Christmas Shopping In Kentucky

Good Sunday morning everyone.  Once again God has granted us a beautiful day to enjoy, so get outside if you can and enjoy it.  Today’s story is funny! It is a story of three women who exercised their right to Christmas shop wherever they chose.  It was Lynn, Leigh, and me.  We were determined!!!

Kentucky has its moments of inclement weather especially after Halloween and this Christmas was no exception.  We hired two young women; I knew well and trusted completely, to sit with the grandchildren while we women finished our Christmas shopping.  My husband.  Oh yes, my husband was in charge of everything and control has no greater purpose than a man in charge who will not bend.  It is like the boy who cried wolf!  When he was so in control of everything single, small, thing you ignored him if you had back up and today I had back up; two other women who wanted to shop with me.  We had a small mall in my town and I had already shopped it out so I wanted to take the toll-road and go to Indiana and shop! WalMart did not have the toys we wanted.  They had sold out long ago.

I called out to him, “Okay we are going shopping Perry so we will be back this afternoon.”

“That’s fine. Watch out for the traffic and be careful.  Stay in town.  Do not leave town today.”

Yeah, right.  I thought.  So off we went.  Three women in my 1968 Buick Wildcat and we headed straight for the toll-road.  We laughed and chatted all of the way to Indiana and when we arrived I took us straight to my favorite tea parlor.  We ordered a desert and a pot of tea. We laughed and talked and drank our tea then Leigh, my daughter, suggested we go to Toys R Us and shop.  I paid the check and we found a place to park at Toys R Us.  We shopped, and we shopped, and we looked at everything and changed our minds ten times but finally we were done.  We all paid for our gifts and headed for the car. 

“Oh my gosh, it’s snowing,” said Lynn

“Mom we had better head for home,” answered Leigh.

“Well let’s hurry and get across the bridge before it freezes,” I said.

We made it across the bridge slowly in that big old car with no front wheel drive and lots of weight. Things were progressing rather rapidly and the toll-road was already iced and snow was drifting so I knew it would be a slow crawl home.  Thirty two miles in this mess with two toll booths.  I looked for a snow covered spot and tried to stay close to the right edge of the road.  Leigh kept encouraging me and I was just trying to stay calm.  I hated driving in snow or on ice.  I neither trusted the car nor myself so I needed to be encouraged.  Lynn sat in the back and prayed and we knew she was so we were going on with grateful hearts. 

“Mom you will have to slow down to make the toll stop.  Please just do it slowly and start now.  Okay?” Leigh told me.

My knees were starting to quiver but by God’s grace I managed to stop the car and pay the toll. The toll booth operator was saying something about the road ahead but my mind was a blur and I had to go through regardless.  I had watched Perry maneuver through worse, much, much worse than this so I just had to think and I could do it.

“I can feel the car starting to slip a little,” I said when we were about six miles from the exit.

“Mom do you thing the round-about will be slick too?”

“Oh Lord yes.  Worse than this probably.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“I am not going to get off because it will dump us on a street west of town and I think I can maneuver better on the street.”

“Ok.  I am sure you can do this.”

Then the tears started.  I just couldn’t help it.  I started crying.

“Stop it Mother.  You can do this.  Besides we are depending on you to do this.  The whole family is depending on you right this minute so stop crying and do it.”

I think I had an angel out there someplace because the highway was not quite so slippery and I could feel the slush.  Then we were on a city street and very slowly and carefully I made the way back across town. 

Out of the car and into the house and my husband was out looking for us.  Oh Lord.  That was not good.  The babysitters’ Dad was waiting with the children and his daughters and he was on the phone with his wife.  The way to their house was indiscernible to say the least and she was frantic.

“Mama you are home,” Lynn’s babies cried as they ran to her.

Well the rest is history, so to speak.  I know we were horrified but I cannot say we would never do it again.  After all once a woman knows she can do something, she knows she can do it.  So there.