Premonitions 'r us...

More family stories. This one is a little... odd.

After finishing active duty in the Marine Corps I found a job at Standard Stations, Inc. in Stockton, California. I was hired on the strength of having worked for a Shell station for a couple years while I was in high school. What I didn't understand when I was hired was that I was going to attend the training school at the station in Stockton, but then I would be assigned to a different station somewhere within  perhaps a 75 mile radius- I thought it would be somewhere around Stockton. Oops!

When I completed the 7-10 day instruction I was assigned to a station in Cordelia Junction, California just a few miles beyond Fairfield, California- according to Google Maps the station was about 58 miles from Stockton (blue line which passes thru the San Joaquin River delta). I rented a room from a co-worker but the reality was I wanted to spend time with my friends in Stockton. So, except for perhaps one or two nights, I commuted 116 miles round trip every day. Driving was new to me so it was fun to make the daily commute through the farm land between Stockton and Fairfield, then a few additional miles on a freeway to the station. Easy-peasey.

Stockton to Cordelia Junction was about 58 miles via Hwy 12- right thru the San Joaquin River Delta... some of the richest farm land in the US. It was a beautiful drive via 2-lane highway.

 

On one of those early trips when I was perhaps 20 miles from Stockton I was cruising along at 55 mph (the maximum speed limit in California in 1957) in my 1941 Chevrolet coupe. I suddenly hit the clutch & slammed on the brakes and came to a complete stop. I looked around and had no clue why I had just done that. Weird. And frankly embarrassing- I was glad no one was around to witness it. 'What the hell just happened?!' I got back in gear and accelerated back to 55 mph, all the while wondering 'why did I do that?! there's no one out here- nothing to trigger a panic reaction to danger!'

A short while after I got back to 55 mph a truck with a semi- and trailer came into view. It was traveling in the opposite direction toward Stockton hauling a huge load of lumber. I spotted one piece of lumber on the trailer that wasn't tied down properly- it was lifting then slamming down again against the rest of the load. Somehow the tie-down rope had missed one end of that single, long 2"x4" board. About the 3rd time I saw it lift the 2x4 snapped because of the wind force and went flying off the rear of the trailer. I rolled over the top of what must have been about 8 to 10 feet of 2x4 just at the instant it hit the road in front of me. The board slapped the bottom of the car but did no damage (I put the car on the hoist when I got to work to be sure). Had I arrived there very few seconds earlier that board would have gone thru my windshield. And if I had stayed stopped a few seconds longer it would have just been a piece of wood lying on Hwy 12.

I've reviewed that event over and over in my mind. I reluctantly concluded I must have had a premonition- one of those metaphysical events that are supposed to be total nonsense except if you're the one that experiences it. When you experience it yourself those events are very real... maybe surreal. If I buy that explanation, then I must also conclude the premonition was supposed to grab my attention long enough to have made it a harmless, avoidable event. When I talked it over with my father years later (I was too unnerved to tell anyone immediately after it happened) it turns out that he had occasional premonitions as well- he just called them hunches and considered them 'normal'. Mmm... I might go with paranormal!

I've had 3 or 4 similar and equally inexplicable events in the decades since but none as dramatic as a 2x4 diving at me like a spear. Plus there were many which were almost silly- my father just called them hunches. Like driving into a strange town and abruptly stopping in front of a restaurant and saying 'I think this is the right one' without ever having seen the place before. Those 'hunches' have only failed me once or twice (likely because I was showing off and there was no 'hunch' to guide me!).

Life changing event? Well, yeah. If I hadn't stopped inexplicably I might not be writing this family story. Is there a message? Not for anyone else. But for myself I have always listened to the inner-self that gives me a kick or a nudge on occasion and causes me to wonder 'is this really ok? or is there a board flying at my that I don't yet see?!'