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Chuck Hinman # 019: It's Just Me Again : 019 : MY FIRST CAR Short story: A Chuck Hinman Sunday short story. The next previous Chuck Hinman story: Merry Christmas, Mom Reader comments to CM, including memories of your own First Car, appreciated, as are emails directly to Mr. Hinman at: charles.hinman @sbcglobal.netCM By Chuck Hinman (Contact the author at: charles.hinman @sbcglobal.net) Copyright Chuck Hinman; reprinted with author's permission My First Car How old were you when you got your first car? I was 28. That's hard to believe! Both our kids, Paul and Mary Ann, had their first cars soon after they were licensed to drive at 16. And at the time it seemed that was none too soon. But why didn't the same need for a car exist when I was a young teenager? I can think of a couple. One is that kids now have after-school jobs which were unheard of when we were their age. Also there is a beau coup of activities that didn't exist when we were youngsters. But I can't fathom how I could have existed to the old age of 28 without a car! And what is more unbelievable, I don't remember being fit to be tied over not having a car! I was out of college, had a job, dated regularly, and did all the necessary things without a car. So what's the deal? Was it just ME that didn't have a car? At the dinner table at Tallgrass Estates a few days ago when the subject of "first cars" came up, I was comforted to find that my eating partner, John McCanne was 25 and at the table next to ours Louis Ross said he was about 25. So I wasn't the only "old" man when I first got a car. My need for wheels evolved in this manner. When I graduated from New Hope country grade school and entered Liberty, Nebraska high school, the high school being four miles from home, it became necessary to have a bicycle. First bike was a beautiful 26-in Iver-Johnson My first bike was a beauty. It was a 26-inch, blue Iver-Johnson with "yucky yellow" wheels. It was equipped with balloon tires which were new at the time. My brother's bike, two years older, had 28-inch tires that were the old-fashioned kind. They didn't have inner-tubes. School was four miles away and I don't remember many times, when because of rain or snow Dad having mercy on us and driving us to school in the car. It just didn't happen and we never dreamed of begging or whining about our predicament. Contrary to our kids, we didn't have a myriad of after-school activities. The only activity we had in common was sports. Dad expected us to help with farm chores which ruled out after-school participation in sports. No big deal to us! A contrast in the times was brought to mind recently when I was driving by the parking lot at College High School here in Bartlesville. I couldn't believe the acres of parking lot with hundreds of late-model cars or pick-up trucks. In contrast, our parking lot at Liberty, Nebraska High School 1935-39 held at most 4 or 5 cars of the teachers. The 20 or so bicycles were parked in a bike stand near the entrance to the school house. There was an assortment of ponies tied to a nearby fence. During my high school years, the only job I had which required transportation was this. I had ten kids that I gave piano lessons. This was a summertime job and I rode my bicycle to their homes. I got fifty cents for a one hour lesson and I saved the money for college in a few years. Jalopy, open-body Model T Ford was used around Hinman farm Don't get me wrong. Just because we Hinman kids didn't have our own car doesn't mean we didn't know how to drive. We had a jalopy, an open-body Model T Ford that we used around the farm to run short errands, such as carrying fuel to the tractor in the field. We were driving the jalopy at 12 or 13 years of age, something town kids would have died to do! We never got out on public roads although Bob and I thought we could drive better than "our old man." That was an endearing name we discreetly used for our Dad when we were smart-aleck teenagers. He would have back-handed us had he heard us! After high school, I went to Peru (Nebraska) State Teacher's college for one year. I didn't have or need a car. After one year of college I was licensed to teach elementary school. I got a job teaching a five-student rural school, the Bruensbach school. It was eight miles from home and too far to ride my bike. Somehow Dad came up with a two- door Model T for me to drive to teach school. It was not my vehicle but I used it. It didn't have a battery operated starter and you had to crank it to start the motor. But I didn't mind. It wasn't far behind the times. I got fifty dollars a month for teaching that school and saved half of that for continued college education. After that year of teaching school, I returned to Peru for one more year of college, my sophomore year. I still didn't have or really need a car. All of my school and extra-curricular activities took place around the campus; the rare times we went down town to the movies, we walked, even on a date. Nobody had a car at school. It was no big deal. Then fast forward through about four years of World War II when there absolutely was no need for a car. I was twenty-four when I resumed college at the University of Nebraska after the war. Even had I needed a car, they were in short supply because of the war. After graduating in January 1948, I hopped a train with all my earthly possessions in one large suitcase. I went to Kansas City, Missouri and applied for a job with Montgomery Ward Company. I did a stint with Monkey Ward at Monroe, Louisiana. I did luck out in that there was an Air Force recruiter who lived in the same rooming house that I lived in, in Monroe. He was generous with the use of his car. I double-dated with him several times. Then when I moved up the Mississippi River to Helena, Arkansas I began a love life with Josephine Welch. We were together a great deal of the time I was in Helena, Arkansas. We had a large circle of young people with whom we did a lot of things together. No one had a car but that didn't keep us from socializing. One time when I went back to Nebraska on vacation, Dad brought up the subject of when I was going to get a car. I don't remember having given it a thought before he asked. The war had been over for a couple of years. New cars were plentiful. Dad wanted a Cadillac in his life, sometime before he passed away. He had his eye on a brand new 1950 Buick Roadmaster. His dealer (Otto Klee) wasn't allowing as much trade-in on his 1946 Ford as he wanted. So he suggested that I take it for my car. If I had a little extra money each pay-day, I could pay him a little each month. First car was blue, four-door Ford sedan I couldn't beat a deal like that, so all of a sudden after 28 years, Chuck Hinman had his first car! It was a blue, four-door Ford sedan. Since it was only three or four years old, it was a good car and I was proud of it! Thanks to Dad. That's the end of the story I started out writing but let me tell you about the second car in my life. It was my all-time favorite. When I left Ward's in Helena, Arkansas and my girl-friend, Josephine Welch, I spent a short time as Assistant Manager of a Ward's store in Fayetteville, Arkansas before being moved to the Ward's store in Bartlesville. Not long after I moved to Bartlesville, I got the "hots" to trade that Ford in on a 1949 yellow Chevrolet convertible with a black canvas top! It was only a year old and had custom seat covers! I got that car in Claremore, Oklahoma and drove it everywhere with the top down! I enjoyed driving by stores down-town Bartlesville where I could see my image in the glass store fronts. What a "dude" -- a new title for this Nebraska farm kid! THE car of my life It will always be "THE" car of my life. I was dating the gal who eventually became Mrs. Chuck Hinman and I used to think that Connie married my car, not me! S-M-I-L-E. Whatever, I then had two "women" in my young life, Connie and my yellow convertible. It doesn't get much better than that! Chuck Hinman, former Nebraska farm boy, spent his working days with Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Houston, Texas. He lives at Tallgrass Estates in Bartlesville where he keeps busy writing his memories. His hobbies are writing, playing the organ, and playing bridge. This story was posted on 2009-01-18 08:08:13
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Chuck Hinman: MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOM Chuck Hinman: SNOW ICE CREAM Chuck Hinman: CAREGIVING 101 Chuck Hinman: A MAN NAMED BOB Chuck Hinman #160: Pew, I smell gasoline! View even more articles in topic Chuck Hinman - Reminiscences |
 
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