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Unfavored Soldier Escapes Army Post Only to Succumb to the Rain

By Charles L Harmon

I had been looking forward to a weekend get away. Being a soldier stationed in the South was starting to wear thin on me. I had to be careful what I said, and to be truthful, what I did, even though at home in Southern California doing the same things would be just ordinary.

My sergeant didn’t like me and was trying his best to show me his true colors. Every detail that came up he would try to put me on. Most of the time, I outsmarted him. I was able to get out of the menial details he assigned me to, due to other activities of mine taking precedence.

As a soldier, being stationed at Ft Campbell Kentucky was no thrill because it was in the Southern states. However, it was kind of nice being in the 101st Airborne. I was a paratrooper and it was fun jumping out of airplanes. However, my time was getting short, and I was looking for every opportunity to escape the Army post. Escape every night, and especially the weekends, to avoid details he would ultimately put on if I remained there in the barracks.

In those days I was one of the few soldiers that had a car. In fact, I had a new car, much to the dismay of my sergeant who had bought a new Pontiac a couple of months before me. My car was the current year and his was the previous year, both being Pontiacs. In addition, I was only a private. I was from California and he from the Deep South, and he seemed to have a dislike for anyone not from there. To top it off, I had been to college for two years and he never finished high school. This was the south and I was not one of the “good old boys.”

Friday came and as soon as we got off work I packed some clothes and headed for the door. I was rushing to avoid being spotted and assigned to some detail like guard duty, CQ (answering the phone), or KP (cleaning up in the kitchen). I hated those tasks, but more than that, the fact that I was always singled out to do them (along with a few others) while there were others that almost never got chosen.

Keeping a low profile, I snuck out the building without being noticed, and headed for my car. I quickly got in and pulled out the parking lot. Whew! Freedom for the weekend! I left the Post and headed up north to Chicago Illinois, my old home town. It was about a ten hour drive.

After the long drive I entered Chicago, but it was dark since it was night, or rather early in the morning. It had started raining and I still had a way to go. I was headed to Altgeld Gardens on the far south side of Chicago. I was not too familiar with that area, although I had been there numerous times before I had started driving. There is a difference when riding in a car and driving your own car. I wasn’t sure of how to get to my friend’s house.

The rain started pouring and it was very hard to see. I was nearing my destination, but I had never been to that house since he had recently moved there. I usually liked to drive, but now it was getting scary due to the very heavy rain, and now extremely low visibility. Fortunately there were very few cars on the road.

As I strained to see the street signs I also had to keep a sharp eye on the streets because some of them were curved. Those curved streets and almost no visibility really put a strain on my nerves. About this time I had slowed down to a crawl and was afraid someone would hit me from behind.

Finally the rain started pouring so hard the windshield wipers could not clear my windshields at all. It was a wall of water and visibility was cut to zero. I was about shaking in my boots by now, wondering what to do. I was afraid to pull to the curb since I couldn’t see it and the streets where I was usually had no cars parked on them so I was afraid someone would hit my car if I did manage to park.

Things were bad, real bad. About this time I wondered exactly where I was. I had noticed there were no headlights from any approaching cars and none had been behind me for quite a while. I was only creeping; less than 10 mph and even that was too fast for the conditions.

I was sacred out of my wits. The rain only got worse, far worse than any rain I had ever experienced. I didn’t know what to do. It was too dangerous to continue driving, too dangerous to park, too dangerous to keep crawling along when other cars usually were going the speed limit or faster.

I noticed there were no stop lights and I didn’t remember seeing any stop signs either. Something was not right, but I didn’t know what. Finally I decided I’d had enough. I was just going to take my chances and park. I guided the car over to the right and stopped it there. I figured I was about at the edge of the street or at the curb, but I wasn’t sure.

I waited a few minutes and no cars came by so I figured it was relatively safe to stay there. I was real sleepy after haven driven non-stop many hundreds of miles so I fell right asleep. It was still raining cats and dogs as I fell asleep.

Some time later I was awakened. It was now light and the rain had stopped. I glanced outside and was shocked to see no street. In fact there was only gravel all around me. Wait a minute! What happened to the street? How did I get here?
Where am I? All these questions swam around in my head as I strained to figure out where I was.

After thoroughly scouting around with my eyes, I realized that I was in the middle of a school yard. I was still in a daze when it hit me how lucky I was. I could have just as easily crashed into something or far worse. I felt stupid at the same time. Here I was, a grown man sitting in a school playground in my car. I quickly drove off, hoping no one would see me and have a laughing fit.

I looked at a map I had and found the street my friend Johnny lived on and headed there. I spent the weekend there and left Sunday night for the long trip back to Kentucky. We had a good time, but with all the laughs of my being stranded in the school playground it made me feel like a fool. Well better feeling that way and being in Chicago, than sulking from being nabbed for some “punishment” detail to satisfy my sergeant’s ego.

Copyright © Charles Harmon

Charles Harmon is a systems analysis and software developer. He has transitioned to internet marketer and online business researcher. Charles likes to travel and add places to his Travel List.