The Curb Of Doom (Death for tires)

by Chelsea
(Pittsburgh)

When you drive up to the place I work, you have to turn into a narrow path leading to the parking lot. The curb that lines this path has become notorious among my co-workers.

At least once every few months or so, we get someone stranded at our building because they get a flat tire from this curb. I don’t know what it is about this place, but for some reason or other, all of these flat tires seem to happen at night.

We’re usually pretty cordial to these people, I think mostly out of the fear that we’ll get sued for having an accident-prone curb. We generally let them use the phone and offer numbers for local places that they could get assistance.

Since I knew that this curb has this problem, I never thought that I would become its victim one day.

After I left this particular job, my little sister was hired there. One night she was closing and my Dad asked my boyfriend and I to pick her up.

My Dad did something he rarely does, gave the keys of the car and his trust to my boyfriend. I should have known from the start that this was a doomed journey. It went well to begin with. In fact, right up until we reached the parking lot, the ride was uneventful. Then we reached that diabolical turn.

It seemed like slow motion when I realized that my boyfriend was taking the turn to tight. I tried to yell out to him “watch out for the-“. But it was too late. My cry was interrupted by the loud sound of a tire popping. The car limped over to a parking space, and we went inside to inform my sister that she might be staying a more late than she had intended.

Then that I had to endure the laughter of my former co-workers for falling victim to a danger that they all knew to avoid.


The story does have a happy ending though. I spent an hour or so with my sister and old friends sitting around, laughing and talking and eating frostys while my valiant and chivalrous boyfriend labored to change the tire so that we could go home.

(ed.: See the video How to Change A Tire to learn how to change your own tire.