Now, to set the scene, you have to understand that Grandma enjoys her trips in to 'town'. When it comes to a trip to Wal-Mart, she is pretty dedicated, kind of like the mailman. There's not much weather that's going to keep her at home when she's got the itch to hit the store. Now, Iowa winter can be a very unfriendly beast. There are days that many of us would opt to stay in where it's warm and dry. Some days traveling out of doors in Iowa is not for the faint of heart. Well, no one's ever accused Grandma of being 'faint of heart' and this particular day is one example of this very point.
It was a pretty typical winter day in Iowa. Temperatures were in the single digits, there was a pretty significant breeze...
Grandma, safely makes her trip into 'town'. As she was traveling home on Hwy 3 however, nearly back to Shell Rock, all of the sudden she noticed something in the road ahead of her. Before she knew it there was a Christmas tree headed straight for her!!! The car ahead of her was transporting the tree home when it was caught by the wind and blew it straight into Grandma's path!
It's hard to guess who's story would be the most awkward to tell...the lady who's tree looked like it just got run over by Grandma, or Grandma who just got run over by a Christmas tree. Grandma definitely learned to keep her eyes peeled for flying Christmas trees and even wrote an editorial advocating safe tree transport during the holiday season! (There is a moral to this story after all!!)
Needless to say, Grandma endured a significant amount of teasing over the whole ordeal. We are of course very glad that Grandma was not harmed...(I can't say the tree fared quite so well). Safe to say, however, every year since that time, we have reminded her of the year she took out the Christmas tree. Mike Gabe, in particular, likes to ask Grandma at every opportunity if she's hit any Christmas tree's lately. It's pretty much impossible to hear Grandma re-tell this story without cracking up.
