The Curse of the Crows

It will be seven years ago this October since the incident. Those who live (or have lived) in Logan, Utah know how cold it can get in the Winter. Billy makes it a practice to test and adjust the antifreeze levels in our vehicles before the first snow hits so that we don't have issues starting them in the frigid mornings.

In October of 2001, he spent a few hours doing just that. At the time we rented a house in a neighborhood that had lots (and lots and lots) of stray cats. I must have reminded Billy at least 10-15 times (while he worked on my car) that we needed to make sure to spray the driveway off afterward so we wouldn't be responsible for killing all the neighborhood felines. As Billy finished up, I grabbed the hose and made sure that not a drip of antifreeze lingered on my driveway. The vehicles were winterized, the cats were safe, and things were good.

The next morning, as I pulled out of the driveway to head to the store, I noticed a small puddle of antifreeze in the driveway. I called Billy immediately at work to inform him of my dilemma. He told me that he was working at a jobsite just a few blocks from our house and that if I drove over, he would take a look and see what was wrong. I drove right over and Billy discovered that he had not tightened the drain valve enough and so the antifreeze had dripped out during the night. He fixed the problem and I told him that I needed to get home right away to spray the driveway off again.

After being gone a total of 10 minutes or so, I pulled up to a scene that I will NEVER forget! This is where the curse comes in. Instead of dead cats, I had about 5 or 6 dead crows all over my yard. If you've never seen a crow up close and personal before, THEY ARE BIG...like the size of a cat! Frantically, I called Billy. I was crying hysterically and thought for sure that a neighbor would see the birds all over my lawn and call me in for being a crow killer. I stared out the front room window as I tried to gain my composure so I could tell Billy what had happened. He didn't understand how that many crows could have drank antifreeze out of the small puddle within the 10 minutes I was gone. As I stood looking out the window at the walnut tree, the answer came falling. A crow dropped dead from the tree right before my eyes. Upon further examination of the antifreeze puddle, I noticed the many walnuts in the middle of it.

I'm not a superstitious person, I never have been. Every Fall, though, we experience a streak of bad luck. Just 3 days after the initial incident (and a week before Halloween), Billy was buried in a trench that he dug with his own backhoe. As it gets closer to the Crow Anniversary, I will share my experiences with you to give you a taste of what I experience every year. I know it is coming. Billy tells me that I will bring on the bad luck if I think about it too much...and he teased me for reading The Secret!