snow was getting deep on the roads and our drive way.
I made it home after work to change clothes and then back to town for the Business Women’s bowling night. It was a little dicey getting home and up the hill on Monroe after 9 that night but our big car didn’t let me down and plowed through the snow and got me safely home.
We’d had some experience with very cold temps and light snow when the door would freeze down to the pavement. I knew if I put the car in the garage that I would never get the door up in the morning by my self, to get the car out to go to work. That is if I could even get the door unstuck to get the car in that night when I got home after bowling.
Wednesday before Thanksgiving was always one of the busiest days of the year in the beauty shop and I knew that I had to get to work that morning. Because we had the big car I knew it would make it through the snow to town if I left it on the drive all night.
So I left the car on the drive all night in the snow and cold. When I got up in the morning it was piled deep around it on the drive. I managed to get it cleaned off and the windows scraped and finally crawled into the front seat about 20 minutes later and got it started.
I about froze to death getting to town because the heater in the car had quit working that week. But I made it to Northgate Salon for a long day of getting my customers ready for the holiday. Then I struggled to get back home that evening around 6:00.
One of the guys that my husband traveled with said he would drop my husband off at home when they got back into town Wednesday night. That was great, I wouldn’t have to fight the cold and snow to pick him up at 11th and Main.
Thanksgiving morning there was still a lot of snow on the roads and it was very cold. Since the car heater didn’t work well or at all we decided that we shouldn’t make the 2 hour drive to my husbands parents for Thanksgiving dinner.
Thinking that we would be out of town on Thanksgiving Day I hadn’t bought a single item that you would have for a Thanksgiving dinner. We had bologna sandwiches and chips for our dinner that day. That was the first time I had not had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
My family always did the big dinners with turkey and all the trimmings. The holiday meal always set the tone for the holidays. Once I had the traditional dinner I was in the mood for the Christmas holiday that followed. I am sure there are a lot of you that are the same way and need the turkey dinner to get in the mood for Christmas.
The week after Thanksgiving we had the heater fixed in the car and a door opener installed on our wooden garage door. Even after we had everything working again the Thanksgiving that wasn’t sure made it hard to get in the mood for the holidays. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
