FAMILY CARS TRIGGER MEMOIRS

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Quotations on Getting Hooked on Memoirs.............................vWords of Thanks and Photograph Sources..............................viiAn author's approach to memoir writing..............................ixSeven Key Steps In Memoir Writing...................................xiiiAutos in the early years (1930-1959):...............................3Before I learned to drive a car:....................................3My father loved Cadillac cars.......................................3Uncle Percy and the milk truck event................................4These singing brothers were popular.................................5Parking downtown on Saturday nights.................................7Sunday drives and Burma Shave signs.................................9Rare visits to the ball park........................................10Learning to drive and receiving my license:.........................11My step-brother's Nash coop in 1946.................................11Viewing the Duel in the Sun movie...................................13Owning a license but having no car access:..........................14One high school classmate had a car.................................14The Charlotte Hall School experience................................16Weekends on my College campus.......................................17Rotarian Gallagher does not own a car...............................18Two retired police cars expanded my world:..........................19My first purchase of a car..........................................19Summer employment was a necessity...................................20Pearly Dukes and the migratory workers..............................121Wesleyan University vacation breaks.................................25"The Rose City" welcomed me in 1954.................................26Fort Monmouth welcomed me in 1955...................................31The linkage of two turnpikes........................................35Autos in the middle years (1960-1989)...............................36College employment and early years of marriage:.....................36The new Dodge was a wedding gift....................................36Dr. Jennette's Chrysler Imperial....................................39We were a one-car family in 1960....................................40"Admissions" travel in College cars.................................43S&H Green Stamps and Hanover visits.................................44Some family cars were station wagons................................45The woman driver screamed, "Pig! Pig!"..............................46Family reunions and a Florida trip..................................48Events prior to the foreign car invasion:...........................51A Rotarian friend's Pontiac Tempest.................................51An April Fool's Day happening.......................................52A new job provided a new car in 1975................................53Autos in the later years (since 1990)...............................55A return to classroom teaching and a city home......................55A foreign car invasion thanks to "Ick":.............................55A Mercedes Benz for Carol...........................................55Shadow dog's trip to Wake Forest University.........................56A 1988 BMW caught Ken's eye.........................................59A "gift-car" led to a difficult BMW decision........................60My BMW gift to breast cancer research...............................62A family member was a travel agent:.................................67My fond trip to Turkey in 1996......................................68A trip that travel agents cannot duplicate..........................70National associations covered the USA...............................71International associations cover the world:.........................73A Yachting Fellowship experience....................................76The Rotary Convention in San Antonia................................78"Songs for Rotarians" is #1 on Google lists.........................79The demanding District Governor role................................81Exchanging memoirs over morning coffee:.............................85Photographs of a man and his dog....................................90Lionel Lee's selection of a college in 1948.........................91Was Marsha Green a national threat?.................................95My son-in-law's love for old cars:..................................96A 1953 English film named Genevieve.................................103My brother recalled his first plane flight..........................104A 1970 WMC Faculty Club's Book of Recipes:..........................106Main Dishes:........................................................107Salads And Vegetables:..............................................113Desserts:...........................................................118Encores of Fisherboy Memoirs, Book One..............................125My Pope Pius XII Photograph Session.................................125The Baseball Glove That Had Two Thumbs..............................134About the Author....................................................145

Chapter One

AUTOS IN THE EARLY YEARS (1930-1959):

If my memory of trivia is anywhere near correct, I recall it being said that each person in the United States can expect to live in ten different homes in a lifetime, and each can expect to encounter a dozen or more family cars. For me, I have lived in eight different homes, excluding college dormitories and army barracks. Counting family cars is a more difficult task for me, but if I include the favorite cars owned by my father and my wife's father, my total number of family cars would reach 17. Since I lay no claim to being a "car person," I wonder what the statistics would be for persons who really love cars. My son-in-law, Rob Reynolds, may have an answer to this question in his memoir in Part III of this book.

Before I learned to drive a car:

My father loved Cadillac cars

In my list of family cars, the first was a Cadillac car owned by my father. We lived at 213 East Patrick Street in Frederick, Maryland, which also happened to be my first home. Dad must have had a love for Cadillac cars, because those were the model cars that he selected to restore to perfect riding conditions. Being a skilled mechanic, he could provide us with an expensive looking family car which did not come with a high price tag. Dad was a farm boy in his youth, and his education was often disrupted by farm chores and other family duties. For this reason, he lacked a high school diploma, and his employment as a mechanic, as a road construction foreman, and as a policeman would cause our family to warrant a low-income label.

Mother, on the other hand, had a college degree from Hood College, located in Frederick, but her college education never led to full-time employment outside the home. Her contributions of cooking, sewing, and piano playing were valuable assets to our family, and it should be remembered that the decision to be a stay-at-home mom was a prevailing opinion until the cultural changes that were brought about by World War II. Brother Charlie and I learned at an early age that we needed to provide most of our own spending money, and we sometimes held two or three jobs, especially if our goal was to purchase a special item, such as a ball glove or gifts to give others at Christmas time. Our younger sister, Kathy, did not make her appearance until 1947, seventeen years after my birth, so she was not part of these early Shook memoirs. Also, we had a step-brother, Herman, born on March 1, 1920. For a variety of reasons, Herman's impact on my life did not seem to begin until he entered the military in World War II, and he was in our thoughts as he served a number of years overseas, stationed in England.

Uncle Percy and the milk truck event

For a number of years, Dad did work part-time for my uncle, Percy Beavers, driving trucks to out of state locations, and sometimes Charlie or I joined Dad when the destination was Scranton, PA. The truck was carrying a large number of milk containers, and I could lift the metal cans only if they were empty of milk. On one long trip that I did not make with Dad, Uncle Percy did decide to accompany him. Dad did not trust Mr. Beavers as a driver, because he had been known to fall asleep at the wheel. Nevertheless, on that particular return trip from Scranton, Mr. Beavers insisted on driving, and Dad consented. Dad tried to take a short nap, but that almost resulted in a disaster. When Dad opened his eyes, they were crossing a bridge on the edge of a small town, and the truck was headed toward the bridge railing. Uncle Percy had fallen asleep. Dad quickly grabbed the wheel and yanked it 90 degrees, turning back toward the road. The truck did not go over the side of the bridge, but it flipped onto its side, and the top fell off, causing all contents to spill out on to the highway. At 3:00 in the morning, at least one hundred large milk cans banged and rolled their way across the bridge, waking up all of the residents of that sleepy town. Out in the road, Dad was concerned about the disturbance, but he also worried that the truck might catch on fire. When Mr. Beavers was nowhere to be found outside the truck, Dad finally found him, still moving around in the cab of the truck. Dad hollered for him to get out of the truck, fearing that a truck fire was a possibility. Percy called back to Dad: "I'm trying to find my hat."

These singing brothers were popular

My own memory of life events seems to start in 1934 when I was just four years of age. At that age, I began singing duets with my brother Charlie, two years my senior. Charlie sang the melody line of songs, mainly hymns, and, somehow, I produced the words by watching his lips. At the same time, I harmonized by generating a tenor flow of notes even though I could not read the notes printed on the pages of music and no one had taught me how to harmonize. We are pictured below, and in the photo next to us is our father in his police uniform.

My brother and I sang the well-known hymn Have Thine own way, Lord! hundreds of times in the 1930s, and that was one song in our music repertoire that I did not need to read my brother's lips to acquire the song's lyrics. The first verse lyrics were:

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Charlie and I, our parents, and our family car were all kept busy fulfilling invitations to perform at numerous churches, granges, the local WFMD radio station, the Odd Fellows Home, family reunions, retirement homes, and Frederick City music talent shows. Some of these events took place at the band pavilion in Frederick City's Baker Park and others were held on the stage of the beautiful Tivoli Theater. Audiences loved the hymns we sang, like Have Thine Own Way, Lord, and the humorous songs that we sang. One humorous song, Get Away Old Man, Get Away, never failed to produce laughter and applause. The words to the old folk song went something like this:

Don't ever marry an ole man, I'll tell you the reason why. His lips are all tobacco juice, and his chin is never dry. (Chorus) I'd rather marry a young man with his pockets lined with silk than to marry an ole man with a hundred cows to milk. (Chorus)

I'd rather have a young man with an apple in his hand than to have an ole man with a hundred acres of land. (Chorus)

Chorus: For an ole man he is old, and an ole man he is gray, but a young man's heart is full of love. Get away, ole man! Get away!

My mother frequently told the story of one singing engagement that my brother Charlie wished all would forget. Mother's version of the happening related that she played the introduction to one of our songs and Charlie failed to sing, so she repeated the introduction. She knew that I followed Charlie's lead, often reading his lips to acquire the words to the song. Although my reading skills were apparently limited at age four, I could vocalize a tenor harmony while Charlie sang the song's melody. I must have been frustrated with my brother, because I hit him and said aloud: "Sing, Charles! Sing! "The audience of over 100 people saw great humor in the situation, but Charlie told me later of his great embarrassment. He claims he had a mental blank that night, and he had to walk over to the piano to check on the words. Some say that I kicked Charlie to get his attention, but Charlie says he remembers it as a poke in the ribs with my elbow.

Parking downtown on Saturday nights

In June of 1936, I was only six years old, but I vividly remember a typical Saturday night when we parked the family car on North Market Street in Frederick, our home town. On that night, we secured our favorite parking spot in front of the White Star Restaurant which sold the best hot dogs in town. The habit of parking the family car on a main city street on a Saturday night to socialize and watch people stroll past was a habit found in many small towns in the 1930s and early 1940s.

There were no parking meters to contend with in the 1940s, and television had not yet become a force to keep people at home in their living rooms. Frederick stores were delighted to see the sidewalks filled with potential customers, and farm families viewed the weekends as their best chance to see friends in town and to do the weekly shopping. Our choice parking spot in Frederick was just a few doors from the Square Corner, the intersection of Patrick Street and Market Street. Market Street ran north and south, and Patrick Street ran east and west, and these two streets still allowed driving in both directions. Years later, when Market Street was made into a one-way street going north, Dad was on police duty at the Square Corner when he saw an elderly gent attempting to make a U-turn, about to drive his car in the wrong direction on Market Street. Dad called out: "Frank, you can't turn around there!" The old fellow continued to turn toward the south as he called back: "Don't worry, Denver, I can make it." Dad claims that he got to laughing so hard that he failed to chase after the car that was headed into "one-way" traffic.

On one typical Saturday night in June of 1936, we parked in our choice location, and on that particular night, Joe Lewis just happened to be fighting the German boxer Max Schmeling in the famous Yankee Stadium. Although the fight was sold out, sports fans were able to listen to the radio broadcast of the Arthur Donovan officiated fight. Some fans were, no doubt, aware of the racial issues involved in the outcome of the fight, and others may have been thinking about Hitler and his push for power in Germany. I heard a radio playing in the middle of the block, and after each round of the fight I relayed the results back to the family car. As best I can remember, I played a neutral role that night, as would any sports announcer seeking to be fair to each fighter. Sometimes I reported that Schmeling was coming on strong, and sometimes I mentioned that Lewis landed strong blows in certain rounds. The event scheduled for fifteen rounds ended in round twelve, when Schmeling won by a knockout. The outcome of the fight was met by mixed reactions, but those near our parked car seemed to appreciate my efforts to deliver the round-by-round coverage. My reward was a White Star hot dog with all the trimmings, and I know that I had no trouble falling asleep after that busy Saturday night.

Because of this experience in 1936, I followed the careers of Schmeling and Lewis over many decades, and I learned to admire and respect the German fighter Schmeling. After losing to Lewis in their final boxing match, he continued to visit Lewis in the United States, and when Lewis was on hard times, he often gave Lewis money to cover some of his debts. When Lewis died on April 12, 1981, it was reported that Schmeling served as a pallbearer and paid the Lewis funeral expenses.

Sunday drives and Burma Shave signs

A favorite memory of my childhood was the "Sunday drive." In the 1930s and early-1940s, the family car took us to church in the morning, and in the afternoon we would visit relatives or simply enjoy driving the country roads. The country roads in those days were usually two-lanes wide, sometimes making it difficult to pass a slow moving car or farm vehicle. On occasion, we even had to come to a complete stop to allow herds of cattle to cross the road to enter another field. My home was in Frederick County, Maryland, and in that dairy and farming community even the farmers viewed Sundays as a day of rest. Many amusements were not open to the public on Sundays in these years, such as: movie houses, golf courses, department stores, and skating rinks. Also, there were no shopping malls to visit. If our drives encountered bad weather, Charlie and I could sleep on the back seat of the family car, knowing that Dad would be able to cope with ice and snow and foggy windows, getting us safely home. Another bad weather problem resulted from my father's enjoyment of White Owl cigars. When he smoked them while the car windows were closed, breathing in the back seat became difficult. In good weather, windows remained open to the fresh air.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from FAMILY CARS TRIGGER MEMOIRSby H. KENNETH SHOOK Copyright © 2012 by Dr. H. Kenneth Shook. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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