Most of Barbara's
siblings wound up living in McGehee, Arkansas.
Sugar and husband Jimmy bought a service station. After they were doing
well, Eunice and Charlie bought one too. Soon they both were selling used cars.
JD and Sue started selling used cars also. I never understood how they all got
along as well as they did, with so many competing in the same businesses in a
small town. But they seemed to make it work, for the most part. They would
often go to the dealer's 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 hijackers would want to try that on. JD started showing the guy
in front why a wrecker is called a wrecker, wrecking 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 surmised 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 their separate ways.
Early on, I saw a
way for Barbara and me to save some money on the cars we bought, buying at the
dealer's auction, with a little help from kinfolk. 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 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. Barb and the kids immediately named it “The Yellow
Submarine.” I tried to explain to them.
I got a heck of a deal. Nobody else was even bidding on it. 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 with me.
Corey decided he
wanted a car. We told him if he would get a job, we would match his money
toward buying one. After he made a little money, 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 had driven, 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, 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. Well, he got his own. Soon, reverse went out, and it was a big
problem for him, getting out our driveway. You just would not believe how long
he sometimes had to wander around in our woods in that car to get out to 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. But HIS dad
probably knew how to fix it. Corey didn't have that advantage.
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.
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