That’s The Way It Was In… 1980

January 3, 1980

Poppa could remember the FIRST time he bought tags—as a matter of fact, he could remember his first car.

He said that only a few men in town had a horseless buggy and Mr. Ford HAD made it possible for even poor folks like Poppa to drive an automobile.

So, he took his hard-earned farming pennies and went to town to see what he might find.

Up to that time Poppa had always driven a team and ridden in a wagon. But when he saw how FAST those cars could travel, he was pretty much determined to have one. Why he could get to where he wanted to go twice as fast as the team could get him there!

HE bought one and the man gave him FREE instructions on how to drive.

The gears were here, here, and here. Put it in this gear to go backwards, in this gear to go forward.

Stomp this pedal with your foot to give it gas and stomp that pedal to make it stop.

Easy! Good Luck, Mr. Essary! Wait just a minute!

Poppa wasn’t a dummy and he COULD count—What was that other pedal?

! The one beside the STOP! That’s the one that had to be stomped when it was time to change the gears! Fine, he was ready to drive!

The trip home was really terrific! He was there before he knew it and didn’t even run over the dog that was determined to have his left front tire for breakfast!

Before he left that morning, he had taken the time to rearrange the hay bales in the barn so he would have a clear place to put his new machinery. After all, he couldn’t leave it out in the weather!

When he drove up in the yard, he honked the horn to let the folks know he’d brought the CAR home.

Then he drove out in the pasture to show them he KNEW all about how to steer it, and finally he gave it a little extra push on the power pedal and drove through the barn doors.

Chickens went every which way! The hog got all excited and lost five pounds trying to get out of the way!

When he got all situated just where he wanted to be he hollered WHOO!

! Well, now, that car for some odd reason was not equipped with ears like his team, and the manufacturers did not have the foresight to set any little, tiny device into the dashboard that might understand what WHOO meant! Needless to say, the car did NOT Whoo!

The clash and the clutter was the squall of the hog and the clucking of the chickens when he took the back of the barn out with him! Then he remembered that he was supposed to push the STOP pedal!!!

He parked the car where he could look at it as he repaired the barn.

One old rooster thought that he would inspect the new item…

it certainly did not look like the other wagons Mr. Essary had brought home.

Poppa, being mad already, saw the rooster on his brAND-NEW windshield, picked up the nearest corn cob, and gave it a heave in the general direction.

Wasn’t no two-bit rooster going to take a nap on his windshield!

! He missed the rooster and didn’t have to worry about the glass—the cob went right through it! !!

Surprising as it might seem, he did continue driving and buying cars!! And every year he bought the car tag on Jan. 2. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take the car tag off and wash it, then put it back on—it’ll be more like the new year then!!!