MY FIRST CAR

MY FIRST CAR
May 30th 1946 I became old enough to legally drive. I worked for my brother Don who was the oldest of us six children of Herman and Hazel (Trigg) Rodgers.
I started by working on Saturdays cleaning barns, chicken coops, digging post holes for fence to keep the cows in and many other odd jobs around the farm He always gave me a list that had enough for two days work on it so I never had to worry about something to do.
I must have been only eleven or twelve when I harnessed the horses and drove them, they were a small team of sorrels mare’s named Molly and Florrie. The first time I was hooked up to a riding mowing machine, Two wheels with a seat between them and a sickle bar off to the right, pulled by the team. Boy was I big stuff.

Now when I go through the Amish country I see boys younger than I was driving a team of four and five hourses.
One time while I had the team hooked to a wagon and was picking corn by hand so the tractor and one row picker could start with out running over the first two rows, I hit one of the mares with an ear of corn, they ran all the way around the field before they stopped.
That was my second experience with run away horse’s. (hang on I’ll get to the car soon).
I was about six years old and had gone to the field with my cousin Norman Eigmy to harrow a field, I was riding on one of the big black mares, It was time to go to lunch so we stopped to unhook, Norm lay down the driving lines to unhook, no sooner had he unhook, something spooked the team and off we went as fast as they could go, Norm was yelling hold on, when they went right by him after circle ling the field out the gate and couldn’t make the turn, right into a big ditch where they stopped.. Then one Saturday Ermal Eugene Cory my sister-in-laws brother and I was cleaning my mothers chicken coop when the team took off and headed home to my brother don’s, I ran in and called and My sister-in-law Lil got in the car and headed toward us. The team had gone a mileand stopped in Leatha Whites yard. Lil got in the wagon and brought them back as fast as they could run, They weren’t ready to run off again.

There she is my first car, a 1938 robin egg blue Plymouth Coupe. The original color was battleship grey, it had some dents in it the the owner Lou Hurt, a farmer who was know to tip a few. The Crider brothers body shop made it look like new.
The first week-end I had it I was very careful as it had rained and on the gravel roads it could get pretty dirty. I managed to miss the puddles until Sunday night. I was up the road to the east of home visiting with a girl whose family lived in the old Robert home. The girls name was Alice Reinhold (I think the last name is right but not sure) I was just one of several who showed some interest in her. We sat out front along the road and talked,
Baldy Risner was trying to impress her and kept going by as fast as he could and as close as he could, made my coupe rock every time, thank God he never made contact. Anyway I was told to be home by 10 o’clock as it was school the next day. I was running late and had the peddle down, didn’t see the puddle, splash, the next morning it looked like a brown egg.
One Saturday night I went to a midnight movie in Knox and on the way home one of our young cows was standing in the road, when I saw her she looked like the monster in the movie, bang I hit her, off she ran, but caved in my fender. (cars don’t have finders like we had in those days)
One Saturday morning on my way to work, I was reaching behind me for some thing, when the next thing I knew I was up a small sapling tree. Along came Chet Emigh with his dump truck, he hooked a chain to me and pulled me back in the road. Boy dean you better start watching where your driving, this Plymouth is not a tractor.
Then one Sunday night I took Alice for a ride, went by Juanita’s house, (she was my girlfriend) the car brakes locked up just a half mile from her house, was nothing left but to go and ask her father Claude the preacher to take us home. ( I didn’t know if I had just sat there for awhile they would cool off and we could have gone on.)
Then there was the morning before school that I took my brother Chuck to Kingsburry where we had land we farmed, so on the way back to Knox, I was trucking pretty ood so I wouldn’t be late for school. The car engine was knocking so I pulled into the Cox brother’s Texico gas station, you guessed it, a rod was making the knock.
All in all had a lot of pleasure driving it to school everyday, which there were not to many
students that had a car in those days.
Then came the day in November 1948, I barrowed $100 from Chuck and left for Arazona with Jr.Vanasdaall, left the Plymouth parked in the yard.Sure glad cars can’t talk.and the water in Yellow River has long flowed into the ocean.
When I got home the next spring on my way to New Hampshire I sold the car to Ermal and paid my brother Chuck off.
O to be young and care-free. Sounds good, but life’s been good and what more could ask for. How about a Chariot. Riding on a cloud. Letting God do the leading casting all the problems on Him knowing He does all things well.