A walk down memory lane

Hope A. Smith
Published: October 10, 2008

What a week. Instead of my usual rambling, I have a couple of “vignettes” for you.

I’ll start with last Saturday. My mom has a spare room — sort of a catch-all room — and she’d asked if our daughter and I could help her clean it out.

She’s turning it into a sewing/craft room, just in time for the cooler weather season. There’s also a full-size bed that she’s passing along to my daughter (if and when my daughter’s room ever looks like anything but twister aftermath).

When I agreed to do this, I thought, OK, we’ll organize some stuff and be back home early afternoon.

Once we secured some organizing containers, we started to comb through the clutter. I was not prepared for the trip down memory lane upon which we were about to embark. We found cards that my brothers and I made for our parents when we were kids. We found the letters that my older brother’s class wrote to my mom when I was born (Thank you, Mom, for giving those to me!) as well as an advertisement that appeared in the Loudoun Times- Mirror newspaper in 1978.

The advertisement is for a bank that hasn’t been around for some time — the Round Hill National Bank. In the photo sits my dad’s John Deere tractor, with me standing on a step, holding my piggy bank. My dad is standing to my left, the behemoth of a man that he was, and the bank president is to my right. The tagline of the ad had something to do with banking and farming, but my memory escapes me at the moment as to the exact wording.

After we got the room pretty well organized, my daughter begged my mom to drag out some old photos. Mom practically had to get a forklift to pick up the shopping bag filled with memories. We brought it downstairs, sat on the couch and went back in time for about an hour and a half. Dare I say, it was the best time I’ve ever had doing fall cleaning. We laughed, shared stories about loved ones who are no longer with us and remembered some great times.

DEER, DEER: Have you ever had a day when you woke up and had your day pretty well planned out? Tuesday was that day for me. I had a meeting at work that started at 7:30 a.m. Early bird that I am, I left my house at 6:30, planning on arriving to the plant at 7. Just as I steered my truck around the corner cresting the property of Commonwealth Park, almost instantaneously, I hit a deer that virtually came out of nowhere. I didn’t tap it, I hit it, dragged it and ran over it.

After dropping the “f-bomb” (sorry, folks), I cautiously pulled my truck over in the turning lane at the park. The lady who had been behind me stopped to make sure I was OK and had a cell phone. I assured her I did and thanked her. God bless good Samaritans.

Long story short, my truck that I love — the orange beauty with 5,900 miles on her — had a busted-up front end, complete with tufts of deer fur and other gross items (I won’t go into detail). After calling my hubby with the dreaded news, I called my GM to let him know I was going to be late. A few minutes later, a very nice officer, Deputy S.G. Butler, pulled up to take a report. After he got the necessary information and pulled the deer carcass off the road, I continued on my way to work. I’ll be honest — I was not mentally “with it” the rest of the day.

It just goes to show you —even when you have plans in place, nothing is guaranteed. I was lucky (and smart, because I was wearing my seat belt) that I was not hurt. Expect the unexpected.

My truck is now with the nice folks at Bates Body Shop getting her figure back. Welcome to rural Virginia — I’ve lived in Orange for 10 and a half years now, and can usually spot deer a mile away. I reckon my number was up. Watch out for Bambi and her gang — ‘Tis the season!

Hope A. Smith is an
independent columnist and
resident of Orange County.
Her column appears Fridays.
E-mail