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Easter at our house

Easter at Our House-2007
My wife, Paulette and I began casually preparing our Easter dinner, as we have done so many times before. It was about 10:00 AM . We had music playing in the living room, We knew, from earlier phone calls that our daughter, Emily and her family had already started their hour and a half journey from Middletown Connecticut, and Paulette's mom, and Ray were on the road for their hour and a half drive from Tiverton, RI. Sister, Mary Lou had already prepared her string bean dish, and was about to shower to get ready to come over with Frank. The oven was already warming up. I was reviewing the general instructions for baking the ham, and Paulette had finished peeling the potatoes. She was building all the ingredients of the scalloped potatoes into her baking dish. The pineapple cream pie was already made.

Generally things were quiet, then were heard a loud crash outside; it sounded like a big tree falling. The music stopped, the lights went off. Paulette went into the living room to look out the front window, when I heard her exclaim; Oh my God!...It happened again! Someone crashed into the telephone pole in front of our house, sheared it off at the base, and the bottom of the pole was sitting on the roof of a brand new mangled Mercedes Benz SUV. The top of the pole was still hanging by the wires. As it has happened eight or more times before, in the past forty years, Paulette ran to the phone to dial 911. The phone was dead. She scurried for her cell phone to make the call, and I went outside to check on the occupants of the vehicle. The passenger was out of the car, standing by the opened door on the driver's side. She was dabbing the bloody face of her friend to avoid anymore blood from dripping on the drivers white sweater. They both appeared to be in their late twenties. On my way around the vehicle, I noticed the antifreeze draining onto the ground. The engine was still running, and I said to the "dabber" you better reach in there and shut off the engine. She ignored me, and other neighbors were beginning to gather near the vehicle, and one repeating what I had already said. At that point a fire engine, and ambulance were arriving on the scene. I decided that I better get out of their way. and as I was walking, I was thinking to myself, how could that girl just ignore my advice?, that car could catch on fire any minute!...darn modern young women. they just don't have any respect for their elders anymore. I noticed a couple of live wires broken, and hanging down over the side walk. I was going to stay there to point it out to the firemen, but then thought, what am I doing?...they know their job better than I do. My thoughts then went back to the girl trying to comfort her friend.' It occurred to me that they both just had a very traumatic experience, and she was probably dazed herself...well, it's a good thing the ambulance is here'. I went back into the house.

Pretty soon cops were all over the place, blocking off the road, and directing cars to take alternate routes. Paulette was in the house trying to reach Emily, cell phone to cell phone, to describe the event, and tell her to park in a nearby parking lot when they finally get here. She knew they were on their way, but she couldn't seem to get thru. Paulette's mom, and Ray do not have a cell phone, so there was no way to contact them. I used my cell phone to contact my sister. Frank answered. I told him what had happened. I explained that our ability to cook the dinner was interrupted. I wanted to take the meat, and potatoes to their house and finish the cooking down there. He said "wait a minute, I'll get Mary Lou" [apparently the call was getting too complicated for him to handle]. He got Mary Lou out of the shower. I explained everything to her, and added that I can't bring the food down to them, because the broken telephone pole was blocking my driveway, and I can't get out...they would have to come here to pick up the food. She replied that she was still soaking wet, and she would get dressed and come right over.
She turned on her oven before she left, and figured out the alternate route to get to the shopping center next door to our house. Frank stayed home to be with the dogs. Paulette and I left by the front door to meet Mary Lou with the food. On our way up our front walk, we saw a cop near our front gate facing us with his two hands up warding us to stop. Paulette immediately spoke up that we have to take this food to our sister's to finish cooking our Easter dinner. The cop smiled, and let us pass, telling us to stay clear of the broken wires. Sis arrived, and we loaded her car with the food, and I went along with her to help with the cooking. Paulette went back to complete setting the table, and continue trying to reach Emily.

When Mary Lou and I got to her house, Frank was there lamenting that "they never should have sold their house on Ashworth Lane, because they would have had plenty of room there to accommodate everyone to have the Easter dinner there" In the meantime, I was loading up their oven, and Weeze proceeded to prepare the ham glaze. Frank stood by telling me how expensive his medicine costs, and again, they should never have sold the house on Ashworth Lane, pointing out that there would have been plenty of room there to accommodate everyone in this emergency situation. After about an hour and a quarter of that, the food was about ready, so I called Paulette to tell her we would all be up there soon. She said "that's great, everyone has arrived, and we're getting hungry". When we arrived, there were some quick greetings, and cheers. I sliced the ham, and a good meal was had by all.

After dinner, we all gathered in the living room, and watched the progress of all the busy workers outside. The wrecked Mercedes, the ambulance, and the fire truck were gone. replaced with electric company, telephone, and cable company trucks. When one of the wiring crew was setting up his ladder to re-attach the wires to our house, I mentioned to him that this accident is re-enacted about every five to seven years because of the bend in the road. I asked him if there were any special “attention getters” they could put on this new pole to alert the drivers. He said “ yeah, we have a couple of larger reflectors we can put on there for ya.” I said “great”, then I asked him if his wife was going to have a ham sandwich waiting for him when he gets home?. He replied “ No, she’ll hold dinner till I get home” and added “this isn’t my first Rodeo”.

By 3:30 PM our power was restored, telephones worked, and I was back online. The guests left, heading in their respective directions, laughing on there way, agreeing that this was an Easter to remember.

Our home was quiet again, just Paulette and me. I began reflecting back on the days activities. I hoped the girls survived the crash OK. I couldn't get over how impressed I was with our local Emergency Services; the Ambulance Corps, the Fire Department, the Westerly Police Force, the Electric Company, telephone, and cable Companies all doing their jobs in their proper sequence, with no wasted motion. It was truly remarkable how efficiently they accomplished their task in five and one half hours on this Easter Sunday. I felt secure at home again in our fine town of Westerly, Rhode Island.