Lessons learned from a road trip full of near misses
In the summer of 1962 I was 17. I purchased a 1950 Plymouth two-door for $100. I saved up the money from working part-time. Mom and Grandma were thrilled to have a car, neither knew how to drive. We were without a car since Dad left when I was three. He headed west and never sent us any child support.
My brother needed a ride to the Baptist College in Bolivar. Mom was sure that we could drive him. She was itching for a road trip to get out of St. Louis. We loaded up Alan, Grandma Hazel, Mom and me into the old car and headed 230 miles away.
The Plymouth did not have AC. We drove with the windows down in the hot summer. The car had problems using oil. We checked the oil every 100 miles and always added some. Mom had confidence the trip would be fine.
Mom asked for a short detour to tour a historic town near the main highway. The road to town went up a steep railroad crossing. Halfway up the incline the car stalled for lack of power. Grandma, Mom and Alan walked up and over the steep crossing. Then the car had enough power to drive over.
We dropped Alan off at the college and spent the night. The drive back had the same routine of adding oil often. Halfway home there was a loud explosion of noise underneath. We could not hear each other talk. We pulled into a service station.
The mechanic put our car on the rack to inspect. The exhaust manifold was found to be the problem. He didn’t have a new manifold. He figured out how to wrap it in sheets of asbestos and cover it with tin cans wired tightly to hold it in place.
What a relief to have the loud noise stopped under the car. We were only 30 miles from home when the configuration of cans, wire and asbestos gave way with another eruption.
Mom got her road trip, but it included unexpected problems.
We were naïve about getting on the highway. We did not have any relatives to rescue us if we broke down. We didn’t have Triple A membership. Cell phones were unknown, so there was no way to call in an emergency. We were just thankful to endure the trip.
A few weeks after our return the front tire blew. Thank God it didn’t blow out on the highway. The tires were all past life expectancy. I drove the car for six more months before it completely broke down. I then sold it to a junkyard. Some of God’s best gifts are the things which could have gone wrong but didn’t. My only preparation was to pack a case of much needed oil. With divine help we made it back. We never tried another road trip. As a dear friend of mine says, “God looks out for dumb animals.“
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Car trouble shattered the excitement over a road trip across Missouri
