Saturday, May 14, 2011

I HAD to save that dime

Once upon a time I had a car for sale. I sold the car. The nice lady paid me with a cashier's check for $1500.00. Very nice of her, I thought, because everyone knows you can cash a cashier's check just like cash. Apparently, that is, everyone besides the bank where I banked at the time.

I went to cash the check and the teller informed me that there would be a 6 week hold on the check. "Oh no," I argued, cashier's checks are just like cash. In spite of my pleas she insisted that, indeed, there would be a 6 week hold on the said check.

"Give me the check back," I told her. The bank where the woman had drawn the check was in Gilbert, WV. Only about 30 miles of the curviest roads that God ever put on earth but within an hour I would have my money. I took off to Gilbert. It was a beautiful, sun shiney day and one of my stepdaughters was with me.

We were coming down Horsepen Mountain when all of a sudden a car hauler rounds the curve coming up the mountain. He was completely on my side of the road and there was not an inch of highway for me to use! There was no way he could get over on his side and to the right of me was several hundred feet of a dropoff over the side of the mountain! My heart sunk to my knees and terror filled my entire body as I realized my stepdaughter was with me and we were going to die!

(Ever notice how much more intense the fear is when a child you are in charge of is in danger?)

Fortunately it was the ONLY curve on the mountain with a little pull off spot beside of the road. I shot the car forward and swerved onto the berm just as the car hauler replaced me on my section of the road. The scare was so bad that even my stepdaughter was in tears because she saw how close we came to dying. I had to sit there for several minutes before I had calmed myself and her enough to continue to the bank.

We got our money that day. If I had known what it was going to cost me, I would have waited the 6 weeks.

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