[Kassem]

I live in Tulsa, OKlahoma. On my way home from school it was raining VERY hard. It was just my friend Megan who lives right next door and I. We are driving home and it starts to rain even harder. I pull onto the main street that the turn in for my neighborhood is on. I see a fire truck and police blocking the road in front because of a rather large accident. I take an early turn into my neighborhood (follow many other cars who were also doing this). I am driving 10-15 miles per hour in my 1995 Volvo 960 or something. I can hardly see out the window because it is raining so hard... but we have only gone about 100 feet into the neighborhood. All of the sudden the water gets MUCH deeper and the car in front of me along with mine stops and then dies. It wont start. I pick up my cell phone and call my dad to ask him what to do, because I had never been in a flood before. I couldnt hear him on the phone and 2 people ran up to my car because apparently the water was rising fast.. they then had to help us open the driver side door because the water was pressing against it. When we got out i noticed the car was now in the MIDDLE of the street. I got out and the water was about mid thigh. We trudged through the rising water to a suburban that was on a hill... it could HARDLY drive through the water despite its size. A woman then took us to my house which was about a half mile away.

When i got home both my parents and megans parents were yelling at us for not getting our backpacks.. and then made us WALK back to where my car was to get our things. The water had gone down significantly and the rain had slowed, but not stopped. I tried to start the car and it was a no go. Other peoples cars were all over the place. My friend just happened to be driving by and saw us, so he helped us push the car to the side of the road and then gave us a ride home. I got home and changed to some dry clothes, and my dad came home from work and got the keys. He came back about 10 minutes later. Leave it to an effin stressed Palestinian father to blame his son. He comes in my house yelling at ME.. for ruining the car. As if I asked for it to rain, as if i asked for it to flood, as if i asked for God to stop my car and kill it.

Yay for me. I am now grounded, and they took the keys to MY car. The volvo is my mothers, which they were MAKING me drive because of gas. I have a 98 Toyota 4Runner. Or.. i did, but its now been taken from me. I am not just a kid telling his side of the story... im telling you what happened. Its not one of those instances where my parents have a different story or i'm not telling EXACTLY what happened. I'm saying EXACTLY what happened.

Heh, i just needed to tell my story somewhere, and thought there would be no better place then the members lounge.

Take joy in my misfortune.


P.S. Tomorrow i graduate from highschool.



jeremy

 

[ipodstudio]

Hey, tough break, man! Don't worry, they get over it

 

[Kassem]

I hope so. They seem pretty pissed. It's mostly my Dad. I got grounded during the summer of my SOPHOMORE year in highschool for not getting accepted to OU. Sophomore? Yeah. He even threw **** at me.. and made me leave the dinner table.. and, yeah Arab dad's are bitches. Yelling is the worst... and they do it for the most dumb things.

 

[Dweebgal]

i feel for you that really sucks, especially when parents think they can do what they want. i had an argument with my dad a while back about something or another.

he threatened to sell my car, which is registered in my name. he took the keys. normally i would have got mad at him, but he should have realised that me being quiet was a bad thing.

i've never seen him looked so shocked as when the police called around to question him about the attempted theft of my car.

i didn't press charges, but, i thought it was hilarious, as it is an exact reversal of situations where parents shop their kids to the police to scare them straight.

i think they realised that the ordinary tactics they would us to try and "punish" me stopped working when i was 15

 

[plainsong]

Parents aren't always right, and unless I'm missing something here, yours certainly aren't. As a relatively new driver, you're not going to know what to do in a flood situation. Heck, most seasoned drivers don't know. And yours parents should know this. It was their choice to give you your mom's car to drive. And as the rain and the flood came on as it did, they should just be thankful that you didn't get into a really bad accident and end up hurt. So you forgot your backpack, at least you're not hurt. Talking about what to do in a flood sounds like a better solution than grounding you. Bad call on your parents' part.

And I know I'll get flamed for that, but parents are people too. They make mistakes and the story as it was told here certainly makes it sound more than a little irrational.

 

[pedxing]

This story reminds me the time when my dad got really upset when I got one B+ on my report card. That report card was my first quarter in college. I did nothing but studied and lost 20 pounds during the first year of college.

Hope you have a happy graduation.

 

[Kassem]

No you're not missing anything. My dad yelled that "you're taught what to do in a flood since you were a kid!" And although I was just sitting there... I couldnt recollect EVER being taught what to do in a flood... NOT EVEN IN DRIVERS ED.

Anyways they WILL get over it. Hah.. my dad fired me (i USED to work for him). Is that not absurd? And yes... you do have the FULL story. I don't understand it any more then you guys.

 

[sleepkyng]

'rents, can't live with em', can't surive without them.

always keep things in perspective.

no matter how much crap my parents give me, i know they're saying the stupid, outdated stuff they do because they care.

as long as i know that, i never get too pissed off.

but i know headfiers out here know what i'm talking about when i talk about a Chinese MOM!!!!

 

[john_jcb]

When I lived in the California desert there were flash floods every year. Consider yourself lucky. I remember one couple that was killed when a flood pushed their car off the road and the entire car was filled with silt killing them. Others were tossed about like leaves in the wind when hit by the water. You are lucky nothing happened and your parents will get over it eventually.

 

[Mr.PD]

Sounds to me like the police should have blocked off that street as well.
Could you tell how deep the water was? Would it have been safe to stop any time before the car got flooded? What damage would the car have incurred had you stopped prior to the deep water? I understand that you got caught in the flood, and I kind of see where your parents can think that there was something on your part that could have been done to avoid the flood. The fact is, that you were the one out in the rain, and you made the decisions you made. You didn't drive the car into the deep water on purpose. It seems to me that you assumed that street was okay, because you were following other cars. That is a reasonable assumption. It's sad that your dad came down so hard on you. This incident falls under the heading of stuff happens.

Happy graduation

 

[ServinginEcuador]

The only thing you can do is to live with it and put up with it until they no longer have the purse strings. Many people just learn to live with these situations, and then once they graduate from college find another country or the farthest corner of the same one, to live in. Once you move out and such things can change rapidly. If they don't, try looking for a job in Canada or something right out of college.

 

[plainsong]

Hopefully you're going to college away from home. It sounds like both you and your parents need it. It's the right time to be out of the nest. I was always one to stick up for myself, so I'd probably just kindly remind him it's just one more summer and you're out of his hair. I'd probably also have a serious talk with him. Not a fight, a talk. But that's my style, it may not work for you, so don't consider that advice.

As for the flood, if the water rose so quickly to thigh-height and you were following other cars, it's just one of those experiences where you live and learn. Personally, I probably wouldn't have tried to drive it, and if I did drive, I'd really have to commit because the chances of a wash-out are pretty good.

There was one accident I got myself into that was plainly my fault. We'd come back late from a band competition at about 2am or so. I sleepily crawled off the bus and into my crappy chevette to go home. Of course the windows start fogging up. Like an idiot I thought I could just make the left out of the school parking lot by telepathy. I hit the median, and ended up in a ditch on the other side of the street. There was a payphone nearby, and I made up a story about swirving to miss a squirrel.

This went off without a hitch, they were glad I was ok, and called a tow truck and came to pick me up. I acted a little more shook up than I actually was as well.

Until years later..I'm talking about my last visit back home. I wanted to show my husband around and take him for a drive. It was a bit rainy outside, so dad said "Be careful, wait for the windows to defog before driving." I said ok, took a few steps, then did a double-take and said "How did you know?" Dad laughed and said taking a look at the windows and how I'd hit the median..there was no way any squirrels were involved, and that I couldn't BS a BS'er. I laughed and said I'd learned that driving lesson that night. It was pretty funny, of all the things I did wrong, they let that one slide.

 

[Mr.PD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainsong There was one accident I got myself into that was plainly my fault. We'd come back late from a band competition at about 2am or so. I sleepily crawled off the bus and into my crappy chevette to go home. Of course the windows start fogging up. Like an idiot I thought I could just make the left out of the school parking lot by telepathy. I hit the median, and ended up in a ditch on the other side of the street. There was a payphone nearby, and I made up a story about swirving to miss a squirrel. This went off without a hitch, they were glad I was ok, and called a tow truck and came to pick me up. I acted a little more shook up than I actually was as well. Until years later..I'm talking about my last visit back home. I wanted to show my husband around and take him for a drive. It was a bit rainy outside, so dad said "Be careful, wait for the windows to defog before driving." I said ok, took a few steps, then did a double-take and said "How did you know?" Dad laughed and said taking a look at the windows and how I'd hit the median..there was no way any squirrels were involved, and that I couldn't BS a BS'er. I laughed and said I'd learned that driving lesson that night. It was pretty funny, of all the things I did wrong, they let that one slide.

plainsong, thats funny! I love stories like that, where we thought we fooled the parents only to find out years later that we didn't. Your dad picked the perfect time to let you know.

 

[plainsong]

LOL, yeah. Dad went on to say that there was nothing I could cover up, because whatever I had done, he had done and then some at that age. So I laughed and said, well if that were true, then why get so angry at me if it was expected?

Yeah, dad is smooth like that. So for you youngsters, you're probably not fooling your parents at all.