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Porcupines aren't supposed to be run over
03/23/2008 08:25 PM
As I was driving to work the other morning, I came
upon a porcupine that had been struck and was laying on the highway. Did I stop
and move it? No ... how do you pick up a porcupine ... what if he really wasn't
dead, but playing a fantastic game of possum? Do porcupines play possum? What do
possums play?
As these thoughts ran through my little mind, I had a
mental picture of someone being punished for driving OVER a porcupine somewhere
in New Mexico. It was in the early 1960s and money was so tight food was
practically rationed in our house; we did as people did in the thirties ... sat
next to a window long after the sun went down to read one more word of a book we
couldn't lay down, then felt our way to the bedroom.
Well, maybe it wasn't that bad, but I do remember
living at Grandma Stallman's and that was the way it was then. I think the
generator in the cellar was started one time each night so Grandma could listen
to Whitey Larson, WNAX News and Weather as she rocked in her rocking chair next
to the radio. And no one was allowed to make a sound. The frown alone was a
killer. Many of you know the "frown". I was too little to learn it from Grandma
Stallman, so I learned from Victoria. Some-
times I think I do it too well.
Back to the porcupine. We had FINALLY saved up enough
money to buy four new tires!!! I was out driving on my new tires (because I
could) and I was at that age where driving below 95 mph was against my
self-professed religion, so I drove right over top of Mr. Porcupine before I
even saw him lying there in my way.
How did Mr. Speck take the news, you might ask. After
all danger of a heart attack passed, we went to the car where he took off the
two right-side tires and gave me a mini-seminar on removing porcupine quills
from the tires. He's so good to me, as I am to him.
Now I do watch out for porcupines, but there was that
one time in Utah when I was "just driving down the road minding my own business"
when up jumped a truck wheel rim piece. My God, it sure looked like an inner
tube to me! I was really
surprised how the inner tube lifted up the side of the truck and made a horrible
noise as it dented my running boards! Ed was soooooo proud of me for holding the
pickup on the road after a few fish tails and gravel flying everywhere.
I only had to drive over one skunk to learn not to do
that again. I can spot those little black and whites a mile off; running or
pressed flat. Who says I'm a slow learner?
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