Late Movers, From Empty to overwhelmed

We were assured that the movers would be at the house between nine and ten in the morning so Mama and I got up early to get things prepared and to make sure the boys were up and ready. By 10:45 I was calling because we were still sitting on the floor of our empty house waiting. We were told that the trailer our things were loaded on had a flat tire and was being repaired.


By the time they had arrived I had decided that we should get the truck behind the house and use the garage and patio entrances to move things into the house since there were too many vehicles parked in the front of our house. A neighbor told us they had been there for several months so I tried to talk the neighbor on the other side without any success.

Wednesday after church I stopped at the house of the people I had been told were the owners of the two cars and a trailer abandoned at our space on the curb and it did not go well. An older Latino man drew back a corner of the blinds in the front window – the one that opens to the porch – and he was not happy I was there. It was late and I apologized and explained that we would have a big moving van to unload in the morning. Could he please move and of the idle vehicles that belonged to him so we could have more room?

HE said they were not his and he did not know who owned them, but the next morning one of the cars was parked behind his house. The others were stationary, but I had already talked myself into unloading through the garage.

The movers showed up after lunch and got right to work. I knew we might be in trouble when I saw that our stuff took over twenty five feet of space on the truck – wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling. By the time we were four hours into it the garage was overflowing. I had filled the garage in four rows of boxes and other items stacked to the ceiling with little open pathways so we could work our way through the boxes later.

By the time I had given up hope of getting anything else into the house or the garage even Mama was saying, “This is ridiculous. I’m going to start throwing stuff out!” With my full blessing. Praise the Lord!!