'The kids are alright'

The pickup truck was stuck, nose-deep in the snowy ditch.

In Brainerd for the weekend, I was exploring a bit as 4-year-old Eleanor napped in the back seat. Rushing her brothers to and from the swim meet and accommodating my wife, Tara, as she volunteered at the event, meant that Ellie didn’t get her nap. She fell asleep as I dropped off her brother Tommy and I knew if I woke her up, she’d stay awake and be very cranky by dinner time.

So I drove.

I headed up Minnesota Highway 371 towards Nisswa, a tiny town where State Senate majority leader Paul Gazelka resides. From there, after a quick spin through town — Ellie still sleeping soundly — and with some pretty good oldies on the radio, I headed northwest towards Pequot Lakes. My neighbors Brian and Megan Kazmierczak came from there, and I had never seen it.

After driving past snow-covered mini-golf, iced-over outdoor water slides, and lots of self-storage places, it was time to turn around and head back. Ellie was still sound asleep as I turned left onto Meyers Road off the highway. While the road looked like major intersection, once I got away from the highway it quickly turned into an icy two-lane road for access to the rural homes and cabins. A quarter mile in, it veers left sharply and, as I turned the corner, there was that pickup truck in the ditch.

It was deep, all right. The tailgate was high in the air, like a sinking Titanic, and one of the rear wheels was spinning freely in midair. The other tire had obviously been spinning, too, as a trail of dirt and snow spilled into the middle of the road. Another pickup was on the road, with a tow rope attached. It looked like they had been trying to pull the truck out of the ditch. They had not been successful.

Three young men were standing in the road when I approached. One got into his truck, the unstuck one on the road, and moved it slightly to allow me to pass. I slowed way down, because that’s what you do when you encounter people standing on a rural road with one of their vehicles in the ditch.

As I approached, I rolled down my window. “Need the help of my Honda minivan?” I called out to them. They laughed, fortunately, and declined my offer. They seemed to be in high spirits. After I suggested I could tie a rope around my hitch and stabilize the truck on the road, maybe giving it enough traction to pull their friend’s truck out of the ditch, they looked at each other, and one of them said, “Sure. Let’s give it a try.”

The whole scene took about 15 minutes. The boys, I’d guess high school seniors, were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Apparently, Clayton slid off the road and called his buddies Josh and Caleb (?) — I’m not sure; it turns out teenagers still mumble — to come rescue him. All three wore sensible outdoor gear: Carhartts, thick gloves, boots. I think at least two of the three had a bit of snoose, although they kept it hidden from me. I heard quite a few friendly jabs between the three and more than one “Ford” joke.

It’s a surprisingly pleasant way to spend a late Sunday afternoon. Even with a truck stuck deep in a snowbank, these kids were carefree. They politely included me in their adventure, a middle-aged stranger with a sleeping child in his backseat, as they took charge of their predicament, directing me where to place my van and attaching the second tow rope to my minivan as if I were part of the team, which I guess I was, if only for a quarter hour.

And the spirit of three young men, enjoying their camaraderie, sharing their adventure with a stranger, infected me with a sense of contentment — if this is what the youth of today are like, we’re all going to be all right.

As I later turned around to leave, the boys approached my window. The driver of the rescue truck pulled his glove off and extended it to me. “Thanks for your help, Sir,” he said, solemnly. I told them all to make sure their next vehicle had front-wheel drive and drove away. Ellie stayed asleep until we pulled up to the swim meet, unaware of the great adventure we had just had.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. Contact him at [email protected].