It was snowing very hard but I have a 4-wheel drive and I thought I would be fine to drive down one of the hills by my house. When I was almost at the bottom of the hill I saw a garbage truck off to the side of the road. A car had smashed into it. There were five other cars off the road or partly in the road. I stopped my car then started again because I was in the middle of the road. At this point my car started driving itself and did a 180. It was sheer ice under the snow! I was going down the hill backwards. Luckily I sideswiped the car that had already hit the garbage truck (the garbage truck had chains and had done a 360 and crashed into the curb to stop it I found out later) then I was stopped by a truck’s bumper a little further down the hill. With the help of some wonderful people we were able to get my car into someone’s driveway and when everyone else had cleared out — even the garbage truck — my wonderful neighbor Charlie walked from his house to where my car was parked, got in the driver’s seat and started up the hill. Of course we slid back down the hill again but Charlie was able to maneuver the car into a driveway (I might have been screaming, I’m not sure…) then we went down the hill the correct way (not backwards!) then up the next hill and into my garage.
While I was waiting for Charlie to come rescue me I met Brian who lives right across the street from where my car slid down the hill. When I introduced myself he said, “I knew Joel” (my late husband who died in a small plane crash with my two sons 19 years ago). Brian met Joel at the Racquet Club in Colorado Springs when Joel was a pro in the late 70’s and early 80’s and Brian was a youngster. Brian also went to Joel’s tennis shop on Maizeland and saw Adam and Seth when they were infants! I know Brian’s parents because they were tennis players and good friends of Joel and part of the tennis community.
It is a small world. I love living in Colorado Springs!
Nancy Saltzman's Blog 