Car Stories

A picture of an antique auto reminded me of several car stories involving my parents.

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One warm day my dad, Jim Bennett, was outside with some friends. As luck would have it he was wearing his first store bought suit. His mom, a skilled seamstress, had always made the clothes for the family. This must have been a big deal.

His friends had firecrackers they had brought over. Jim had just started to light one when a car filled with girls pulled up to say hello. He quickly stuffed the firecracker in his back pocket.

Unlike all those times when a boy thinks the fire cracker is lit and it isn't, this time it was... POP!

The firecracker went off and so did his pocket.

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When my mom, Julia, was a teen. Her dad was persuaded to take Julia and a car full of her friends for an ice cream in their new car. Mother was trying to show everyone how much she knew about cars. This certainly proved to be an exaggeration.

My grandfathers concern had probably been keeping his car clean while all these girls ate ice cream. Instead as he left the ice cream shop, he was greeted by screaming girls in a car rolling down a hill. My mother had moved the car from park into neutral. The car was moving and she didn't know how to brake.

Up in the air went the ice cream. Off he went chasing the car. Luckily the hill wasn't too steep; so the car wasn't going very fast. He was young and took off racing to jump on the foot board,reach in and steer the car safely until it came to rest at the bottom of the hill.

No one had an ice cream that day.

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My dad had a football scholarship to college. It paid for books and tuition, but not for housing, food or living expenses. He always had jobs to cover those expenses plus he helped his sister Lois pay for college.

In addition to football practice. He worked for Floyd's mortuary as an ambulance driver. He would pick up the deceased and perhaps drove for funerals. He was the precursor to an EMT. He was dispatched to bring people to the hospital and actually delivered a baby or two in the process. He did dishes and other tasks at the boarding houses where he stayed.

During the summer he worked in area mills and saved his money for school. One year he bought a car which he rented to other students on weekends. He had his own Hertz rent-a-car, before Hertz. He couldn't afford to take a girl on a date, but he could still get the benefit.

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Growing up in the South, there were many cold days, but fewer frigid days.

The winter after we married was very, very cold. As a young couple, we frequently came to Spartanburg. It is hard to remember if we were talking at the table or watching the 11 o'clock news. The talk turned to how cold it was going to be that night. My dad was inspired to ask if we had added antifreeze to the car.

It is amazing what is not taught in college. I had a nice vocabulary, but didn't know what antifreeze was. I probablly would have recognized the term antigravity from Star Trek. I certainly didn't know I needed to add antifreeze to a car. I had never needed to before. (My dad had always taken care of the car.)

Up the stairs we went... out to the carport ... up went the hood... opened the radiator... ICE! It was too late for antifreeze. Out came very long extension cords and a hair dryer. My dad rigged it to blow on the radiator through the night and saved it.