It was a cold November day and we had spent most of the day working on the wreath sales delivering orders to each house that needed them. Scouts worked hard all day on the project it was getting late in time to wrap it up. It was about this time that Joe Topczewski showed up and asked what he could do to help. Seeing we were all wrapped up and ready to go the only thing left to do was to return the truck to Milwaukee. I told Joe that if he wanted to help he could give me a ride back to Milwaukee to drop off the truck. He agreed and called his parents to make sure it was OK with them. They said sure find no problem. So we finished up with things and Joe followed me up and with his car. About halfway up it started snowing, being the first snowfall of the year. I put the truck back in its spot and hopped in joe’s car. It was not an easy task Joe had a small car close to the ground and after a long day of work with wreaths, bending over seemed to be more of a challenge than usual. We got in the car and headed back to Racine, the snow continued to fall and was starting to cover the road. Not knowing Joe had never driven in the snow until later, and seeing being in a low small car always seemed faster than sitting high up in a Truck. We continued to drive towards Racine approaching a rather sharp curve on Hwy 38. Joe driving too fast for the conditions started to slip a little and he overcorrected and started to slip the other way and the car started into a back-and-forth motion to the point a went over the edge of the curve over the embankment in down into the ditch it into a Cornfield. It was very understandable how someone might slip off the road in these conditions. I was just glad that the oncoming traffic did not get in our way nor did we hit any signs or anything on the side of the road and went down the embankment into the ditch. It was a rather steep ditch and being down in the ditch you could not even see the road surface. So after Joe gathered some of his composure he started to drive back out, but his first approach was to drive back up in the direction that he came in this did not work well. Then I told Joe to transverse the hill and get back up on the road seeing this was all cornfield it wasn’t that big of a deal where we went because there was really no grass are anything to damage. Finally gets it back up on the road and he continues to drive home. But he was driving only about 10 or 15 miles an hour. I asked Joe if everything with the car felt OK, the answer was yes. Then why was he driving so slow, I asked if that scared him, he took a deep swallow and said YES! I said Joe is this the first time you’ve driven in the snow which he quickly answered yes. I said Joe you had your drivers license for a long time and this is the first time you’ve driven in the snow. He said I didn’t start driving until after the last snow last winter. We laughed but Joe was not necessarily laughing as hard as I was. I knew this would be a story that would live and be a legacy of Joe. After Joe dropped me off at my home I had asked him to have one of his parents call so that he could explain the situation to them and then I knew that it was taken care of. It beat me having to call them and telling them about it. About 15 minutes passed and I got a phone call it was Joe’s mother. I was expecting concern and panic in her voice but I was surprised when I answered the phone and she is hysterically laughing out loud. All she could say was I’m glad it was you and it wasn’t me. We laughed and joked about it for some time and she just thanked me for being there for Joe. She says anyone else he probably would have gotten a much more of an earful about driving recklessly. At the conclusion of our discussion one of the things his mom said to me as I think we won’t be telling his dad anytime soon. I said I was fine with that but at some point you probably should have, laughing. It was several years gone by before Joe or Joes mom actually told his dad about the story. All I can say about the situation, sure glad no one or nothing was broken or injured and that there was a lesson to be learned. It was about two weeks later I drove down the same street and what I did see there was a car rolled over in the same location where we had crashed. I’m not sure that person’s car survived as well as ours did. I was just grateful that even with a small car in going over the side of the embankment he did not roll the car. It’s been several years since this happened now and Joe and I laugh about it frequently. And so does the rest of the family. The moral of the story as don’t just jump and anyone’s car unless you know what kind of experience of driver they are. It would’ve been very easy for this to be a much worse situation such as a head on collision or rolling the car or rolling into a tree or some other device I’m just glad it all came out fine.
Mr F.
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