1937 Chevrolet

It was sometime in the fall of 1951. School had started and I was in the first grade. We didn't have a car and there were no school buses operating inside the city limits, so I walked to school and walked home. For the first week or so, Momma would walk with me and then she turned me loose to go on my own. I guess we lived about a mile and half from the school. If you are from Vicksburg, you can figure it for yourself since we lived on Belmont Street and the school was on Bowmar Avenue.

In those days things were not as complicated and it was safe for a six year old to walk on the sidewalks to and from school.

One day after class I began my normal walk home. There was a long walk from the school to the street. Just after I got to the street side walk, a person in a big black car honked his horn. I looked but kept on walking. Pretty soon I heard a man calling, "Butch, Butch". I turned around and it was my Daddy. He had bought a car and was going to give me a ride home.

Wow! We had never owned a car before! It was black, big and beautiful! A practically new 1937 Chevrolet in 1951.

It had cloth seat covers, acres of leg room, and big headlights attached to the front. It was amazing!

I can remember Daddy taking us downtown on Washington Street and parking in front of the Valley department store. We would roll the windows down and just sit in the car speaking to people as they passed by so they would know that the our family had a car. We took it 10 miles north to Redwood to see my Aunt Pat. That's the first time I can remember leaving the city limits.

A young preacher, an evangelist named Billy Graham was scheduled to speak at the LeTourneau plant about ten miles south of town. Mr. R.G. LeTourneau owned the company. He was a religious man and took great care of his employees. Anyway, now that we had a car, we were able to venture south and listen to Brother Billy Graham bring a message. I don't remember anything Rev. Graham said, but I do remember the event and the huge crowd that had gathered outside.

Those big black headlights were particularly useful. Daddy would let me sit on the fender with my feet on the bumper while holding on to the headlight while he would drive ever so slowly around the block. That was great fun! And since the car had running boards big enough to stand on, he would roll down the windows, let me stand on the running board with my arms around the door post so I could ride "side saddle". Yessir, that was fun too.

So as you can tell, I liked that car and I liked the idea that we could venture out of town on occasion. Daddy sold that car in 1953 when he bought a 1951 Plymouth with vinyl inside door covers.