SOL File: The Perfect Curb Wave

As a boy, I remember my dad taking his kids for drives on rainy days, looking for the curb wave.

And another of our SOL files.

He would inevitably drive in his beloved vinyl-topped ’67 Mustang alongside the curb and splash the water from the car tires, spraying the undercarriage of the vehicle and over the curb, which we dubbed the “Curb Wave”. The wave size is influenced by several factors, how much water is sitting along the curb gutter, the slope of the gutter, the vehicle’s tire size, and the velocity of expulsion. We will not cover any more of the science involved.

When my son was young, I took him out for a drive one evening after a downpour and I had a flashback to my youth. A block down the road, with the water in thick puddles along the curb and the rain still falling, I gently steered my SUV over and began to kick up the curb wave. Almost immediately we had a thick wall of water, well overhead high with a spray that completely obscured everything on the passenger side of the vehicle. It was the perfect curb wave, better than any my father had shown me.

This wave lasted well over 20 seconds as we continued down the road. My son and I admired the mass being projected out and away from us into the darkness and crashing down over the sidewalk. One of those memorable moments a father shares with his son.

Then we heard the screams of several girls who we had not seen, on the sidewalk, or on the breaking side of our curb wave. They helplessly watched us approaching in the storm and at best tried to use their umbrellas, assuming they were carrying umbrellas in the storm, as a defense against the swell that eventually engulfed them. With a small lake on the other side of the sidewalk, there was no place to hide.

That was unexpected. We looked at each other with wide eyes wide open in shock, then laughed together, I certainly laughed first.

My son and I never went out curb waving again. One and done. I could have thought over my action and the reaction it caused and used this as a teaching moment in his life.

However, it was the perfect curb wave, we shared it as father and son, and there was a lesson to be learned. Depending on where you are walking in the rain, an umbrella may not be enough to keep you dry and in our neighborhood, you may want to consider a wetsuit.

It is too late to reach out and find those girls who were caught up in that curb wave and apologize, so it is left to be here as a tragedy plus time equals humor piece off of my chest. I feel terrific.

From The Not So Morning Show’s SOL Files (S*** Outta Luck).

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