Remembering Dad's Birthday

Today you would have been 97 years old. It is hard to believe that you have been gone for over ten years.

Sometimes I hear someone say something and it make me think of you.

I love to remember the vacations we took and never knew where we were going. And the games you made out of each trip. You had a plan all along but you made it seem like a game to us to keep us looking to take in the scenery around us.



I remember the time that we went to New York City and we had a new Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. We were so happy to have this new station wagon with the third row rear facing seat. It didn't take long for the new to wear off on this trip. When the car had been built they had put a regular sedan rear end an suspension and it wasn't set up for the extra weight of the wagon. It seemed to be every hundred miles it would overheat the axles and we would have to let it cool. I don't remember how many Ford Dealers that we visited on that trip but it was too many.

Being from the South, every time we made a stop either at a service center or Dealerships, the people loved to hear our southern drawl. They would give us cokes and candy to keep us talking. We didn't mind that they were making fun of us, because that was the way all of our friends and family talked.

When we got to New York City and we were in six lanes of traffic on the interstate this was something new to us. We had never seen a road this wide before, we thought our expressways were great with just two lanes. When the car broke down in the middle of all that traffic and we were holding up traffic we got a lesson in humility. We were called every gutter name in the books and we would just smile until the wrecker came to tow our car to the shop once again.

I remember Aunt Glenn and her family taking us to the Empire State Building and the guards that they had around the lookout area. It was there to keep anyone from dropping coins or anything else down below. We were told that if you dropped a penny and it his someone it could do a lot of harm. 

Even with all of these problems you even took us over into Canada so that we could say we had been there.  We went to Niagara Falls, and we were there the day after the man had gone over in a barrel. I got so sick because I was afraid that the ground would wash away and we would go over the falls.

After leaving Canada we drove thru Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas to get to Tennessee so we could visit our grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and friends in Memphis. I always loved the roadside attractions that we would stop at and it always seemed like and adventure. I remember the car games we always played on a trip. You or mom would make a list of twenty thing that we had to find and each item had points, I remember that a chimney standing alone was an extra ten points. Certain color cars were extra points and certain signs as well. If we passed a graveyard on our side of the road we had to start all over again. We also played the abc's with the road signs. We would gather maybe just one letter from a sign or if we were lucky we could get several.

As we came across the Bridge into Memphis the car broke down and we had to call Granddad to come and help us get a tow to the local Ford Dealership to let them repair the car so we could make the trip home later in the week. I know if this had been me driving and all the problems that we had with this new car I would have turned around and canceled the trip, but it was also your vacation and time away from the store and this was mild to that for you.

One morning you woke up at the grand parents and said that you were going to look at another car. This was a new experience for us since back home the dealership brought you the new cars and trucks to look at when you were getting ready to make a new purchase. After many different car lots we went back to Jimmy Payne's on Summer Ave. in Memphis. We took a second test drive and they went and looked at our car at the Ford Dealership where they were repairing the car under warranty and you finally made a deal that was satisfactory to you. We drove away that day in our new VW Bus.



This was a new experience for us, it would seat as many people as the station wagon, but the third seat faced the front like everyone else. There was a walk thru from the front passenger seat to the second row of seats. We had our own window that we could open or close and it set up much higher that a regular car. We went and got our things out of the other car and later loaded our luggage in and we were ready for the final leg of our journey home. This trip lasted for two weeks but it seemed like we had been away from home a whole month.

I got a little off track there thinking about you and us and the fun that we had. You always said you didn't want to celebrate you birthday's because you were getting older. We knew that you really loved it because all of the family would be there and you would have your favorite cake and ice cream.

So in remembrance  of today March 4th, Happy Birthday Dad!

By: Palmer Waters