Studded Snow Tires

Son Steve writes...
I was 5 when we moved from Wisconsin to Kansas so I don’t have a great deal of memories of living in Tomahawk, but I do have one that sticks out.

One cold and wintery night my best friend Billy was over at the house playing. It was time for Billy to go home, probably supper time but I don’t remember that part. It was dark, cold and snowy like it always is in my memories of Wisconsin.

Dad had just purchased a new set of studded snow tires for the car. I say they were new but knowing dad and our family’s financial situation at the time I am guessing they were “No Huntin” brand. Anyway dad was very proud of these new tires and wanted to show off their capabilities, so he offered to drive Billy home, more than a block away.

We bundled up in our best warm clothes (I hope mom didn’t put tights on me but I am sure she did, another childhood memory from my days in Tomahawk) and headed off into the night to find the car. Dad put us in the front seat of the car, started her up (I don’t remember the make and model of the car but I am pretty sure it was a station wagon of some sort) unplugged the extension cord, jumped in and let her warm up.

After the warming up period was complete dad slapped the shifter into reverse, looked at Billy and I and said “are you ready?”. “Yeah!!!!” was the resounding reply, after all, we had been hearing tales of the miracles that these new tires could perform and now we were about to be among the first to witness this new standard of tire performance.

The frivolity had barely settled when dad stomped on the accelerator. The station wagon lurched backwards with tremendous acceleration followed by a deafening crash and an equal and opposite deceleration. We turned around to find that the whole world had turned red, or so it seemed to a 4 year old kid. Actually it was tail lights of the car illuminating the tree that dad had just backed into.Yes that’s right dad had slammed full speed into a tree backwards. Thanks to the new studded snow tires we were able to get enough traction to really ram that sucker