Memories - Pappy's New Car

I remember Pappy's new car. Pappy was my mother's father. I don't know how we came to call him Pappy, but it fit. Pappy bought a brand new 1949 Chevy. It was long and black. The style was called Fleetline, and it had four doors. We went to Windber to get it, and I had to sit in the showroom while Pappy was settling the details with the dealer. Sitting in a new car showroom wasn't all that boring for an eight year old. I looked at all the cars and wondered which one was Pappy's. Well, it wasn't any of those. It was in the back being prepared for him. It looked new and it smelled new. I sat on the front seat beside Pappy on the way home, feeling really proud to be riding in a brand new car. I could sit anywhere on the front seat I wanted. I could sit up at the edge of the seat, or I could sit back against the back of the seat. There was no seat belt to force me into the proper seating position.

I also remember Pappy letting me sit on his lap and steer the car. Grandma and Pappy lived next door to us along a one and a half lane road that ran out of macadam just at Pappy's house where the surface changed to "red dog." The "red dog" was a type of rock (red) that kept the road from becoming muddy when it rained. If you've ever lived by a red dog road, you won't forget it. One day, Pappy sat me on his lap and let me steer the car on the road to his house. I did keep it out of the ditch on one side and out of people's yards on the other side, but if the tires had been paint rollers, they would have left some pretty squiggly stripes going up the road. Fortunately, no one was coming the other way while we went up the road.

I remember one other ride in Pappy's "new car." One day he said, "Let's go for a ride." I was always ready for that, so I got in. He told me to look at the odometer. It showed 5999.0. It was about to turn over to six thousand! I had missed all the other thousand mile turn overs. We drove, or rather, Pappy drove over town and back (It was a small town.) Just before we pulled into his driveway, the odometer showed 6000.0. It don't think my eyes moved from the odometer the whole time it went from 5999.9 to 6000.0. It may not sound very exciting now, but I was thrilled at the time. I couldn't wait to tell my mother and daddy and sister about it.

Pappy was very protective of his "new car." When he and Grandma got home from anywhere, he would turn off the engine and say, "Grace, is it off?"
Grandma would answer, "Yes, Charles, it's off."
He would ask again, "Grace, is it off?"
She would answer again, "Yes, Charles, it's off."
Then Pappy would pull on the emergency brake (When did it become the "parking brake?"), be sure the car was in first gear, and put a block of wood behind each rear wheel because the driveway was on a slight hill. Then, and only then, would he go in the house. At night time, before he went to bed, Pappy would go outside, look at the headlights, and taillights to be sure they were off, look inside to see that the interior lights and the dashboard lights were off, and then look to be sure the blocks were behind the wheels. We always said Pappy was putting the car to bed. It might sound silly now, but it was comforting to see Pappy checking his "new car" before he went to bed.

Maybe I'd better go check my car. Are the headlights off? Are the taillights off? Is it is Park? No, I do NOT put wooden blocks behind my car's rear wheels (anymore).

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