Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY Staff (1937-1962)
GRACE M. ROOD (1898-1962)
STORIES
My God, My Jeep, and I

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TAGS: Grace Rood, jeep, rural health care, sheep, transportation, roads,

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GRACE M. ROOD STORIES My God, My Jeep, and I

” Now, don’t go off mad and get yourself killed,” came to my mind as I climbed into my little jeep, started to ram in my gears, and started for town 20 miles away.

These were the last words shouted at my friend by her husband on the morning she had flung off, angry, to work, and had gone off the side of the road, not hurting herself, but wrecking the family car.

And I sure was angry…if my nurse colleagues in town had told me of the tea at our new country, doctor’s home, earlier in the week, I could have arranged my schedule and one trip to town would have covered all my needs for the day.. But no, It had just slipped their minds.

” We are awfully sorry, we knew you were coming in with your reports and thought you could just stay. there are going to be other health council members present, so you had better not dare miss.”

” Yes, but today would be a day that I brought a couple of women and their children in shopping. There is no way to get across very easily, and as I just had a short errand, I didn’t like to refuse them. One has a babe in arms, and the other a two-year older tagging on. I’m bound to get them back.”

Now, to the uninitiated, 20 miles seems like just a little jaunt. In a Cadillac, on a four-lane highway, 1/2 hour would do it well, but in the Kentucky Mountains, in a little army Jeep, on a one – lane dirt country road over a mountain, winding and winding, one did well to complete the trip in an hour. Besides that, it was raining and teas and councilmen do not allure me in the least.

“” Well, here goes,” I thought,”. “I’ll be late, but I’d better take it easy and not get killed.” Tea had been served when I arrived and colored slides of Hawaii were being shown. I just rested and relaxed when the doctor insisted that I stay on for some tea after the other guests had left, I didn’t refuse. I enjoyed the tea and got into such an interesting discussion with one of the council members that I didn’t get started back as soon as I had planned.

In fact, it was 7:00  and getting dark when I left, but I wasn’t mad anymore, and quite happily started the trip back. It wouldn’t be dark as I hit the really dangerous spots on the mountain, so I thought. as there are no houses on that long eight- mile stretch, none of us like to do it alone at night.

But as soon as I started up the mountain road, I got into a fog, thinking that it would be just like ones in Massachusetts, where they lie in pockets, and you soon get through; I continued, but so did the fog.

Soon it was totally dark. I put my lights on, but even so, couldn’t see the road. There were no white lines to go by on a country road. Only by keeping my head out of the side door could I see anything. you who are acquainted with Jeeps know that it is not a window you roll down, but a door you hold open with difficulty.. If I tried to keep to the right side of the road, I was in danger of going off the side of the mountain with a two or 300 foot drop. If I kept on the left hand side of the road where I could watch the ditch. And have the protection of the mountain, I was in danger of being hit by anyone coming down the mountain. Strangers did not like to drive this in the daytime. And here I was at. night,. I knew it would be practically impossible to find any parking space at the side of the road in all of this dark and fog. And I didn’t just hanker to spend the night alone in this cold, damp, chilly air.

I thought probably no one will be coming down the mountain on a night like this anyway, nobody but a fool would be out on such a night.

So I just kept on going slowly up, listening carefully, though the fog was.

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… so thick, I couldn’t imagine any sound cutting through it. I blew my horn occasionally. then, to keep my lips from shaking and my courage up, I started singing. without. especially picking it out, I found myself singing lustily, ” Lead, Kindly Light,.”

In spite of my fear, I had a little laugh to myself. “” Where is that light?”  i thought, Immediately sobered at the thought., and started over again.

” Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom. ”  The gloom was surely encircling me.

“” The night is dark, and I am far from home.” How true, how dark the night was, and how far off my little cabin in Pine Mountain seemed.

” I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.”

Yes, as long as I can see a few feet ahead of me, i’ll be satisfied, just up and up, bit by bit. one good thing about a Jeep is that. You can hold it down to five or 10 miles an hour without. It’s stalling, so round and round each curve., on and on. I went.

“; I loved to choose and see my path. But now, lead Thou me on.” I truly prayed. ” Oh God, lead Thou me only You can.”

Suddenly, I noticed that the mountain on my side had changed into clumps of bushes. I stopped singing.

” Where on earth am I?” I thought. “This doesn’t look right.” I leaned down to get my flashlight out of my nursing bag, and realized that I had left my bag in my cabin when I had piled my neighbors in, in what seemed days ago.

” I had been careful not to., go off mad and get killed.” but I hadn’t thought to put my bag or flashlight back in when I started for town the second time, for I hadn’t realized that it might be dark before I got back.

I got out of the Jeep and found that as I was keeping along the ditch line, I had followed it into a little wooded road, which just led up to a lookout fire tower.

” Fortunately,” I thought,”I’m in a jeep.  No car could take this.” Then I suddenly thought, “Wow, this is the road the taxi driver got murdered on last week!”

The thought didn’t add to my comfort.. I didn’t want to stop, and I didn’t want to go on, either. I had been up this fire trail several times on picnics; there wasn’t any danger about falling off the side of a mountain., but it sure was a lonely road.

“O’er moor and fen, I guess that’s it.” I thought. ” well, leading means going on, So God lead me on now, I sure can’t see the path.” I got out frequently, looking for a place wide enough to turn around in. I knew that there was a clearing up in front of the Rangers cabin, but as no one lived there regularly, I didn’t know who would be there that night. and it was a good or bad three miles up that far.

I kept getting out every few yards, looking until I found a place big enough to turn in, banks on both sides, so little by little I made it. (Checking on my mileage the next day, I found that I had gone two miles in on that trail.)

I would be about halfway home when I got out on the road again. ” Should I try to go back home, or back down the mountain to town for the night?” I wondered. “Oh, lead me on,” I prayed. before I realized it, I had gotten out on the mountain road again and was in the little clearing at the top of the mountain.. It was a temptation to stay there, but an army jeep does not have even the comfort of an old Ford, not even cushioned seats.

” And so long. Thy power has blessed me, sure it still will lead me on.” now was the worst stretch of the road. I was afraid to keep too close to the right, though there was a ditch there and the mountain to protect me; but with …

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the mud. I would have trouble if I got in the ditch, I would really be stuck until daylight on the other. hand, if I bore to the left, I had a chance of going over the edge.

I remembered one middle – aged woman who had come to work with us but had never gotten any farther than the top of the mountain. Seeing that slope in the road, she had turned around in the clearing and gone back, just sending back word, ” I couldn’t take that piece of mountain.”

” Keep thou my Jeep, O Lord, one turn of the wheels at a time.” ” I started down the grade, trying to keep to the middle of the road, changing my tune to ” all the way He leads me, I have nothing else to fear.” Before I had finished that one, I came to a very sharp turn in the road, and I could see the little house;”,” That meant I was off the mountain. , And immediately I was in the clear again, the fog behind me.

I wanted to stop and shout,” Praise the Lord !” But I didnt think the family there would appreciate getting waked up at that time of night, so I kept on going the two more miles to my own little cabin.

” When I arrive there, I sat for a while in my little Jeep, too exhausted to get out, just saying,T, Thank you, God. Thank you, God!

I climbed out and up the steps into my home. As I knelt to Kindle the fire in my fireplace, I looked up at my clock. 11.- 30., 4 1/2 hours for the usual one hour trip.His Light Had surely led me in the real darkness. As I sat and warmed by my fire, I reached over to my book case and opened my hymn book, to ” Lead, Kindly Light.” And not to miss a word of it, I read it aloud, slowly and quietly, by the light of the fire.

Every word in every line, in every verse, had a new meaning for me.

Lead, kindly Light., amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on; The night is dark, And I am far from home; lead thou me on.! keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene; One step enough for me.”

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SEE ALSO

GRACE M. ROOD Staff
GRACE M. ROOD Life and Stories Amazing Grace
GRACE M. ROOD Life and Stories 1937-1962
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES My Life at Pine Mountain Settlement School
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Come To The Mountains
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES My God My Jeep and I
GRACE m. ROOD STORIES Room For Six Strangers
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Now I’ve Seen It All
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Billy and I Go To Asheville For Thanksgiving
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Darrel
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES A Zipper In A Sleeve
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES  ‘Lum And Bertha And Little Joe
GRACE M, ROOD STORIES My First Night Trip
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Harlan County in 1955
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES We Take Teenie To Graduation
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Marie Pennington
GRACE M. ROOD STORIES Lonnie McQueen’s Memory of Miss Rood
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 19
GRACE M. ROOD CORRESPONDENCE 1960