It was somewhere around 1974, I was working for a residential/commercial cleaning company, ACT of America located in King of Prussia, Pa. This was roughly 20 min or so from my then Collegeville address.
Winters in Pa were always cold, and looooong…….
A typical day started around 8. Get to the office and get our assignments. We would head out to arrive around 9am depending on the particular customers requests. I left the office with the address of the two places I was to clean and headed to my first residence, roughly 30 minutes to Main Line, Pa. The area was an upscale part of town, and gave the company a lot of business.
It was beginning to rain a bit as I parked my car.
I got out and lugged the equipment to the front door. I headed into the home I was hired to clean and spent the usual 2-4 hours. When I left the parking area and got onto the main road, I noticed the traffic was going slow. Well, I thought, this won’t do, I have someplace to be. Why do some folks have their flashers on? There is nothing ahead and no sight of snow.
I forged on ahead until I reached some slowed traffic that was coming almost to a stop…Feeling a little irritated, I had to apply the brakes, that did not go as planned. I was sliding sideways on a sheet of our ice. Rambunctious inexperienced driver is what I was. I was 16, but began driving at 14. I had some experience driving on snow and ice, but ice is not a surface you can drive on.
I had a ’67 firebird, and If you know anything about that year firebird, you know they have a big engine with a long heavy front end to contain that engine, a light backend.
It would fishtail on even a slick wet road.
Fear gripped me as tightly as I gripped the steering wheel. There were accidents in front of me right and left. People were pulled off the road, not attempting to go any further. For those of us who continued on, we drove as if walking a tightrope over a stack of bricks.
I drove many times in the grass median, but that was not always an option and often just as slippery. It invited me into the gully below the edge of the road. I proceeded a little further and saw an 18 wheeler hanging halfway off a bridge and my heart sank. I wondered if I would make it home that night. As I drove on, a sign ahead gave me the number of miles to my next exit. Suddenly it hit me, I was still heading to my next cleaning job . I had forgotten to turn around when I realized the road conditions. OMGosh, I was further away from home than ever. I wanted to start crying and call someone for help, but….
I knew I had to be strong to make it home. I can’t remember which highway I was on, or which highway I took in the wrong direction or how I got myself turned around, but I somehow I got turned around.
No cell phone, no GPS, no one to help me, except God. He was always there for me and I had come to depend on Him very early in my life.
It took me another hour or more to get home. I was never so glad to get out of that car and onto the earth below me, even if it was covered with ice.
My boyfriend was there waiting for me, as I fell into his arms and sobbed all the fear I had been holding in.
I recounted the story for him and his grandparents as they listened, expressing how they head checked for accidents and so on, wondering where I was and why I had not called. They said they were very relieved that I was safe, and I felt cared for. Chalk this up to God, and Another Lesson Learned.
Coffee With Mo.. 
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