Rumble Seat

[Guest guest]

, you sound like a man who has " done it all " . Jimmy said the first time

he drove his father's car, he drove down Main St. at 100 mph. Of course he was

stopped and he got a good lecture. I don't know what his father did to him.

LOL Today they send you off to a juvie camp to " cool off " . Trouble is, you

usually come out worse than you were before you went in. Good place to learn

" new stuff " .

Riding the running boards reminds me of my BIL. He used to ride the running

board while his father drove, and he had a shotgun through the front windshield

that you could open. They had to go through the swamp where the notarious thugs

were on the look out for him as he passed through. He always carried cash to

buy his lumber. He was a cooper maker and used only cypress and had to go to a

mill out in the swamp to buy it. No, he did not make kegs, he made cisterns to

hold water and every home had to have one ( a few are still around).

There was no police protection in the complete wilderness, and the thieves knew

when he was coming and tried to rob him, so the oldest son as I said, rode side

saddle on the running board, with the shotgun and opened fire if he thought they

were threatened. Elliot Ness would have enjoyed this as a thriller. This was

after the banks had crashed and no one trusted the banks, so they carried cash

and a lot businesses only dealt with cash for the same reason - your check might

bounce, especially if you were from out of town.

Go back about 80-85 years and you can get a picture of what it was like. The

roads were made of clam shells and there was swamp with cypress trees and

palmetto plants (no shoulders) on either side of you, where they laid in wait

for you to come barreling through. I think today they would call it defensive

driving. LOL Sometimes you had to wait for an alligator to cross the road. I

wasn't around then, but I heard the stories they told around the dinner table.

I do remember riding in a rumble seat as a small child, but it must have been

another family member, we had a sedan. (A 1935 just sold at auction for $385

K). Who knew?

Take care and continued good luck as you travel through your journey.

Carpe Diem,

Lottie Duthu