Grandpa and Grandma spent about a third of their lives in the "horse and buggy days." They depended on horses and mules to transport them to church and to town, and to plow, plant and harvest their field crops. Grandpa was probably the last person in Mustang to buy a car. He later owned a Model T, a Nash, and an Overland during his earliest motoring years. The first car I remember them having was an old green Chevrolet (about a 1935 model). They used this car until the middle 1940s when he traded it in on a black 1940 Ford. Grandpa bought most of his cars from Happy Jenson. One summer day Happy brought a black '40 model Ford out to the farm. He drove all of us on a fast trip to the Gap, demonstrating the car’s speed by making it to the Gap in only five minutes. Grandpa drove it home and he kept saying how "keen" the car was. He decided to trade, and I remember Happy Jenson driving away in the old Chevy.

Grandma did not drive a car, except for one time. While Grandpa still had the old Chevy, he had some work done on it at the Gap. Grandma was at the Gap attending a meeting, and as she was coming home with someone, she saw the car sitting at Si Johnson's garage. She thought she would help by driving the car home. Even though she had never driven before she made up her mind to drive it home. She made it just fine until she got to the sharp curve to the left in front of Mustang school. She over steered a bit and took out some fence posts. This incident cured Grandma of ever wanting to drive again. This was her first and last attempt at driving. Grandpa had a fencing job to do at Coin Tergerson’s as a result of this incident. 

JMW/October 1981

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