Country Boy And The Big City

I suppose folks perceive big city's different depending on where you come from and how you're introduced to them and of course your age and lots of other things to numerous to mention.
As a kid out on the farm way out in Highland County Ohio, Cincinnati seamed a big city far off where only a few of the rich folks and older people would sometimes go to for special reasons or to work.
It's funny now how we look at things from a different perspective based on our own circumstances, let me give you an example.
One of my best friends and neighbors growing up was Butch Peelle, we would ride our bikes around the county, play basketball in his barn loft until our fingers were about to freeze and eat all the tomatoes out of everyone's garden and always had a big time . They had more comic books behind their couch than I had ever seen in my whole life and that helped me to want to read, I always like going up there just to read the comics..
One day Mr. Peelle took Butch and I down to see the Reds play at Crosley Field. I thought I was in heaven, he bought us hot dogs, popcorn and drinks and we had a grand ole time, but I learned a valuable lesson.
I was lucky enough to catch a fly ball and was thrilled to pieces and was just standing there admiring the ball and this little street wise kid came running up and said man what a catch can I see the ball, of course this ole country boy not knowing what to expect , I just handed him the ball and he was gone before I could take a step to leave where I was standing. Guess I didn't realize you have to think fast and you just don't catch fly balls on every trip to the Red's game.
Hubert was a kind and generous man and he told us not to worry that on the way home we would stop in Hillsboro at Pasquale's for a Pizza Pie. Well here we go, being raised on the farm and not going to big towns much like Hillsboro let alone Cincinnati, except when it was my turn out of 8 kids to follow along with Mom to go grocery shopping, we always did our grocery shopping on Saturdays.
I wasn't considered a food connoisseur that's for sure and when Mr. Peelle said we would get a Pizza Pie I thought he was saying a piece of pie. So I wasn't expecting an Italian dish served like a pie with all kinds meat and stuff on top and cooked on a pie crust. I want to say I can only remember getting that sick one other time and that was when my big brother Dane talked me into swallowing tobacco juice from my chew to prove I was old enough to be able to chew, whewuuu. Mr. Peelle didn't laugh to much, but he sure had an infectious big smile and I've always remembered what a great day he gave us in the big city.
My next encounter with the big town didn't turn out much better. You see I had worked hard all summer long going into my senior year, because I knew if I was going to get a car to drive to school or any where else I would have to buy it myself. Well my Dad said when you get your money to together let me know and I'll take you down town Cincinnati where we can find a better car cheaper.
Of course I didn't take into consideration that my Dad had a different idea for a car that I did. He wanted me to buy a six cylinder that got good gas mileage and I wanted a hot Rod, guess who won that argument of course you got to remember gas was 23cents per gallon and he had to drive to Cincinnati everyday to work, so we settled on a 1953 six cylinder Studebaker. It was blue and looked like an air plane ready to take off.
Well everything was fine and I paid for the car and we headed out of town of course I didn't get to drive my new car. Mom wanted to drive until we got out of town and off of that big highway called Columbia Parkway "Rt 50". Well we stopped to filler up with gas and checked the oil and washed the windshield again and headed out with Dad following us. As Mom picked up speed " she always was a fast driver " all of a sudden the hood flipped up and back on top of the car so hard it beat the roof down on top of our heads. Mom had to stick her head out the window to see and asked me to watch the other side and make sure we didn't hit anything. Well we finally made it home but the hood was ruined. We made it into one of the best sleds you ever rode on in the winter snow. We could get several kids in it all at the same time.
I looked around at the junk yard for another hood and found one, where the body was ruined in a wreck, but the hood was great and it had a big V8. I bought it right on the spot and towed it down to Johnny Skaggs, my cousins farm in Lynchburg, because his dad Uncle Benny had a big barn with a beam where we could pull the motor and put it in my other car so I took two cars and made one good one. My other cousin Butch helped me do all the mechanics and we soon had it running good. After that I took it to Dayton and had all white leather seats installed, plush blue carpeting and had 7 coats of metallic blue paint put on her she was a beauty still to this day I think that was the best paint job I have ever seen on a car. You see what made that car so special to me was the summer of my senior year I went to work for one of dad's big construction companys who he worked for in Cincinnati. This guy was a millionaire and owned 1000 acres out by Clarksville and told my dad he was looking for help on his farm and I could work all the hours I wanted to work. Well let me tell you I was not afraid of work and the motivation to work for $1.00 per hour from 7am every morning until 11 or 12 pm every night sounded right up my alley. You see I was usually working for all the farmers around for 4 or 5 maybe 6 hours a day bailing hay which was hit and miss and never any thing steady. Well let me tell you we worked so many hours that first week the foreman almost got in a fight with Mr Brielmeyer, because the foreman's son Dave and I worked so many hours he wouldn't believe it. Well he paid us and said keep on working and we did ,we worked the entire summer seven days a week only taking one day off. I took my girl to the movies and promptly fell asleep at midnight and she work me up at 1PM and said you better take me home now. That's how I bought my 1953 Studebaker and all the money I put into it, but it was worth it, I saw one on my old neighbors and school buddies at our school Alumni and he even mentioned my car,but I had already graduated and didn't get to drive it to school.

One night when I wasn't going anywhere { probably broke} dad came in and asked if he could borrow my car. Mom had gone somewhere in our new 1957 Packard, man what a car it even had a turbo charger , and when you hit the gas pedal at sixty it would set you back in your seat with no uncertainty, this in my opinion was the prettiest car Dad ever bought it was maroon and white and looked as long as a train.
Well when Dad asked to borrow my car I didn't think to ask what he was going to do ,after all how could I turn him down, I had borrowed his car many nights. When I got in my car the next morning of course he had all ready left for work really early, he had to drive from our Leesburg farm to down town Cincinnati that was a very time consuming ride back then.
Of course ,that was before I helped build the freeways and bridges around I- 275, Another story later.

Dad had borrowed my car to go pick up his buddys and their coon hounds and hauled them all in my car which I kept immaculate, it should be known that blue carpet and mud don't mix , man was I upset, I was never able to get that yellow clay out of the carpet, guess they didn't have good cleaners back then.
I was asked the other day by my daughter my grandson how to buy a car, and that reminded me of when I purchased my first car. Not the Studebaker I worked so hard for.
So I had to tell him the story about my first car purchase it involved dad and a trip to downtown Cincinnati to all the used car lots.
.As a kid on the farm you quickly learn all kinds of mechanic things ,how to fix things and mend things, "you know how to hold everything together with bailing wire kind of stuff " and as a kid you think you know it all right. Wrong... My first car was
a 1951 Chrysler Hydramatic ,black as coal and heavy as a train. I lived 4 miles out of Leesburg and it took me one quart of oil and one gallon of gas to get there and back. It was ugly slow and not the kind of look I was wanting ,but not being able to afford a 1957 Chevy it was a set of wheels. But it lasted until I saved and worked enough to get my dream car which I would give anything just to have a picture of now .

Talking about big cities I remember one of the biggest laughs we all had one time down at my Grandpa's in Kentucky, first let me set the stage as they say, Grandpa and Grandma Branham lived up a holler, I mean a long branch holler a couple of miles long and dirt road no gravel. Many was the time if it was raining we would get stuck and have to walk the rest of the way always in the middle of the night, because we always left after dark when dad got home from work and back in the fifty's there wasn't any freeways and of course my grandpa didn't have a telephone he didn't even have electricity and no indoor plumbing it was uuuuuppp the holler.
Well this particular weekend my Aunt Hermel and Joaquin Vega and a bunch of my cousins were in as they used to say. Well Arby, Adrian, Darlene and Dale my cousins were brought up in East Chicago a very big city they new nothing about country life and were seldom able to get all the way down to Kentucky for a visit. Granny had one of those big long tables that would seat 12 folks with ladder back chairs and her cooking kitchen was off the dining room with one of those big old two story stoves that burned wood or coal. They had a small porch off to the left of the cooking room with a well for her to draw water from as needed. The main rooms of the house were heated with a fireplace, but the kids room as it was called didn't have any heat at all so we didn't relish going down in the winter to visit to say the least. Well Granny as usual would cook up the biggest dinners you ever saw I mean on Sunday it was always fried chicken and every kind of vegetable you could grow in a garden and believe me she had a garden. Well we were well along into the meal when Dale { about 7 or 8 at the time } said to Granny can I have some more " beans of my stick" and it suddenly it got very quiet and then everybody started laughing at once, of course he wanted more " corn on the cob" . We had a good laugh and went right back to eating, it just goes to show we are all products of our environment. Everybody has their own perspective and way of looking at things.


Uncle Ran

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