One Michigan Winter
A Detroit Road
Trip
My friend Mona and I decided to drive to Detroit in her
husband’s black Camaro. She was married
to my Cousin Ronnie whom she was mad at on this particular day, she never said
why. Anyway, my boyfriend, Tommy, had been
ignoring me for the past few days as well.
I suspect that he was seeing another woman. So, we needed something to do to take our
minds off our men. Even though it was
late November and an ice storm had been predicted to come in that weekend, we
chose to drive to Detroit anyway.
I drove first
because we had decided that I'd drive up and she'd drive back. The Camaro was in pretty good shape for a
change. That wasn't usually the case
considering my cousin, it was one of the reasons why we took the chance. He had just replaced the tires and had had it
tuned up so we figured it was a safe bet.
Neither one of us had any plans or anything, we just wanted something to
do outside of just sitting around Kalamazoo watching TV.
Ronnie was asleep because he worked nights. Right after he nodded off, Mona snuck out of
the house and drove over to pick me up early in the morning. I grabbed my guitar and jumped in the driver's seat, and we laughed all the way to
I-94 East. The weather was sunny and dry
on the way up and when we got there, we decided to visit my sister. She was surprised to see us and we stayed for
breakfast with her and the kids. She had
3 daughters staying at home with her and
a fourth one which stayed with my mother in Kalamazoo. That morning we all ate and my sister told me
and Mona about a talent show which was scheduled for that night.
My sister said, "You know, you could win it. Let me know if you decide to go, and I'll
hang out with you guys."
"We've never done anything like that
before." Mona said, "I'm not
even sure what we'll sing."
"We can rehearse today and just try it.” I said, “It
won't matter if we don't win, it'll be fun just doing it. It's something to do."
"Okay. Let's
go over to Eunice's house to rehearse."
My Aunt Eunice, Ronnie's mother, had a huge house. All of us kids, my cousins and my brothers
and sister and I grew up hanging out in the upstairs vacant apartment whenever
we'd visit Detroit. She kept it furnished and ready in case any of us needed a
place to stay. It was almost tradition that we'd go there to hang out. My aunt Eunice would cook for us and
generally leave us be, while we figured out what to do when we visited. We'd get ready for parties, or blast our
music, or invite our friends over. She
made a place for us up there and we loved it.
Her house was on Belmont St. right next door to where Smokie Robinson
grew up. She and my cousins would always
brag about that and we'd tease them about it.
But deep down inside, I was proud of that fact.
The Talent Show
Mona and I practiced "Home" from the musical
"The Wiz." We invited Mona's cousin over, the one He was a good singer himself but
he didn't want to join us. He said we
sounded too good as a duet. Monica, my
cousin and Ronnie's sister, who still stayed with her mother downstairs, came
up to see what we were doing. She
brought some sandwiches and we chowed down and played around until it was time
to go to the club. I called my sister to
have her meet us there. Mona and I were
nervous as all get out.
When we got to the club, my sister had already set up a
table for us to sit at, and Mona, Brian, and I went over to sit down with my
sister and her friend Rene'. Monica
didn't come with us that night. My
sister was bisexual and Rene' was her girlfriend outside of her relationship
with the man she stayed with at the time, Ross.
He worked at Chrysler and was much older than her and would seldom go
out. He knew about Rene' but decided to
let my sister have her other lifestyle.
He loved her that much.
Mona and I went up to the stage where there was a table,
on which sat a clipboard for signing in.
We put our names down and went back to our table to wait our turn. First up was a dance couple, they were pretty
good. Then there was a doo-wop group of
four older men, they were somewhat okay, a couple of them sang a little off
key. Then a small combo with base,
keyboard, and electric guitar got up next and did a Stevie Wonder tune,
"If It's Magic" as an instrumental.
But they changed it into a jazz tune with long solos in between the
verses, and it just didn't work. Then, we
were called up. Mona and I did pretty well. I sang the first verse, she sang the second,
then we finished the last verse in harmony with my jazz chords on the
guitar. We got pretty good applause out
of it and we felt that we had a chance at winning.
Then, 5 women stepped up and did a dance sequence to
"She's a Bad Mama Jama" by" Carl Carlton. They tore it up to the point that Mona and I
knew it was all over. After that, Brian
surprised us by getting up there and singing "Someday We'll All Be
Free" by Donnie Hathaway, solo and acapella. And he was very good. We didn't even know that he had entered. When he walked back to the table, we gave him
high fives and patted him on the back and told him he might just win. That would be cool, our table had two chances
to win. Then, the MC got up and patted the mic to make sure it was working
after Brian had just used it.
"Okay folks.
We had a heck of a talent show tonight.
One of the best we've seen in a long time. Now it's time to vote. I'll announce the names of the contestants
and by clapping, you tell me if they should be in the finals."
Finals?!?
Mona and I had only prepared one song. If we made the finals, what would we do for
an encore? In Brian's case, he had sung acapella, so he
just had to pick another song. The MC
called out the names and the loudest applause went towards Mona and me, and the 5 member women's dance troupe.
It was close too. The MC said
that we had 15 minutes to figure out what we'd do and he'd flip a coin to see
who went first. The dancers won the coin
toss so they would go first. That gave
Mona and I a little more time to figure it out.
My sister suggested an old Sarah Vaughan song called
"September In the Rain." It
had a bouncy feel to it and would show that we could do something other than a
slow ballad. Plus, the harmony would be
easy. It was perfect. I just had to step outside for a minute to
figure out the chords. It was a basic
blues progression in G with the odd C7 chord thrown in at certain parts. Easy Peasy.
We both knew the words because Sarah Vaughan was a favorite of all of
us, especially my sister who played her records all the time.
The dance troupe
messed up. They did the same dance but
this time to Earth Wind and Fire's "Let’s Groove". Everybody could tell that the dance didn't
fit as well, but they were still good.
Mona and I got up next and tore the house down with our bouncy
harmonies. The audience ended up
clapping a long time in the end. It was a hit.
When the MC got up to hold his hand over the dance troupe for the audience to vote, the applause
was good, but when he did the same for us, the audience went wild with whoops
and screams. Mona and I hugged each
other and it was a great feeling.
We were patted on the back numerous times as we headed
back to our table. Brian said he was so
proud of us along with my sister and Rene'.
Come to find out, the prize was $100 dollars. We didn't even know that there was a
prize. Because my sister had suggested
it in the first place, we gave her $25 of it and gave Brian, because he'd
helped us, $15. Mona and I walked out of
there with $30 unexpected dollars in each of our pockets. We were so proud of ourselves.
We decided to head back to Kalamazoo that night with our
winnings. We were so pumped up with the
excitement of it all, that we didn't even notice the weather building up until
we were well on our way. We had just
passed Ann Arbor on I-94 west, with Mona driving. Suddenly the road turned into a sheet of ice. There was no sign of a nearby exit in front
of us, and it was late at night.
Stopped Dead on
I-94
It was already November in Michigan but the snow hadn't
hit the ground in quantity yet so we felt safe enough leaving Detroit. The ground was dry and we assumed it'd stay
that way all the way back to Kalamazoo.
We were wrong because the road became so treacherous that at the last
minute, we noticed the change. By then it was too late.
Right after passing the Ann Arbor exits, suddenly, the
black 1982 Chevy Camaro lost its traction.
"Jesus!" Mona shouted as the car spun around twice then hit
the concrete barrier at the center of the highway with a hard bang. It bounced off once then skidded right back
hitting the wall once again. I heard the
metal scream along with Mona as the car continued to slide down the barrier on
the front passenger side. We had been
going 65 miles per hour so it took quite a while before it would stop dead with
it's rear hanging out onto the roadway. For some reason through it all, I felt
very calm. It was as if I knew we'd be
okay.
After we stopped, I quickly looked over my left shoulder
back to the east and saw that the highway was empty of headlights. I glanced at
Mona and I could tell she was still in shock and breathing hard. We had to act
quickly before any cars appeared. Thank God it was so late at night.
I said softly but urgently, "Mona, the car's still
running. Put it in low gear so we can
get it off the road and put it over there."
I pointed to the shoulder behind us where a mile marker
was posted. We still faced the center barrier with the Camaro’s butt hanging
out into the road. She slowly put it in
reverse and eased the clutch out moving it just a little to get it away from
the wall. She knew that it could spin
out if she stepped on the gas too hard.
I kept looking back to the east for cars. So far none.
Mona had backed up far enough so she then eased it into
first gear and started moving very slowly turning the wheel to the left. Then I saw it. A Semi headed towards us moving fast.
"Mona, pull back up next to the wall. Quick!" I shouted too loudly.
She looked over her left shoulder and saw the Semi
coming. She screamed but she didn’t move
the car back forward. We both froze as
the Semi came closer and closer. Then we
heard its air brakes as it tried to slow down.
The back of the trailer started easing its tail to the drivers left
heading for a jack-knife as he tried to brake too fast on the ice. He saw what was happened so he quickly
stopped braking and started downshifting as he steered the truck over to the
far right hugging the shoulder. Luckily
the trailer started falling back in line with the tractor, and it was still
that way as it passed behind us probably going 30 miles an hour. It missed us by a narrow margin thank
goodness and when it passed, we could see the taillights pop on and off as he
pumped the brakes.
The semi stopped about a quarter of a mile to the west of
us and stayed there flashing its lights.
"Everybody all right?" he said.
"We're okay,"
I replied. "Thank you so
much for coming back to check. Is your
truck okay?"
"Oh yeah. You
guys sure gave me a scare. What the heck
are you doing out here in this weather?"
Mona said, "When we left Detroit, the roads were
clear. We didn't know we'd run into
this."
"Well, you're okay now but it looks like you have
some major damage to your front there."
As he said this, Mona and I got out of the car and looked
at it. Ronnie would have a fit. But all I could think of was that Mona and I
came out perfectly fine. After a few
more comments about the car, the truck driver headed back to his truck. Mona told me to drive because I was a little
better at driving than she was, and I think the accident messed her mind up a
little more than she'd let on.
The road was a sheet of ice, so I had to creep along
until we got to the next exit. We ended
up using our winnings from the talent show to get a room at a little motel
right off the exit. We stayed there overnight
waiting for the roads to clear. Then we
headed west to Kalamazoo and home fearful the whole way of getting a ticket
from the state police because of the condition of the car. Somehow, we made it all the way
After this accident, I made up my mind to move out of the
Midwest down to Georgia. Never again
would I have to put up with weather conditions like that. Mona and Ronnie ended up getting a divorce
shortly afterward. Maybe the incident was one of the straws which broke up the
marriage. Tommy was already seeing someone else so it was easy for me to leave.
I’m grateful for that. My sister still lives there. She will never leave
Detroit. She loves it there. I only visit her during the summer months.
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