The other day on the way to the grocery store, I came across a motorist in need. While I’m not entirely sure that he understood that he was in need, my finding his vehicle on the side of the road with three wheels, and its fourth wheel about 300 feet down the road from which he came kind of indicated to me that something was amiss and that this guy might could use some help.
For reasons that I’m thinking that I’ll get to eventually, I pulled over and stopped just in front of his wayward wheel and went back to check on things.
The first thing that I did upon getting out of my car was to take a harder look at the scene now 300 feet down the road from me. I saw both driver and passenger outside their vehicle and seemingly ok. Both were identically dressed and wearing what looked like business clothes, particularly if your business might be a Missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. White shirts, black trousers, and thin black ties.
My brain encouraged me to make this association between the waylaid motorists and their chosen lifestyle because they had broken down and pulled off directly across the highway from our local Mormon church (tabernacle). Thus, to someone who is driven to make random associations, it seemed to me to be a reasonable assumption. After all, our local Hindu temple is only about a mile further down the road, and if I saw a couple of folks walking nearby wearing saris and dhoti pants I might make the assumption that they are headed to or coming from an activity at the Shirdi Sai Temple.
As I started back on foot toward their vehicle, I realized why they had caught my eye. The vehicle in question was a 1973 Bronco. Not something you (or at least I) see every day. The distinctive grille – albeit cocked at an awkward angle given the 3 wheel thing – had definitely captured my attention.
Contemporary Ford literature from the 1970s refers to this as an “argent-painted grille”, although the one on the Bronco I was viewing seemed to be more white than argent (silver). It served as a nice highlight to the blue – “Brittany Blue” I later discovered – bodywork.
Very clearly the large chunky tire mounted on a bright chrome wheel that was laying just off the pavement was theirs. I tried to pick the thing up, but damn, it was heavy. So I rolled it back down the side road with oncoming cars seeming to barely register that there was now a pedestrian walking against traffic rolling a wheel and tire down the road. It’s New England, most of us just keep to ourselves and try not to notice things.
As I got closer, I yelled out to the Bronco guys:
“I’m guessing this is yours?”
The passenger at this point was wandering around in the pumpkin field next to the car and clearly having some kind of frustrating moment with his cell phone. The driver for his part was looking kind of perplexed and standing behind his car. Finding a break in the traffic, I rolled my (their) wheel across the road, laid it behind the Bronco, and asked:
“Are you guys OK? What happened?”.
To which the driver answered by giving the entirely unsatisfying, but absolutely factual:
“The wheel fell off.”
Uh huh, I said.
This vague response seemed to encourage the driver as he then immediately offered:
“This is supposed to be our getaway car, and man, the wheel fell off! We were going down the road and it rolled past us for a while before it crossed over back there. Hey! Thanks for bringing it back.”
This seems like a kind of odd statement about thanking me for bringing the wheel back, and it makes me wonder if he ever would have gotten around to bringing it back himself. Maybe he was just going to stare at it until someone else performed that bit of automotive rescue. Now confused on multiple dimensions, what I manage to ask is:
“Getaway car?”
Generally expecting the strange, I began to wonder now if I have managed, on my way to the grocery store, to stumble upon something even more strange than stranded Missionaries. Perhaps I am now interacting with on-the-lam outlaws Pretty Boy Floyds or Clyde and Clyde? (Both of which would be pretty good names for a band, but I digress…again)
Upon closer inspection I realize that these two dudes are not “on mission” (even though they seem to be about the right age) given the lack of engraved black plastic name tags and that (not)Brother Cell Phone has a beard. Nope, something else is going on.
The driver ((not)Clyde) clears things up somewhat when he then announces (“sharing” doesn’t seem to be a problem here) that they are on the way to their wedding rehearsal dinner at a local wedding venue a few more miles down the road and that his wife-to-be is really going to be pissed if they miss this.
Oh, and he had rented this Bronco to be “our getaway car…but the wheel fell off!”
Once again, as evidence of my advancing age and lack of familiarity with modern lingo, I have unexpectedly learned something (or been humiliated by my lack of common knowledge…but humiliation is in the eye of the beholder as I always like to say.). There’s now a special term for the vehicle that one leaves their wedding reception in…”getaway”.
Like, if you are Dr. Evil/Lex Luthor/Jeff Bezos you can have a “getaway boat”.
Or, some hipsters – particularly those where it seems that the bride harbors an Isadora Duncan-style death wish – might have a getaway Vespa.
But more commonly, there’s just the getaway car.
Frankly, I’d be more interested in the getaway Bluebird bus; and a wedding party full of AAA Safety Patrols. But that is probably too much to ask.
It turns out that vintage Ford Broncos are a whole sub-genre within the rent a getaway car wedding industry. They seem to convey an ironic/iconic/rustic-ness that is totally in tune with people born about 40 years after the Bronco was initially introduced and who tend to pair their nuptials with forcing all of their friends to fly to somewhere equally ironic/iconic/rustic like Idaho or Wyoming or Fiji (You can’t get any further away before you start coming back.). There are so many Bronco-specific getaway car rental companies that it’s kind of hard to imagine that there are any early 1970s Broncos remaining that haven’t been pressed into service as props for wedding photographers.
My, what spectacular ground clearance you have.
Something else that I didn’t realize is that globally, the “wedding photography” business is worth roughly $25 billion dollars in 2025 with roughly 45% of that market devoted to the U.S. alone. Business statisticians estimate that this market will grown approximately 7.75% annually…which thereby makes a good investment case for spiffing up your old car (preferably a Bronco) and getting busy taking wedding photos. For some bizarre reason people keep getting married, and for equally bizarre reasons the average couple in the U.S. spends a bit over $2000 for photographs of their event. There are even wedding photographers who specialize in taking “vintage car elopement wedding photos”. Something for everyone.
Of course many couples I know spent virtually nothing on their weddings; but this of course was more than outweighed by the $45 million that Dr. Evil/Lex Luthor/Jeff Bezos reportedly spent on his. He did get a nice boat ride and his bride a rocket ship ride (that turned out to be round trip, so maybe that didn’t count as a “getaway” rocket).
Meanwhile, back on the side of the road…We’re dealing with the unavoidable thing with me where it’s impossible to look at a broken vehicle and not immediately try to figure out what’s going to be necessary to get it back operational as quickly as possible. It’s just what I do. Therefore at this point in our story (A story that just you wait will eventually and magically turn into a CC Question of the Day/QOTD.) I am looking into the open back of the three-wheel Bronco to see if I can spot a jack. I’m thinking that it would be a simple matter to jack it up, reattach the wheel and then he’d at least get four miles down the road to the rehearsal location.
As I’m looking, I also take note of the now bare brake drum and that’s when I notice that this thing must have had lug bolts and there isn’t one of the five anywhere to be seen.
Well, that’s a problem.
It does appear that driving on only three wheels or maybe even two is a more common thing that I might have known. Photo from The Autopian
At this point (not)Brother Cell Phone stumbles out of the pumpkin field and says that he thinks that the guy who rented them the car “will take care of us” by “sending someone”. I say:
“Well, tell him to bring new lug bolts.”
I express amazement that all five seem to have vacated the premises and that I’ve never actually seen something like this before. The driver once again blurts out:
“This was going to be the getaway car!”
OK, buddy, I get it; although I am now starting to wonder if rather than Missionaries or Clyde and Clyde I’m actually meeting Forrest Gumps (and that’s all I have to say about that). Since I don’t share (not)Brother Forrest’s seeming expectation that “getaway cars” can’t break down, I go ahead and offer my assessment that no one is going to be getting away in this Bronco as soon as tomorrow. But, hey, at least everyone here seems to be ok, albeit a little shaken.
I now know that the current situation seems to be under control (thoroughly confused, but steadfastly under control…as is the rule with about 75% of what day to life is for me), so I prepare to make my own getaway before I have to hear this guy impress upon me one more time that this was going to be his getaway car. For the Forrests’ benefit I say that where they’re headed is really only about four miles down the road.
I start to offer to drive the groom so that he doesn’t have to a) miss his rehearsal dinner and b) incur the wrath of his wife-to-be any sooner than necessary (after all, he is about to have a lifetime in which to do that). But before I can make that last attempt at helpfulness he says that where they had just picked up the Bronco was only about 20 miles away and that he figures that “the guy” would come take care of them soon.
Whereupon I realize that these two fellows had just gotten off of 495 (our Boston-area loop Interstate) about a mile down the road.
“Holy cow”, I say, “You are one lucky dude to have driven 20 miles down 495 with a wheel that was in the process of falling off.”
As befits someone who seemed content to look at his wayward wheel down the road and not walk down and pick it up, he says somewhat nonchalantly:
“Yeah, it was shaking a little.”
“Well” I say, “if that thing had fallen off on the highway, we’d not be standing here talking about it.”
And, I’m thinking, Mr. Groom might have succeeded in getting away from more than just his wedding.
I walked back down the road, got in my car, and continued on to the grocery store. As I pulled away, I saw the local police pull up behind the Bronco (The Gumps had also managed to break down about ¼ mile from the police station). All would be good.
From the 1973 Bronco brochure. Needs more bride.
On my way back home, about 20 minutes later, it crossed my mind to pull over again and once again offer a ride. On this passing though the Bronco was being flat-bedded, the cops were still there, and both the groom and (not)Brother Cell Phone were gone. No doubt someone gave them a ride down the road to the wedding rehearsal dinner location.
I know that place. They have a big bar and a beautiful view of the local rolling hills. It’s not Fiji, but the economy isn’t what it used to be last month, so this will have to do. It’s a good venue for hanging out and telling the story about how his iconic/ironic/oh-so-very-rustic getaway car nearly killed him.
Now that the introduction to this post is out of the way, it’s time to get to our real point, the QOTD.
Are you inclined to stop and be a good Samaritan to motorists in need? Who’s got stories to that effect?
I’ll simply add that while I am “inclined”, I often don’t. Instead, I usually assume that professional help is on the way (as it was in this case, eventually) and that no intervention on my part is going to be useful. What may have inspired my atypical behavior in this particular case was that encountering this busted Bronco was only a few days after my return from providing Car SAG duties for the annual Erie Canal Bike tour…where it’s my duty to constantly ask people “How are you doing? Everything OK?” and while most of the time the response is a thumbs-up (even if the person is struggling to remount a tire and/or looks like they’re about to have a coronary event, we’re supposed to let the rider determine – as long as they’re coherent – if they need help), sometimes people do need help.
Granted, my motivating experience comes from helping cyclists, and over the course of 400 miles (half of which I was on a bicycle) most of the potential objects of my assistance didn’t need it. Nevertheless, there were absolutely a few rescues and there’s something immensely satisfying to me about being useful and providing that help.
Maybe that’s just me. Have you navigated the potentially fraught and sometimes amusing situation of providing help to fellow motorists? How did that work out?
A bridal bronco! I had no idea, I wonder if my bride would support getting a vintage bronco. Kind of doubt it, we’re 28 years down the road so we seem to have gotten away cleanly.
Glad nobody was hurt, and hopefully they were able to tow the three legged bronco over to the wedding venue for static shots.
No doubt an open-top Bronco and a wedding dress and/or veil make for a harmonious pairing at 55 mph.
I’ve had a few times when I (stupidly) stopped to help. It was done in a valiant mode of hoping someone might return the favor for me if ever needed, but, well, I’ve been broken of doing so. Here’s why…
Back around 2010, I was on a rural two-lane. On a mildly curvy, downhill stretch, I see fresh gravel in the road and newer Silverado sitting behind the ditch, parallel to the road, shoved between two saplings.
I stop.
Guy is there. He says “uh, I need you to pull me out.” I’m in a Chevrolet Impala. Pulling him out is not in the equation. Pulling him out is not in the equation anyway, as one of the two tires on his pickup is now flat and the other had popped off the rim. He’s not going to go anywhere.
I respond by reminding him an Impala really isn’t a good tow-truck and I will call the Highway Patrol (it’s was a county where the sheriff’s office was somewhat theoretical). He the matter of factly says I cannot call the Patrol, as he has warrants out for his arrest.
Well, doesn’t that just tear the feathers off a duck?
Not wanting to let this appear to faze me, I tell him I will call someone else – who I call and have them call the Patrol.
I keep my distance, thinking I should have already left, but also curious about how this is going to turn out.
A few minutes later, a Crown Vic pulls up, and a Patrolman steps out. I greet the officer and casually mention he may want to run this guy’s license. Sensing what I’m saying, he smiles and wishes me a good day.
I shag tail out of there.
Well, doesn’t that just tear the feathers off a duck?
LMAO!
Yikes. Jason, that’s a great story; and exactly the kind of thing that probably assures most people who don’t go the Samaritan route that they’ve made exactly the right choice in that regard.
“I need you to pull me out” is rather ominous. Seems like you might have gotten lucky by encountering a miscreant who could be easily distracted by common physics problems.
As someone in the wedding-age demographic, I don’t think you can overstate the desirability of the first generation Bronco to our generation. It is the classic car for the 20s-30s age crowd. These things are fairly expensive already and are going to take off like vintage Porsches as the younger millennial/gen Z cohort ages and has more disposable income.
As for wedding getaway cars: Like everything else wedding related, these rentals aren’t cheap! A neighbor of ours provides his cars for local weddings. He drives the car over at the appointed time, the couple climbs in and drives around the block, then they hop out and he drives his car home. If I recall, the fee charged to the happy couple for this service is almost $1,000!
Ben, thanks for the explainer. You’re right, I’m of a very different generation (one where a “cool” wedding was the one organized totally on the fly, food might be brought by the guests, and the whole thing could happen at someone’s house or in an ex-locomotive factory above an auto shop that only worked on slant 6 Mopars…as was the case with mine).
But why are Broncos in particular so desirable for gen Z/young millennials?
A little research for this article indicates that the subject of my story probably paid pretty much the same fee that your neighbor did. Hopefully my couple got a break/refund after the wayward wheel adventure.
Limos have been out for a while. Sedans still are generally hated (unless it’s a performance variant) or certain vintage luxury cars. Boxy 4×4’s and pickup trucks seem to be what my kids and their friends want for the most part. In particular my daughters seem to really prefer vintage trucks and 4×4’s, square body Chevys Vintage jeeps, First Gen dodge Rams, that kind of thing. Jeep Wagoners also seem in style.
Here’s my best armchair psychologizing: SUVs and crossovers have had similar-enough dynamic qualities to sedans for a long time. For someone under 30, there’s not a whole lot of difference in features, build quality, noise, harshness, handling, or acceleration between a Camry, a RAV4, and a 4Runner. But the latter two benefit from decades of SUV marketing showing interesting outdoorsy people climbing mountains before heading back to the city for dinner.
From this point of view, that leaves three groups in the non-SUV market. First: the unfortunate few that can’t afford SUVs and have no choice but to buy entry level compacts. Second: the elderly and out of touch. Third: gearhead types, who willingly accept the obvious lifestyle constraints of non-SUV/crossover life because they’re either car culture nerds or reckless speed demons or both.
Then you apply the same frame of reference to classics too. Which makes Broncos and Wagoneers and old Jeeps and Land Cruisers look very appealing. And the dynamic constraints of daily life with any of them are forgotten, because you’re leaving a wedding in one at parade speeds or cruising town on a pretty Saturday, and not struggling to keep up with traffic and yelling over engine and wind noise on an hours-long highway trip.
FWIW, I think the Bronco leads this grouping because it looks the best and has a huge aftermarket for FI, bigger engines, automatic transmissions, better seats etc. to ameliorate many of its original shortcomings.
The internet, They said, would liberate us all, democratize everything. It would empower the ordinary human as never before.
Instead, it has been central to fucking-over the world’s best-known democracy, enslaving us all in techno-feudalism, and commodifying every last possible aspect of life.
A getaway wedding, a wedding with a crap old 4wd nearby, with Insta pics to prove it, that’s a thing? That’s desirable? Owned, sellable, enviable, priceable, profitable? How wonderful, I just must buy some designer mud-spattered leather gear to attend!
Oddly enough, my ex was a Mormon, well, sort-of an ex-Mormon (thus a double ex ex), and a good soul, so we’d stop for any distressed roadside person, for years. She might have eventually left me with her kids – actually, she DID do that, they still live here, part of a long and improbable tale – but her attitude was right. It’s the right thing to do.
For my shame, since the split, I cannot recall stopping for a fellow motorist in the eight years since.
I love this story, Mr Sun. Whatever the oddities of the outcome, I think it reflects well on you, and besides, the story is hilarious.
Justy, you said it, and I agree. Absolutely.
In the days before cell phones Id stop there are some really awful places in Aussie to breakdown, people have died because nobody goes past at all, so you stop, it was an unwritten rule.
Now days phones do the trick and summon help.
A double ex wife isn’t so great but a XXX can be interesting for a while.
I didn’t know about the popularity of classic Broncos for wedding cars, but it seems that classic cars of all kinds have become more popular lately for wedding use, and if often wondered how often such cars break down.
And an average of $2,000 for wedding photos!?! Eek. My wife and I are one of those couples who spent very little on our wedding – and (though I generally don’t like dishing out advice), I highly recommend that. Never once have I looked back and wished we had an elaborate wedding. Oh, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for white Pontiac Grand Ams, because that was our rental “getaway car.”
As for helping motorists in need – I think the following two criteria would need to apply.
1) That I’m not alone – first, to reduce the likelihood of a scam or assault against me, but also to reduce the likelihood of someone falsely accusing me of attempted assault or other such thing.
2) That the motorists in need looks like they’re in above their heads.
The last time I helped a motorist with something was last year when I was picking my kids up from high school and I noticed two girls start driving away with a completely flat tire. I asked if they knew their tire was flat (they didn’t) and I offered to help because they had no idea what to do. I inflated her tire with my portable air pump and advised her to drive straight home. She and her friend were thankful but clearly (and rightfully) nervous about being helped by a stranger – she called her mom and kept her mom on the phone the whole time.
I should add too, that your tale of the two guys with a wheel falling of a Bronco on their way to a wedding sounds like it would make a good Country song.
And in fact, it reminds me of this 1989 song by Shenandoah:
Excellent! If a 1973 Bronco can garner a following for wedding pictures, then a 1972 F350 should be all that much better.
Plus, there’s room for the whole wedding party in the bed!
I’ve heard that farm weddings and rustic weddings are a thing now – and if so, then a well-used stakebody truck would make the perfect getaway vehicle!
Eric, you add a good dimension to the “Do I stop to help?” calculation and that’s the fact that some motorists are actually going to be more fearful of the helper than the helper might be of them. I suspect that this has happened to me more than once when I’ve pulled up to someone broken down and then been waved off with a “I’m good! I’m good!”. In which case I always just keep going.
I think that both of your criteria are good advice.
Way back in 1997, i stopped on I55 near Pontiac, IL to help out an elderly gentleman who was forlornly standing next to his car. He had a flat tire. After having him pull off as far off the shoulder as possible, I had to wait until he unpacked all the stuff in his trunk (he would not allow me to touch anything). I vividly remember changing the tire while vehicles of all kinds flew by my shoulder less than 5 feet away. Today, not sure I would attempt the same thing as drivers seem to be somehow predisposed to target pedestrians on the shoulder of the expressway.
In 2007 I ran out of gas with my 95 Rivera in a desolate area of I72 about 15 miles from Hannibal, MO (I thought I could make it to town. Strangely when I left Springfield I had an indicated 1/2 tank of gas which SHOULD have been enough to make it). Did I mention it was about 5 degrees outside with wind chill well below 0. Naturally, I could not make contact with AAA, but miraculously a guy stopped for me – drove me to a gas station, and brought me back to my car with a gallon of gas. He did at least allow me to buy him a cup of coffee for his troubles. I cannot explain the situation except to guess that the sending unit in the fuel tank must have been frozen and reading erroneously. Guess I had some good karma built up from the time I stopped and helped someone else.
Great story. Call it karma or maybe the golden rule, but I do believe that doing well to others helps increase the likelihood that others will do well to you.
I also believe that everyone should keep one of those reflective vests in their car. It takes up next to no space and is really essential for those (hopefully rare) occasions where you need to stand outside of your vehicle – or perhaps someone else’s vehicle – on the side of the road. A couple of years ago, I gifted one of these to every driver/car in my household. I’m so far the only person who has taken it out of the plastic bag to wear it (it’s actually quite stylish…), but it’s kind of indispensable so far as making yourself visible to flying-by traffic.
Great idea Jeff. Since my misadventure, I always keep my set of Wearguard/Aramark 30 degree below coveralls in my trunk (during winter). These are the heavy duty kind that utility linemen and others who have to work outside wear. Believe me, one can stay outside indefinitely in a pair of these during the most inclement and cold weather. I figure that if something happens and I’m in a remote area with no immediate help available, I can always walk to civilization.
I thought your QOTD would be about the lug bolts. How did they all disappear so suddenly?
Too bad you didn’t peel off a few shots with your cellphone. You could have charged them for photos of their (non) getaway. And we’d have a better picture of it all.
I totally agree, Paul. This is one of those “Dang, I wish I had…” situations where I really ought to have taken a photo of the bare hub/brake drum.
The best I can offer in that regard is the “before” photo…which is in fact what the lede photo is. Thank you Internet.
Wheel studs sheer mostly caused by tyre shops overtightening them. Bolts, hmm no havent seen those come loose in the last 14 years of driving those type, never seen it on VWs and they had bolts since the first one.
A vintage Ford Bronco is the thing for a marriage getaway car and photos too? Someone please gag me.
Seriously. I had no idea, but Google doesn’t lie. 😉
I don’t understand the particular appeal of the Bronco. Although in all fairness, it seems that overall vintage Rolls Royce Silver Clouds may be a bit more popular for wedding photography than Broncos. Particularly among mustard-loving couples.
I am down to just a few situations other than injured people where I will stop.
The first is motorcycles. I will stop. And so far it has been positively received. Even when it has been very rough looking gentlemen on Harleys and I have been on Trail 125 or even worse in Subaru. Still they say “thanks brother.”
The other is in the bush. I will always help. Sometimes I have wished I wouldn’t, but I do.
A while back some slightly hung over very aggressive young man leaned into my window and demanded I pull him out. Imagine his surprise when the tame “bear” that rides with me took offense.
Wedding getaway vehicle, ok, I was invited to a wedding last year a couple of friends tied the knot, getaway vehicle was a Hillman Superminx estate, a twin of my one, See old Broncos? well yes I have, one only and not recently.
breakdowns arent common these days cars have improved and the odd time I have stopped to offer help they needed a tow truck anything less wasnt going to help,
Ive broken down many times though mostly in trucks when the overheating alarm goes off Cummins gives you 9 seconds to find somewhere to park then the engine shuts down and the powersteering goes away, it isnt fun, and tandem steer makes manual steering really difficult, its not so bad the second time, but I lost the rear left wheel set in a Freight shaker Century a little like bronco event just scaled up, I still had the wheels and the half shaft but the retaining clip inside the pumpkin had failed, help arrived eventually one of those cool rotator tow trucks giant economy size and a spare truck to tow the trailer and our workshop manager to oversee the whole thing, easy tow job that time I was running back empty, one of my favourite shortcuts I couldnt use loaded a farmer stopped, are you ok? yeah I;m fine truck is broken Ive rung the yard, he fired his tractor up and left, nice guy, Our Skyliner would know the Tahuna rd, its in his orbit.
I have to think that “scaled up” is putting that mildly. Excellent story!
I took this picture on the UP side of the Mackinac Bridge in late March 2001, just before sinking the thing up to its rims in slush.
I tried pushing while my now-wife tried driving it out of the hole I made, but to no avail. An elderly couple in a LeSabre pulled up and didn’t say a word; they just pushed while my rear tires were kicking early-spring slush on their shoes and pantlegs.
The car came loose, and they got in their car and drive off. No words spoken, just Good Samaritans in action.
Over the years, I have pushed some number of cars out of slushy/snowy conditions…including some in my LeSabre (those bumper overriders actually DID perform a function).
Excellent photo of the Mackinac Bridge and your Mustang!
I think that it is a shame that so many plan every detail of their wedding but don’t give much thought to their marriage. The results are predictable.
Or the fact that most of the time (at least for my generation) the $2000 spent on iconic/ironic/rustic wedding photos would soon come in handy AFTER the wedding.
Hmmm. I’ve thought about renting out my Scout for wedding photos but just as quickly let it drop, because it’s three different colors, none of which are particularly appealing for a wedding album. The Travelall may have a future as a model, however—if I can get the paint evened out on the whole thing.
RE having the two guys drive the Bronco to the rehearsal dinner: unless it was rented by some kind of professional classic car rental company with gobs of insurance, there is no way in creation I would allow two boneheads like that to drive my truck. I’ll keep the keys in my pocket, thank you.
As for the question of stopping: when it’s safe, when I’ve got a buddy with a cellphone with me, and if they don’t immediately look like meth heads.
Funny story: driving my first Scout up to my parents’ place in the boonies of New York State with my then-girlfriend, I’d pulled over to snap the soft top into place, as it was getting chilly. About an hour later we happened upon an accident scene on an empty two-lane farm road. The driver of a pickup had lost control, overcorrected, jumped the ditch, and wound up with the bumper of his truck leaning against a tree, about eight feet in the air. The contents of the bed were strewn all over the road.
I pulled off to the side and ran up to him with a flashlight, and was greeted with a cloud of alcohol from his breath. I told him I’d run down the road and call for help (this was about a year before I got a cellphone). We did that, then doubled back to make sure he was OK. Within five minutes the local volunteer FD came out of the woodwork—trucks, cars—one guy drove across a field on his 4-wheeler. When we were satisfied they were in charge, we headed on our way.
My soon-to-be-wife smacked me on the arm when I got back in the truck and said, “so you leave me here in the truck without a cellphone, a weapon, or any way to lock the doors? You dumbass!”
Lesson learned.
“soon-to-be-wife”. So, that worked out ok then.
Which would have been my assessment at the time. And now.
Your criteria for stopping seems quite prudent.
As to the two guys renting the Bronco…I’ll offer turo.com . I’m not sure how the hell that thing works, but that’s probably a whole thread unto itself.
It did work out well! She took pity on this dumbass 23 years ago.
I’ve heard of Turo, but again, I’m too attached to my vehicles to let some moron wrap them around a tree. I guess if I had a car I truly hated I wouldn’t mind.
So the CC-effect strikes with QOTDs as well as cars!
Last Tuesday, I was heading into town in the trusty Peugeot 308. It was 9am, foggy, damp, and about 0°C. I dropped hubby at our neighbour’s place so he could take their Toyota Hilux into town for them.
A couple of hundred metres down the road, a late-model Mazda6 was parked near a riverside picnic table. I thought nothing of it, as fisherfolk often park there, until I noticed its front wheels spinning but the car not moving. I stopped and found a young lady who’d pulled off the road to turn around, only to get bogged – a week of rain had turned the usually firm ground mushy. I also spotted that she’d been trying to reverse with the handbrake on. Not wanting to embarrass her more, I quietly pointed to the button and said, “Oh hey, these electric handbrake releases take a bit of getting used to, don’t they?”
With the handbrake off, the car was still stuck, and with no towbar on the Pug, I couldn’t tow her out. A few minutes later hubby arrived in the Hilux, and that easily pulled her free.
She was very grateful as she’d been stuck for half an hour, and said other cars just drove past. It was her first car, which she’d just collected from the transporter at 8am, and she’d driven out of town to get used to it – so not quite a getaway car in the wedding sense, but a getaway from the busier urban streets!
“Other cars just drove past”. And that’s the thing. How much easier would it be if we all just stopped to help our fellow motorists?
Or felt safe in doing so.
This is great! Back in the day, I remember getting help when I needed it, and also stopping to help others. Now everyone has a phone, so I only stop if its a fellow biker. We got married back in 97, and my best friends and I stopped to get my hair done on the way to the wedding venue. My friend that owned the pickup, came back in and said she locked the keys in it! She called AAA, and the guy got there just in time, but I was almost late to my own wedding! My husband had ridden our 97 Electra glide to the wedding, and that was our getaway vehicle to a local motel for the night. We both had to be back at work on Monday. Our venue was an old church turned into a wedding chapel and the whole wedding cost less than 1,000 dollars. Photographer was a friend, I paid for the film, another friend catered, and my maid of honor did the flowers.
Pretty much tracks my own experience. I vaguely recall having a guy-party in the actual wedding venue the night before the wedding, and then (somewhat less vaguely) spending the early morning hours cleaning the place up so that we could have the actual wedding there a few hours later.
Our actual wedding photographer was a neighbor in the loft space where the wedding (and the Slant 6-only mechanic operated…come to think of it, the mechanic and the photographer may have been the same person) occurred. We got a couple of rolls of film in exchange for letting the photographer have a free meal during the reception.
I’ve stopped to change flat tires for people or otherwise help if I could. Last decade or two, it seems people don’t want the help. They have already called for it via cell phone, from AAA or a friend, and some stranger offering to help may be a threat. So I’m less inclined to stop nowadays.
I’ve been the grateful recipient a few times. Once I ran my ’71 Super Beetle out of gas and an older guy in a Mercedes took me to a gas station while telling me about his older Beetle that had a one-gallon reserve tank activated by flipping a handle. Another time a drunk pickup driver pulled my future wife’s car out of a snowbank (well, out of the middle of a state route that hadn’t been plowed during an intense storm) and gave us a ride to my house.
The thing about AAA – and in my experience around here, all roadside assistance services – is that they they take practically forever to show up unless you manage to break down on a major commuting highway/Interstate. In the case of that, you’re likely to get helped by one of the roving state-supported units or a state trooper. The last time I called AAA, it took them about 2 hours to show up. Same deal with my son recently (who was trying to change his own tire, but couldn’t loosen one nut that had been put on by a tire shop that had been .overzealous with the impact tool).
I’ve regularly seen Troopers changing tires for folks, and I’m pretty sure that it’s because even they can’t get a roadside assistance service to show up fast enough.