To the editor:
I am certain that others have written eloquently and at length about the charm and beauty of Aroostook County. However, the heart and soul of The County is embodied in a recent act of kindness, of which I was the fortunate recipient.
It was a dazzlingly bright Friday morning last January 18 as I piloted my Saab south on Route 1, perhaps 12 miles north of Houlton. The temperature, according to my dashboard indicator, had risen all the way up to minus 16 degrees F when the laws of physics finally caught up with my right front studded radial. In a few frightening moments, its side walls shredded and as I eased into the breakdown lane I observed the detached torus of what was the tire tread spiral off into the snow-covered landscape. Appropriately, my vehicle came to rest opposite Hubcap Heaven!
A few muttered epithets later, my carefully packed possessions were strewn along the edge of the highway as I extracted first the spare wheel, then the minimalist tire jack that Saab had folded and compressed at the very bottom of the wheel well, underneath even the microscopic “donut.” With rapidly stiffening digits, I managed to wrestle the jack into position and elevate the offending wheel. Of course the lug nuts were — you guessed it — frozen! The 12-inch hollow excuse for a lug wrench/crow bar was of course inadequate to the task of extricating the lug nuts from their miniature sarcophagi. Now I was stuck and getting colder! I began to notice bursts of wind knife through me as car after truck after 18-wheeler whizzed by. I had also become invisible!
As I attempted to phone AAA, a 6-foot 3-inch angel in a soiled jumpsuit and baseball cap materialized in the cab of his northbound pickup truck, the cargo bay of which must have contained every tool known to man. His “Can I help you, sir?” emphasized my growing feelings of age and inadequacy, but I was too overwhelmed with relief to protest. He quickly understood my predicament and within a couple of minutes of rummaging located and deployed what, to my eye, was a magic wand, which he shoved into the hollow end of the aforementioned lug wrench. The combination of his strength, the added leverage, and my foot on the brake was just sufficient to persuade the quintet of lug nuts to loosen their death grip on my hub.
With my predicament instantly and irrevocably improved, I attempted to reward my savior financially. However, like any self-respecting angel-of-The-County he refused, wished me well, and sped off to higher latitudes — perhaps there were others awaiting his rescue!
So, whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Jonathan Herland
Orono
