Dad's first blog, "DRIVING ME CRAZY"

First driving mishap.
I recall the time I was driving back from the country. The country was where my Grandparents, the Picklers, lived. We were in our old 1938 Plymouth sedan. I was just learning to drive and had very little experience. I had managed to keep it in the road for about a mile, there were no sharp turns or intersections. Then we came to a tee in the road I slowed as I approached the turn but kept on rolling. In the process of making the turn I just kept turning and ran out of the road across the ditch on the left side of the road, I was turning left, and into a newly plowed field. After running through the ditch, first bounce, and many bounces later the car came to a halt. My little brother Doug was in the back seat and had been thrown back and forth, up and down, and was now screaming like a banshee. Dad in all his wisdom made one memorial comment. " Well you got us in here, now get us out.". After restarting the car I got it into first gear and commenced to lurch and bounce back across the field through the ditch and back onto the road.

Our first new car.
We had always had some old car for family transportation, The '38 Plymouth is the first car I can remember. Later we had a 1946 Plymouth station wagon with wood body parts. Part of the wood had rotted and Dad and my Granddad Pickler, who was a wood worker, made and installed a new part which was a perfect match to the rest of the car. The next car was a black 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook 4 door sedan, our first new car. I had just turned sixteen and had my drivers license. I think at this time we had two cars. A 1949 Plymouth 4 door sedan that had been a taxi cab then a painters work vehicle, and the '53 Plymouth. On one special day I asked to drive the '53 to school. Dad agreed with the stipulation that I drive to school and back and no where else. At lunch time we would often go to a popular downtown eating establishment. Hot dogs all the way cost 10 cents and hamburgers were 15 cents. Both were great, steamed buns and plenty of grease for flavor. The hamburgers where made the way I often make them today, with bread, onions, and egg smushed into the meat and then shaped into patties. but back to the car. loaded with my buddies we left school and headed out to lunch. When we arrived at the grill I had to make a right turn into the parking lot. As luck would have it someone was exiting the lot and I had to stop abruptly and WHAM I was rear ended. That night I was to receive my eagle scout award. the Clerk of Court was presenting the award. His opening comment to me was, "Well I believe we run into each other before." Yes it was the same man who had rear ended me earlier in the day, while I was driving when I was told not to.
My? first car.
The '49 Plymouth was mine to drive most of the time even though it was the family car. It was great to have wheels, all of the guys I associated with were not yet old enough to get their drivers licenses, so I had friends. In high school it was really cool to "get a wheel", squeal the tires while taking off and changing into second gear. Well an old '49 6 cylinder Plymouth doesn't have enough power to spin the tires on wet pavement much less dry. About the only way to squeal the tires was to get up to about 30 mph change into low gear and drop the clutch, resulting in a loud tire squeal and rapid stop. Not really getting a wheel but it did get attention. I had been performing this stunt a number of times one day and never realized what had really happened. That evening I had gone home picked up my Mom and was driving out to the farm that belonged to our preacher. We worked a small portion of it for additional garden space. We were just about a mile from the farm when a rumbling, thumping, grinding sound came from the right rear wheel. My first move was to put on the brakes as I thought it was a flat tire. The brake peddle went all the way to the floor and the car just kept going. When we reached the bottom of the hill and started coasting up the next I was already looking for a rock, just in time I saw the perfect rock to scotch the wheel to prevent the car from rolling backwards down the hill. Upon close examination I found the tire or wheel and tire was only with the car because it was contained by the fender. All that tire squealing from earlier in the day had caused the rear axle to snap and the drive out to farm had caused the wheel to come off and break the brake line. Dad came along and we managed to get the car into someones yard until we could get parts to repair the damage.

loud and smoking
You just can't imagine how cool it is to back fire the exhaust system. The ideal method is to get the car up to about 55 mph while heading downhill, turn off the ignition switch while leaving the car in gear, and coast as far as the hill will allow. This lets a lot of unburned gas build up in the exhaust system primarily the muffler, so that when you restart the engine you get a very loud explosion from all that unburned gas and excess pressure in the muffler. Usually a big bang is all you get. however on a really long hill you can get a really big bang. So big in fact that you can split the muffler from one end to the other. A lot of heat escapes from a split muffler and when you are driving a retired taxi cab which had also been a painters work vehicle you can more than you bargained for. Loud noise from a busted muffler in cool. Exhaust gases from a busted muffler are not cool. As a matter of fact they can be hot enough to ignite layers of paint spilled on the floorboard of a painters work vehicle, leading to fire in the back seat. After putting out the fire we attempted to repair the muffler with oil cans and wire, not possible when the muffler is split from one end to the other. Trying to sneak into a driveway which goes uphill, in the middle of the night, will wake even the most sound sleeper. Dad did not confront me that night but when he needed to leave for work the jig was up. I did have to put a new muffler on and it was not the cherry bomb that I wanted, but a stock muffler that was quite enough to navigate the driveway without waking anyone.