Accents, Accidents, and a Tow Truck Driver.

Accents are a funny thing. You may be speaking the same language, but an accent can distort the meaning very easily.

Living within a certain region you become oblivious to the accent you yourself use in speaking your language. However, go on a road-trip and listen and you are sure to hear some interesting accents. Most famous are the Texan drawl, British posh, and Australian outback accents. Listen even closer and you'll hear even more distinct accents from every corner of English speaking North America.

One of our favourite routes to take when making the trek from Manitoba to Ontario is to take the northern route. The northern route winds its way through down through northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and then through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, over the Mackinaw Bridge, and then south through the rest of Michigan until finally crossing over into Ontario. Most of the travel time is spent travelling through Michigan and Michigan has a unique accent.

Accident

On our way back to Manitoba from visiting family in the summer of 2015 we were travelling  on Interstate 75 north of the city of Saginaw when I lost control of our 2014 Honda Civic and totaled the car by testing the elasticity of the guard rail. Thankfully we all walked away from the accident, although not without some trauma to our bodies and our minds.

The police who responded to our 911 call transported us to the McDonald's in Standish, MI. The tow truck driver, who seemed in a panic to get off the scene, took our car to a compound while we tried to figure out what to do next.

The local taxi service, a retired highway patrol officer driving a club cab pick-up complete with a spittoon  in the front, took us to a local motel where we were able to rent a room to wait out the time that it would take family to get to us form Southern Ontario. This taxi ride could be a story all in itself but I will note that the driver shared my first name and his last name is my middle name. Before he left us he asked if I would pray for him. My job as a professor of worship and theology fascinated him and subsequently asked that I pray for him. Over the years we have kept in touch. One Christmas I sent him a college t-shirt to add to his collection of unique t-shirts.

Michigan has an accent

It was during the taxi ride where I started noticing the Michigan accent. Perhaps it was due to the shock beginning to wear off or it was a necessary distraction from the stress, but I was hearing it loud and clear. The Michigan accent demonstrates its uniqueness in a couple of ways. Words with short "O" sounds like rock, lock, and knock are pronounced with a short "A" sound making them sound more like rack, lack, and knack.

While waiting at the motel, I contacted the towing company in order to locate our car and retrieve our belongings. The dispatcher assured me that when the tow truck driver finished with another call he would to the motel and pick me up and take me to car so that I could take out our belongings.

Tow-truck Driver

A couple of hours later he showed up in his flat-deck wrecker and I hopped up into the passenger seat and off we went. By this time I wasn't in much of a talkative mood. The initial adrenaline of the accident had worn off and was replaced by a more melancholy mood. Thankfully, the driver only needed some simple replies from me to keep the conversation going.

"Where are you from?", he asked.

"Canada", I said, trying to be as vague as possible.

"Canada?!, I knew some fellas from Canada." He continued, "When I was warking at the mill some of the guys hauling the lags were from Canada."

"I see."

"Yeah they were a crazy bunch. They would park their trucks, take off their boots, and then polish their bumpers with their sacks."

My mouth fell open? Was this stranger telling me about some crazy trucker fetish that was going to get somewhat sexual? And then in the space that it takes to be awkward I remembered the accent and I understood. I nodded to him, demonstrating my understanding while he continue on his story about crazy Canadian, bumper-shining truck drivers. We arrived at the compound, and the kind tow truck driver helped me empty the contents of the car, and load them into the truck.

Listen up

When I got back to the motel room - we all had a good laugh at the socks mix-up and I guess I learned something important. We need to spend more time listening to each other. When we listen we find the meaning, we find the humour, and ultimately grow closer as human beings.

If you like this story you can get more like this by filtering the posts by Steeple Stories.