Forty years ago this month, my mom set out for an appointment in the family Ford Maverick. She was running late, and put on the gas to make up time.
It didn’t work out.
Just the way it happens in driver’s-ed movies, my mom’s haste got her into a nasty accident. The car was totaled, and she got banged up pretty badly — broken ribs, bruises, that kind of thing.
Nothing life-threatening, but bad enough that she couldn’t hold her adorable almost-three-month-old son for a little while, which I’m sure seemed like a fate worse than death.
With time, my mom got over her injuries. And ever since, she’s been careful not to try to make up time on the road — a lesson she’s also tried to pass along to her kids. (One of ’em listened, more or less, usually.)
The Ford Maverick leaving Hope Street in happier times, spring 1971.
As you might imagine, my mom’s injuries immediately drew my grandparents into action. My dad had to go to work, after all. And even if he’d taken time off, he’d have been challenged to care for a two-year-old and an infant, not to mention his injured wife.
(It is an accepted part of family lore that my dad never changed a diaper, and apparently he wiggled through my mom’s downtime without breaking that streak. Well played, Seventies Dad.)
The arrival of the family cavalry made for some unusual and even touching entries on my grandpa’s calendars.
September 28, 1973. I assume everything is squiggled out on the 27th because the plans, whatever they were, got abruptly canceled.
Corine (it was family habit to spell it “Koreen”) was my paternal grandma — the wife of the guy who kept the calendars — while Tom was my maternal grandfather.
They weren’t common travel partners, at least not without their significant others in tow.
But Corine couldn’t drive. Someone had to take her to Penfield, and I think my other grandma was already there.
So, Koreen and Tom set out on what must have been an interesting (and long) car trip.
(If you look at the entry for Sept. 29 close up, you can see the word “PENFIELD?” erased. I guess the Stamfordians must have been making their mutual assistance plans from day to day.)
Two days later, we find a poignant calendar entry:
September 30, 1973. The Yankees play, and lose, their last game at the original, pre-renovation Yankee Stadium.
My grandparents were close throughout their married life, and I cannot imagine there were too many times over their nearly 60 years of marriage when they went to bed in different states.
I wonder what that phone call was like, and whether my grandfather let any tenderness show, or whether he kept a stiff upper lip.
They remained separated for a full week (including another phone call), until my grandpa and great-grandma made their way to Penfield to supplement the war effort.
October 5, 1973.
I didn’t take a pic of the rest of the calendar, so I don’t know how long everyone stayed. I see weather on the calendar the following week, which suggests my grandpa was back in Stamford by then.
Eventually, life got back to normal for the Blumenau family — thanks to the sacrifices of some branches.
Hope Street 
Seventies Dad distinctly remembers changing some limited number of wet-only diapers, although when I recalled the “taping” process to Seventies Mom, she said that your brother only used cloth diapers, and you used paper only in your later diaper years. So it’s possible that Seventies Dad remembers changing Millennium grandson!
I never heard the family folklore about Seventies Dad. For the record, I’ve changed diapers of both types and I’m not even a dad!
I vaguely remember this accident, I think. I remember standing with Maternal Grandfather and Dad, looking at the wrecked car in a line of damaged cars, in front of a wall. I think we went to get stuff out of the glove compartment or something.
And where were you and I during this accident? You and I were too young for preschool, right?
I remember being told by sources close to the investigation (i.e., Mom) that Dad never changed a diaper.
That might have been a slight exaggeration, but I have no trouble believing it is substantially true.
I do not know where we were; that is a good question.
I was not quite three months old, so I was too young for much of anything except eating, sleeping, crying, and not getting my diaper changed by Seventies Dad.
Looking at the extant Maverick photo, I see a kid in the passenger’s lap. Safety first!
Believe you guys were being baby-sat by Betty Braband, our former next door neighbor. She kept you overnight (not originally planned) with mom in the hospital until relief arrived the next day.
Glad to hear Eric changed diapers of both types! I am sure Kurt has, as well! 70’s Uncle Steve Dad avoided ickier diapers but 90’s Uncle Steve
Dad got stuck with more of them. Uncle Steve Grandpa denies experience with any diapers, while Dad Brandon just dives in. Conclusion: its another one of those generational things with guys.
[…] errand off his calendar, so maybe it lingered into November. We know from a prior entry that he had something else on his mind for the first week or two of the […]
[…] had also come to my folks’ aid three months before, after my mom got into a car accident. (Wrote about that too. See how I might get burned out?) Perhaps, with my mom feeling better and more mobile, my folks […]