The oddest things happen on Papaw’s farm.

It was the late eighties. I pulled in from work one day to see Mamaw standing on the far side of my house. I saw her angry facial expression and thought, “This can’t be good. Maybe I should put my car in reverse and just go back to work.”

After a quick prayer, I parked and walked toward Mamaw. She didn’t give me the chance to ask her what was going on. “We managed to get your dogs in the basement. Since it’s E.O.’s fault, we’ll pay to have it fixed.”

I gripped the keys in my hand. I could turn and run back to my car and be gone before Mamaw could catch up to me. Taking a deep breath, I walked around the corner of the house.

Sitting against the walnut tree in my back yard was one of Papaw’s farm trucks. A section of the backyard fence lay mangled on the ground. Behind the truck was a tractor sitting on the trailer, which was still hooked to the back of the truck.

Here’s what happened. Papaw wanted to load his tractor to bale some hay, buy nobody was there to help him. It’s best to have somebody pressing the truck’s brakes when you load heavy equipment. That way the truck won’t roll. Papaw drove his truck to a section of the driveway he thought was flat. Then he put on the truck’s emergency brake. He underestimated the driveway’s slope. So, when he drove the tractor onto the trailer, the truck began to roll. By the way, this driveway ran behind my old house.

Are you getting this image? Papaw was sitting on the tractor that was sitting on the trailer that was attached to a truck that is rolling with nobody in the cab.

Papaw said, “I was pressing the brakes on the tractor for all I was worth, but it didn’t work.”

That is another thing I have always admired about Papaw. He tried to keep a sense of humor about the strange things that happened to him.

As the truck was rolling by itself down the driveway, its tires somehow turned toward my house. I dare say that saved his life. What if the truck had entered the road and a car was racing down it? Even if the truck could have managed to cross the road without hitting a car, there was a steep drop off on the other side. Papaw would have probably tried to jump off before the truck entered the road. He could have broken a bone or fallen under the trailer.

If you have read my book, “Deadly Doll,” this scene may seem familiar. In the first chapter, the deadly doll was exposed when Papaw Clyde ran his tractor through Brooksie’s bedroom wall; thereby, exposing the deadly doll.

I didn’t fuss at Papaw. For one thing, Mamaw had already done enough of that, but what good would my angry words have done? Angry or hurtful words can’t undo what has happened. You have to deal with it the best way you can. And tearing somebody down doesn’t help either. Forgive them and go on.

I think the County needs to put a road sign up in front of my grandparent’s house: “Drive by at your own risk.”

“Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.” Proverbs 21:23 (KJV)

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.” Psalm 57:1 (KJV)