“Our First Car”
Here, here! We have Coevalblog’s first post. This one was sent in and transcribed by, Michelle Schultz, from her 93 year old grandmother. Thank you Michelle, we look forward to hearing many more great stories from your Grandmother in the future!
“When I was young, the only mode of transportation was horse and buggy or wagon. There were not any of those new fangled “iron horses” around until I was a little older. We drove the horses everywhere we had to go. It beat walking.
My father would take milk to the milk factory in town each day. He would drop me off at the schoolhouse on the way. It took all morning to get to and from town, about 30 miles, so we only went to town for shopping once a month.
I remember when my father got his first car. It was a Model T Ford, and he had never driven a car in his life. He pulled me a side one day and said:
“Let’s learn how to drive this thing.”
At that time, no one had a driver’s License so we learned in the field. We got the contraption started and rolling. We drove a long for a while without much incident so we felt we had learned quite well. The next thing I remember is the creek at the bottom of a small hill. We headed toward the water rather quickly. My father was yelling “Whoa, Whoa.” As you can probably imagine, the car did not stop, at least not until it was in the water. We did what any American family at that time would have done: We went and got the horses to pull the car out of the creek.
Yes, my father drove after that, even though he probably felt it a useless endeavor after his first try. He became a quite proficient driver as time past and continued driving until well into his 80’s. The only reason he stopped was that we confiscated his license after he backed over a rather steep bank next to his home. He said he did not see it. Well, after much grumbling he did manage to give up driving. Now that I have reached an older age I can understand why he grumbled, but unlike him, I now realize that I really do not want to drive and prefer to be driven.”
Leave a Comment