Indy who?

Another Dad story.

On our farm, down on the river bottom, there's a small hill we've always called The Indian Mound. We like to tell people it's an old Indian burial ground because a neighbor up the road has found a few thousand arrow heads down and around those parts; and the hill is an odd little bump in the middle of an otherwise long flat field.

Anyway.

Once when Uno, Dos and Tres were teenagers Dad took them and two of their friends that we'll call Rico (Suave) and Rico's little brother to The Indian Mound. Dad was driving one of these.

Only his International Cub was offset. You had to climb up the right side to get on, because the left is where the engine sat. Let me repeat, there was no way to exit on the left side.

The boys were chillin' on the flatbed trailer being pulled by the Cub. I think they were chopping wood. So the guys are sitting on the trailer and Dad is driving down the side of the hill through some tall grass when suddenly he hits a hidden log. The tractor wheels veered left. Dad knew they were going to flip and he was worried about the boys. But right then he heard a voice command him, "Get off the tractor and get off NOW!" One thing my dad learned a long time ago was that when the spirit speaks, you listen. So he stood and flung himself off and raced all the way to the bottom of the hill, looking back to see the tractor flipping right behind him. 

Tres describes it like this:

Miraculously, everyone was fine, with the exception of Dos whose shoulder got hit by the trailer. He'd hestitated getting off, worried about Dad (Dos, you can be such a sweetheart, sometimes.)

After it was over, Dad was grumbling about how his tractor was ruined! He did that a lot when things went wrong. Uno stopped him and said, "No, Dad. If it had turned the other way, you would have been crushed to death."

It made Dad think and he realized what a miracle it was. And he never stopped telling that story after that.

Can you picture it, guys? My white haired, slow poked Dad, sprinting for his life as the tractor flips through the air behind him? 

And to think, Hollywood probably paid Harrison Ford and his stunt double millions when my dad could do it for free.