This actually got me into a car accident as a young driver.

I had just gotten on the highway heading home, rural towns. The gas gauge was broken so I had to count miles on the odometer to know when I was low, and I realized at that moment that I was desperately in need of gas.

So I took the first exit, and started looking for a gas station. I’m driving the speed limit, 55mph, and coming around a very large slowly sweeping curve I see what looks like a gas station up ahead on the left. There are no other businesses on the road. It had a tall sign out front. I didn’t recognize the sign, I was trying to read what it said, to see if it was a gas station or not. But I couldn’t read it. I was struggling to make sense of what I was seeing, honestly. A Martin Glass? An olive? I don’t remember all the things on it. But the point is, it was items, party items, that spelled out the word… party? It was a party store… and then I hit the guy in front of me who was stopped dead in the middle of the road waiting to turn left into a driveway.

I was so distracted trying to read that stupid sign, I didn’t even see him until the last second. I had time to swerve a bit, and I locked the brakes. I ended up hitting his back right bumper and crushing it in, a glancing blow that didn’t even touch his trunk. Just the bumper. He drove away no problem.

My car was a different story, it tore my lower control arm and snapped my tie-rod. Took out the front left quarter panel, hood, bumper, and headlight too. I had to get towed home, like 2 hours.

Technically my fault, and I got the ticket. But dang it if to this day, I don’t still blame that stupid sign. The Martini glass was the Y, I think the olive was the A? I don’t remember, I should try finding it again.