Grandpa Saves the Day

This week I have had the pleasure of staying up at my parents house. They live in a small northern town on a lake. Every year when the lake freezes it becomes an extension of the yard. This year the weather has been so up and down that the lake hasn’t been the best, it has been slushy but finally on Tuesday the cold had made it hard enough to venture out on. Mom and I went for walk around the lake on the snowmobile trail that my Dad and Uncle had created along the perimeter of the lake and then I got to give my Dad’s snowmobile a try.

 The lake holds many memories for me because this was the house that my grandparent lived on while I was growing up. We spent many hours inside and outside at this house during both the summer and the winter months. Taking my Dad’s snowmobile for a ride reminded me of when I first learned to drive a snowmobile many years ago.

When I was kid my Dad, and Grandpa and Uncle, all used to cut wood in the bush that was part of my Grandparents property. They all used the wood to heat our homes during the cold Canadian winters but it was a lot of work. Every Saturday my Dad would go out to the lake and cut wood and sometimes either my Brother or I would go along with him. When I was teenager my Dad decided that I was old enough to learn to drive the snowmobile, I am sure he was hoping for some free labour from me since once the wood was cut it needed to be hauled out of the bush and it all went quicker if you didn’t have to stop cutting wood to haul it out. So he gave me a short lesson and then off I went on my own.

First you need to know that I was not a very big teen, and in fact I still am not a large person, and the snowmobiles back then were nothing like they are now. It was not easy for me to steer and I was not strong enough to start the machine myself, it was a pull start. However, I have also loved snowmobiling and was excited to get the chance to drive it all on my own. 

After a few rounds of the trails I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable and my Dad persuaded me to haul some of wood. He hooked up the trailer and I set to work filling it up and then I drove across the lake to the barnyard to the pile that my Dad had already started. It was on my second trip where it went wrong. I pulled up to the wood pile following the trail that was already in the snow and then as I pressed the brake I jolted forward and right in the tractor shed. I had accidentally pressed the gas instead of the brake. Lucky for me the sped wasn’t enough to do any damage to either the snowmobile or the tractor shed but I was a bit stuck. Snowmobiles don’t have reverse and the machine was too heavy for me to pull out on my own. What was I do? Well, I turned off the machine and then I completed my job and transferred the wood from the trailer to the pile then sat down on the snowmobile seat facing the lake and waited.

It wasn’t long before I saw a yellow blur in the distance, it was my Grandpa coming back with his own load of wood. I can’t say for certain but I am sure that he was chuckling to himself as he saw me sitting there waiting for someone to help me out. He pulled up to his wood pile and turned off his machine. He had a big grin on his face as he walked toward to me but he didn’t give me hard time or make me feel bad in away about what happened. 

“Well, what happened here?”

“I accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.” 

“Hmm…I see that. You OK?”

“Yeah, I feel a little silly though.”

“It could happen to anyone.”

“Do you think that you can pull me out and start the machine?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

Grandpa pulled the machine out from the side of the tractor shed and pointed it the right way on the trail and he smiled as he started it for me. After a quick hug I was off on my way continuing on with my wood hauling duty. I was a lot more careful after that about which was the gas and which was the brake but Grandpa made sure to tell the entire family about how I ran into the tractor shed. He always smiled and chuckled when he told his side of the story. It always made me laugh and I never felt bad or embarrassed about the mishap when Grandpa talked about it. It become one of favourite memories of Grandpa, sitting watching him come across the lake toward me. 

The snowmobiles nowadays are a lot easier to drive but I still make sure that I don’t mix up the gas and the brake. Tuesday was fun, cold but fun. I stayed away from any buildings and got up to a pretty good sped on a straightaway on the other side of the lake, but nothing will beat that first time.