The Angels Amongst Us.

Ah, Erie Pennsylvania: a city in my trucking territory that lies within the neutral zone of my mind. There are no positive emotions attached to it, there are no negative emotions attached to it, it just kind of lies there on the map. This could be because I haven’t been there as much as I have to Erie’s neighbors: head north to the Buffalo region, I am comfortable with it. Head south to the horse and buggy streets of Pittsburgh and I’m still comfortable, I just don’t favor it in the mind like I do Buffalo. So Erie lies somewhere in the middle, I guess true comfort comes with experience.

Two weeks ago, I had an eight stop trip: The first four were scattered recklessly around mid-western PA and the final four were smack dab in downtown Erie. The first four stops in PA went off without a hitch. The sun was shining, the temperature was a balmy fifty degrees – above average for the time of the year- and as usual lately, I was feeling like a million bucks. By noon, I had checked all four PA stops (including one in Pittsburgh) off my list and fine-tuned my GPS into locating the first stop in Erie.

The ride from Franklin, PA up to Erie consisted of about twenty minutes of small state highways through many charming towns from days-gone-by followed by the familiar dullness of forty-five minutes of standard issue interstate travel.

I had been to my first stop in Erie before (a Big Lots store) and easily remembered how to find it. When I arrived, I noticed huge piles of snow in the parking lot, in a testament to how rarely I get to Erie; I remembered thinking that the last time I was here there were small piles about a foot high. I remember almost taking a picture back then because at the time –early fall- snow was considered a novelty. Mother Nature sure had done a number on this poor city since I was last in town. Anyway, the Big Lots store was an easy stop and after about twenty minutes consisting of unloading the world’s best furniture, I was off to my next stop. Only three more stops to go and life is good.

I had also been to my third to last stop before and as such, was able to also find it quite easily. Once on scene, the customer was quick to unload the gifts I brought and like the rest of my customers in Erie, seemed unusually chipper. It’s a mysterious thing I have noticed about the good people of Erie: They are so nice, so friendly, that it almost raises suspicion within me. Surely they must be up to something. If I lived somewhere where it seemed to constantly snow, I figure eventually I would withdraw from society, retreat from my jolly ways. Perhaps I may even swipe some promotional materials from a travel agent’s stockpile and retreat to the privacy of my bathroom to fantasize about warmer climates. I do like that about the people of Erie; they have a way of making you feel good about your day, as if nothing bad will ever happen to you.

So I arrive at my second-to-last stop in Erie and almost immediately, something bad happened. I had been to this darn stop in question before too, but not for quite some time and because of that, the logistical arrangements had slipped my mind. I really hate it when that happens. Memory loss isn’t much fun when it comes to figuring out where you need to be in a big truck and today was no different. Getting old is no fun; my seniors were right when they told me the mind is the first to go.

Anyway, the rental store I was trying to deliver to is located on a piece of property that I might describe as a long stretched out rectangle. I was never any good at math or geometry, so the technical term for it is out of my reach.

There are a total of five entrance/exits to the property, two along the short sides and three along the front. The store was located on the north corner. I pulled up on the south side and turned left and drove north so I could drive along the front of the shopping plaza and devise a plan on the fly. I almost turned left into the first entrance I came upon because it looked plenty spacious and I could have easily pulled in, straightened the darn trailer out and backed straight up to my customer’s front door, which is where I knew I needed to be. I couldn’t remember how to get in there but I knew where I needed to be once I was. In hindsight, I should have implemented that plan.

Instead, I pulled in the next entrance in the middle, mostly because I was pretty sure I did it before. Unfortunately, there were too many obstacles stacked up against me: There was a snow bank – probably solid as a rock – and it crept out from the where the curbs normally are by quite a few feet resulting in a loss of available (and valuable) space. There was also one lonely car parked in a space that I really needed to swing into to safely clear the snow bank. Still, I pulled forward until I realized the trailer would not clear the snow bank until early spring at best and then set the brakes. I turned on the hazard lights (since I was then a stuck hazard) and got out of the truck for a leisurely stroll to help me figure out my next move.

I pulled on the door of the business in front of where the parked car was, intending to go inside and see if someone could be a dear and move it for me. The door was locked. I peeked through the windows and there were lights on but it was other devoid of any human activity. Lovely. I walked down to the customer and went inside, planning to feign that I had never been there before and hoping someone would take pity on my predicament and lend me a hand. As luck would have it, there was only one young lady in the store and she couldn’t abandon shop to help me. Things were really looking up.

I went back to the truck and hopped inside to consider my options. Of course, I could always back up the way I came in, but the street behind me was quite busy with traffic. Without someone to watch my back, a disaster would surely occur within seconds. I considered climbing in back and taking a nap until either the car moved or spring finally showed up. Before I made any rash decisions, I decided to try one more thing: I released the brakes and gingerly pulled forward till the trailer wheels made contact with the snow bank. I wanted to see if the snow was soft enough that the trailer might just plow through it. It wasn’t, it wanted to roll right over them which was an impossible feat, because they were about six feet high. I set the brakes again and looked out my driver’s side mirror in frustration and that’s when I saw him.

There was a man, dressed in a black leather jacket, wearing eye glasses –and an eye patch over his left eye- who appeared at the corner of my trailer. He was looking at me and shaking his head, as if to signal that my plan to test the consistency of the snow banks was not a good idea. He began to walk toward me and I jumped out of the truck to have a chat. After all, I had nothing better to do at the moment.

“That’s not a good idea,” he said, stating the obvious.

“I know. If this darn car wasn’t here I wouldn’t be having these problems.”

“Let’s get it moved then,” he offered as he went to pull on the door of the business I already knew was locked.

“I tried. There’s no one around.”

“Okay then. We’ll back you out. I’ll stand in the road and stop traffic for you.”

“Really? Thank You so much!”

“Not a problem.”

I quickly hopped in my truck, he waved me back, and I backed myself right out of the terrible situation I had found myself in. I drove to the end of the street and made a left, then quite easily made another left into the parking lot and parked right in front of the customer’s front door. If I had entered that way to begin with, I probably would have been long gone from this stop by now, but that wouldn’t have been any fun. Sometimes I just love how much fun trucking can be.

Before I got out, I looked around for the dude in the black leather jacket who had just saved the day but he was nowhere to be seen, as if he disappeared into thin air. Less than a minute had passed since I waved my thanks to him followed by my entrance back into the plaza. I wanted to offer my thanks one more time verbally, as well as financially (five or ten bucks seemed about right.) But he was gone; it’s possible he really did disappear into thin air.

I would think about him later in the day: In a sense, he was like a guardian angel of mine that had taken a human form. I got myself into a jam and he materialized out of thin air to help me and after he did, he disappeared again, right back into thin air. At least a hundred other people saw my predicament but thought it easier to go about their day without offering to help, but my angel didn’t mind a bit. He set aside whatever it is that guardian angels do when not helping or protecting people (perhaps they fly around the heavens) and focused on helping me. I am forever grateful. Had he not showed up, I might still be there.

I’ve always been a big believer in angels, specifically the kind that watch over us and protect us. Most of the general population lacks good driving skills, common sense, or both. I’ve had some near misses on the road that were only near misses out of sheer luck. When something like that happens, I don’t yell and scream while making hand gestures. I don’t sound my horn or flick on my high beams. I simply look up at the Guardian Angel ornament that hangs next to my CB and think, or sometimes even whisper, “Thank you.”

It’s worth mentioning that I was fascinated when I discovered I actually caught one of my angels on film: Last spring, my kids and I took a walk over to the park across the street from our home. I had my camera along and was snapping some pictures to record the beauty of early spring. When I got back home, I immediately saw the Angel as soon as I looked at the picture in question. I shouldn’t say the Angel was mine – my kids were with me so perhaps she was one of theirs. Maybe she was (and is) there for all of us. I don’t know how Angels work, do people share Angels?

Below is the actual, untouched picture I took that day. Here’s an offer for my readers: The first person that sends me an email (mrjharry@gmail.com) correctly identifying where the Angel is, using words or illustrations, will receive an autographed copy of my first book (whenever that might be published!) I’ll post the picture next week, and will point out where I saw her.

Anyway, back to my Erie adventure. My guardian angel had disappeared before I could thank him again. I quickly unloaded the furniture with the aid of the one girl left in the store to fend for herself. Within fifteen minutes, I was off for my final stop and I was now bordering on complete and total starvation.

The last stop was also familiar to me and five minutes later, I was there. I pulled behind a rather spacious shopping center and arrived at the back door. I called them up to announce my arrival and was greeted by them gleefully saying, “We’ll be right out!” This made me happy as I only wanted to get the final four pieces off the trailer and attend to my hunger issues.

I was in the trailer, using my hand cart to wheel the last two sofas and loveseats to the rear of the trailer and as I do, I hear the customers door making a sound like it’s about to be opened but it never does. A few minutes passed and I grew antsy and decided that I would set all four pieces on the ground so that when the door did open, I could get the bills signed by the customer and quickly be gone in search of food.

It took no time at all to unload the four pieces. I still heard the noise of the door but also noticed it had still not opened yet. Since I was standing right by it now, I took a closer look. There was an open circle in the door and a guy on the other side of the door had a screwdriver in it, evidently trying to pop it open.

I walked up to the hole, put my face right close to it and said, “Uh-oh, this doesn’t look good!”

The guy inside was apologetic; “I’m real sorry man. Our lock broke earlier today and I’m trying to do a reverse break in!”

“No worries, I’m out here when you get it.” I paced around outside thinking about food while wondering why, halfway through my day; I am running into predicament after predicament. After about ten minutes of being lost in thought, I realized I need to do something to remedy this situation. I went back and put my face up to open hole in the door so I could communicate some more with the people inside.

“Hey, you want me to just drive the stuff around front?”

“I don’t want you to have to do that, you have them all unloaded already!”

“Really, I don’t mind, there is only four pieces, I can put them back on the trailer,” I said while hoping I had the strength left to do just that.

“Well, if you really want to do that, it’s fine.”

Of course, I didn’t really want to do this, but it seemed my best option to remedy the situation and be on my way again. I used the last of my remaining strength to load all four pieces back on the trailer, getting myself completely filthy in the process: There was melting ice on the ground they sat upon and when I tilted each piece against the back of trailer, I had to lift the bottom against myself and push them inside while the ice, water, and dirt made close contact with my clothing. Good times, good times.

I was walking back to my truck when I heard, rather loudly, and clearly, “We got it!” I slowly turned around and there stood the customer, open door beside him. “Of course,” I thought to myself, “I should have known this would happen.”

I found this amusing; I know my guardian angels are always with me, yet they seemed absent during this latest segment of my day. My guess is that it was a practical joke on their part, or a lesson in patience, maybe both. Darn that broken lock in Erie.

My lunch at Subway was the best food I have eaten in my life. I called my travel agent to see what was next on my itinerary. (Props to my friend Gary for coining our dispatchers “travel agents,” I find that description of them brilliant.) I was instructed to head to Corry, PA to pick up a load of foam on the way home, instantly sealing my fate of not getting home that night in the process. Corry was an hour out the way –two hours round trip- not including the time spent switching trailers around, which is usually in the neighborhood of fifteen minutes. Little did I know that tonight, it would be more like an hour and fifteen minutes.

When I arrived in Corry, I easily found my paperwork, dropped my empty trailer and spotted my loaded trailer. It was sitting at an odd angle in a wicked combination of ice, water, and mud. I hooked up to it. I released the brakes. I discovered I was stuck. Of course there was nobody was around. For some reason the place always seems to border on being completely deserted, which is odd because it’s a monstrous place.

I decided the best course of action was to unhook the trailer then drive myself around in search of assistance. Keeping with the flow of the day, that plan didn’t work either: I was stuck, hooked to the trailer or not.

I spotted a door a few paces away from where I sat, so I went to have a look-see. I opened it and noticed a man, back towards me, walking away from where I stood. I wasn’t about to let that happen.

“HEY BUDDY!” He quickly turned around and walked back to me and I explained my latest predicament to another stranger. He was a pleasant younger fellow who sympathized with my situation. He radioed someone for help and brought out some rock salt to play with, which turned out to be completely ineffective.

In about five minutes, an older gentleman showed up in some kind of odd looking truck. He shook his head and verbally assaulted the grounds upon which he works upon and then told us he was going to get some chains to try and pull me out. He started off to get them when he stopped and announced he had come up with a plan he wanted to try first: he grabbed some tire chains from his truck and placed one on the ground in front of both sides of the drive tires on my truck. It took a few tries, but it worked, we were able to free my truck and get it to the safety of dry and level ground. He backed his weird looking contraption of a truck under the stuck trailer and easily pulled it right out, instantly becoming the second angel to save the day. I thanked him profusely and offered him ten bucks for his troubles. He refused.

“Nah, can’t possibly, I’m just doing my job.”

I wouldn’t give in. I was giving ten bucks to somebody today, “Yeah, but if you wouldn’t have been here, I would have had to call a wrecker and that would have been a lot more than ten bucks!”

He wouldn’t budge. We shook hands, I hooked up to the trailer and I waved goodbye to him again as I went by him on my way out of the darn place. “At least that guy didn’t disappear into thin air like that guy back in Erie,” I thought to myself as I pulled away into the now dark-of-night.

I had a few choices to get home, backtrack back to the highway or navigate the back roads for about two hours to get to interstate 80, my main artery home. I’m well versed in back roads plus I am in love with the charming towns from days-gone-by, so I choose that over backtracking to a standard issue highway. There’s more to see in the back country, even when dark such as it was. I was tired by the time I found interstate 80 and happy for the easy travel of the highway. I drove about an hour on 80 then decided to pack it in at a T/A Travel Center truck stop in some town called Howard.

I thanked my guardian angels for saving me a parking spot (parking can be tough to find in the northeast, especially late at night) and went inside for a well-deserved shower. I had ten bucks in my pocket – which I was trying to give away all day- to pay for it. I walked up to a kiosk with a small TV inside of it and tried to insert my money into the dollar bill slot. Not surprisingly, it wouldn’t suck the darn ten dollar bill into its electronic belly. It didn’t even try; why would it?

So I walk over to the counter and ask the lady behind it for assistance. She didn’t roll her eyes; she didn’t even try to explain to me what I may be doing wrong. Instead, she simply walked over to the machine with me and she touched the screen where it said “shower services.” She then selected “shower now” and offered the machine my ten dollar bill, which it eagerly accepted. She looked at me and said in the most pleasant voice, “You have to tell it you want a shower sweetie!” For the third time that day, I found myself profusely thanking someone for helping me out of a jam. She was the final Angel helping me out for the day; after I enjoyed a hot shower, I promptly went out to my truck and fell fast asleep. The routine of one predicament after another had worn me down.

That day happened two weeks ago now, but I still enjoy reflecting on it. It makes me remember just how much fun trucking can be! It also makes me think about people. Across the span of my life, and when I think about people as a whole, especially in relation to today’s society, I tend to think that people hold the power to disappoint. When I’m on the road, I see people being rude to not only me, but also to each other. Sometimes it seems like we live in a “me-me-me” world, where everyone worries about themselves and has little regard for anyone else. It can be rather depressing to think about, and can wear you down, if you let it.

As for myself, I try to think there are still a lot of good people in the world, as evidenced by all the people who came to my aid during this recent trying day. Part of what makes my job easier as a truck driver is that I expect people to be there to help me out when I need it. When we think about something enough and expect things to be a certain way, they tend to materialize, and it has worked for me. I also think of this principle of expectation as a street named Karma, and the traffic goes both ways. In my life as a trucker, I’ll stop and let someone pull out when others passing by have not; in my life as a friend to various people, I tend to let them know I am there for them if they need me. If more people banded together and helped each other out, we wouldn’t live in such a tumultuous world.

I still think about that guy up in Erie who magically disappeared. It’s not outside the realm of my thinking that he possibly was a real angel who took human form and then went back to wherever he came from. There is one thing I do know for sure: Angels most certainly are amongst us, and they are also within us.