Page 26 - May 2020

PERSPECTIVES

Sam, on the other hand, was an older student out, and somehow made it back to my office.
from nothing more than a roadless native The secretary at the front desk called the college

village of 200 people where the method of health nurse immediately since in her words “I
transportation was by foot or boat. The fast- was white as a ghost and trembling”.
paced life and vehicles of California were a Thus, ended my 100% success rate and almost
novelty. my life. The college changed their policy and

After his first day at the college where he no longer required everyone to have a drivers
had removed his bed and dresser from his license. I was relieved of that assignment, the
room—he said he did not need them—I knew last of my kind. And just to let you know, Sam
that he would need a little special attention. left the college within two weeks and returned

Having never driven a car before, I started him to rural Alaska.
out in the parking lot in a sedan. That went well Years later I was in Alaska serving on a
enough. His confidence grew to the point it was disaster staff. The Mat-Su Valley out of Wasilla
off to the DMV for a permit. More weeks passed. (home of Sarah Palin) was the scene of a massive

I was elated that he seemed to enjoy driving and brush fire that burned for almost two weeks.
managed to drive up and down our local roads. My job was to manage the
And then “it” happened. Leading up to volunteer groups that were
our turn-off to this small college was a long feeding and providing

boulevard with a median populated with trees, comfort to the fire crews.
flower beds, and an occasional turn lane. The (The firefighters really
average was about one mile between left- or appreciated the new, clean
right-hand turns. Off we tootled on a bright, pair of socks we provided.)

sunny day. He did fine merging onto traffic Almost six days into this
with great speed awareness as well as managing massive fire control effort,
mirrors and signals. I was confident that we had the winds came up, and
a winner, a soon-to-be-licensed driver. the fire shifted. Our base of

I wanted him to practice parking. I asked him operations would soon be
to make a left-hand turn to go down a residential smoked out and threatened
side street. Signal on, merge into turn lane, make by the flames. We had to
turn, and . . . my life flashed before my eyes. evacuate everyone—the field

He turned right . . . into the oncoming traffic! kitchen, tents with supplies,
Remember I said it was about a mile between fire suppression vehicles,
turn lanes? Do you know how much panic, and other equipment—all of
thoughts of instant death you can produce in it within an hour. This was

your mind in a mile? Somehow, I remained calm during the summer. The sun
enough to tell him not to worry but turn left as set around 2-3 am and rose
soon as he could and park—pronto. at 4-5 am.
I drove back to the college, parked, let him But not this day. The

26 ONE COMMUNITY