If Cars Could Talk

Yesterday, while parking my car near the lake downtown, I saw a 57 Chevy that looked to be in mint condition. Someones pride and joy I am sure. Old cars can really bring back old memories. That 57 Chevy reminded me of some of my wilder days that I just as well forget. It also reminded me of something that happened years ago while I was working on my brothers used car lot.
One day, an elderly Hispanic man came in with a twenty-plus years old station wagon. He said it was still running pretty good, but with the constant repairs , he had decided to get something newer and smaller and more reliable. He had raised his large family in that old car, but it was just him and his wife now and he didn't need a wagon anymore.
He picked out a car and as we did the paper work, his old car was pulled around to the back of the lot and parked next to the others that were waiting to make their final trip to a wrecking yard.
The paperwork being finished, I escorted the new owner to his new ride. I explained some of the conveniences that he had not had on his old car. He thanked me and as I walked back into the office, he was backing his new car out of the lot.
I finished up the paperwork and made a key-tag for the old trade-in. I stepped out of the office and was surprised to see that the car I had just sold, had not driven off, but was parked near the old car I had just taken in trade. The owner was out there standing next to his old car. I walked over and asked if there was anything else I could help him with. He shook his head and looked at me smiling , he sighed, and said “ If that old car could talk”.

I could say the same thing about every car I ever owned.

My Mothers Bluebonnets

I grew up in the country on my Grandfathers property. My parents had moved into the tired old frame house when they got married. At that time it had no indoor plumbing or electricity. My father was a hustler and after about five years, they added on a bathroom and had electricity run to the house from the town that was a mile away. I wasn't present for those lean years, but my older brothers remember. The house sat back about two hundred yards from the main hi-way. The five acres between the house and the road were farmed by a tenant farmer that lived nearby. He rotated every year between corn and cotton. We loved the years he planted cotton as we could pick it and earn a penny a pound. A good picker would have cleaned out the five acres in less than a day. It took us a week. We didn't used the long pick sacks like the pros, we just slid cardboard boxes along and picked one row at a time. I had plenty pocket money those summers.
When I was twelve, we built a new home in front of the old one. The old one was jacked up and with huge beams and tires placed under it, moved the two hundred yards across the road. My grandfather had it repaired and rented it out.
The old tenant farmer died so my grandfather had the five acres graded smooth and planted grass. He bought us a riding lawnmower and I was put in charge of keeping it mowed. I don't remember how it happened, but the next spring the five acres was about eighty percent covered with Bluebonnets. It struck a soft spot in my mothers heart and that patch of Bluebonnets became her passion. She talked with the local county agent and got tips on how to make the Bluebonnets flourish. A single Bluebonnet, or even a handful don't have much of a bouquet. However five acres were a different story. If you happened to be on the north side of that patch any evening , a mild southern breeze became intoxicating . I remember the many times when my mother and I would stand silently in that breeze enjoying the perfume.
My siblings and I all moved away and had our own families. Every year we all enjoyed returning home to visiting my mother when the Bluebonnets were in full bloom. Many a roll of Kodak film were spent taking photos in the middle of Bluebonnet patch.
My Mother passed on and the property was sold. These last few weeks I have been thinking of her when I see the Bluebonnets coming up everywhere. I would like to go back one evening to see if her Bluebonnets are there this year. Wonder if I might find her standing in the evening breeze?

©2014