The Bright Yellow Station Wagon

     When  we lived out in the country in the second house I had built. Corey wanted a car.

Most of Barbara's siblings wound up living at McGehee, Arkansas. Sugar and husband Jimmy bought a service station. After they were doing well, others in the family decided they would too. Sugar and Jimmy also sold used cars, and JD went into the used car business..Sister Eunice and her husband Charlie also went into the used car business. I never understood how they all got along as well as they did, with so many competing in the same business in a small town. But they seemed to make it work, for the most part. They would often go to the auction together, and got to sit around and visit a lot.
     JD was once on the way home from the auction towing a car he bought with his wrecker. Two cars tried to box him in. One really close behind, the other right in front. The front one then started slowing down, more and more, and he realized they were trying to stop him. JD is about the last person highjackers would want to try that on. JD started showing the guy in front why a wrecker is called a wrecker, banging the back of the car up real good. Finally, the guy in front saw the error in his ways, and sped up real fast.
     After that, JD always carried a gun in his wrecker. A policeman once stopped him. JD got out of the wrecker, locked the door. The policeman looked in the truck, and saw the gun stock sticking out from under the seat. He said, "Open it up. I want to look at that gun."
     JD said "No, I may need that before I get home." After they had both repeated their statements a few times, and it was still a standoff, the policeman called his supervisor, who was soon there.
     The supervisor soon evaluated  the situation, too, took the cop aside, and talked to him some.
     The supervisor came over and said to JD, "You have a good day, Sir." They all went on about their business.

      Early on, I saw a way for Barbara and me to save some money on the cars we bought. I was never all about buying a brand new car, preferring to let someone else pay the thousands of dollars the car value dropped, just by driving it off the dealer's lot. JD and Sue helped us out a lot. He could get me in the gate, taught me to drive it a little, back up a little, and taught me what to listen for. He taught me to check the oil, and how to feel that oil on the dipstick, to see if something had been added to it to keep it from leaking so fast. Anyway, once I got the hang of it, I would pick out a car, tell JD what I would pay for it, and he did the bidding.
     I have always been uncomfortable bidding at an auction. I guess that's partly a throwback to the days  when I went with Dad to so many cattle auctions, and Dad always told us to sit very still. If we moved, we might buy a cow. I did actually buy a lawnmower by accident a couple of years ago, when I went to the Back Gate farmer's auction with my friend, Ronnie McMillan. I was just moving around, trying to stay warm on that very cold day, and suddenly, the auctioneer pointed to me, and said, "Sold! To that old guy back there!" I didn't even want that lawnmower.
     I also slipped and fell on an icy spot that day, flat on my face. The auctioneer even stopped the bidding and asked me if I was all right. I smiled, shook my now muddy head yes. But I wished I was home.

      Anyway, I bought many cars for us at the Dealer's Auction over the years. Or, actually, JD did. After learning just what to look and listen for, I had good success at that. I did get beat once, when a dealer slipped a little something into the transmission fluid to keep it from slipping until I got home.

      I always liked it better when Barbara didn't go, because she was very picky about unimportant stuff like the type of car and the color. I got a really good deal once on a bright yellow station wagon, and you wouldn't believe the flak I caught over that when I got home. I tried to explain to Barbara and Kinley how I got a heck of a deal. Nobody else was even bidding on it. They all called it the Yellow Submarine. Barbara took a real liking for the auction after that, and at car buying time, I couldn't even leave out for Little Rock without her jumping right in there with me.

      Well, now Corey wanted to go to the Auction. I explained my policy about never buying anything we had not had a chance to look at and drive. But Corey's budget was pretty thin, and after he realized that he probably was not going to afford any of them, he lowered his standards. He saw one coming through the line that we had not checked out, but JD told him what it would probably go for, it was within Corey's budgetary guidelines,  and it was running, so he just had to have it.

      Corey had always been critical of my habit of buying auction cars, said I was not handling our car situation well. We always wound up driving a piece of junk, to his way of thinking. We had told him if he went to work, we would match him dollar for dollar on his own car. Well, he got that car. Soon, reverse went out, and it was a big problem for him, getting out our driveway. You wouldn't believe the messing around in our woods he did before he got that car out on the road. I finally just could not help myself, and told him, “Corey, you're not handling your car situation well. You're driving a hunk of junk” He finally sold it to a boy from Amity, who was probably in Corey's situation.

      Corey could never keep up with his keys, and his billfold. But, they always came back to him, eventually. Once, he laid his house keys up on his car, got a ways down the road, and they slid off. A dog found them, took them to his owner's porch, and the neighbor returned them. Once he got his wallet, left in a store, back in the mail. His stuff just always came back.