Lowell’s Limericks & Life Stories
by Lowell Henry Buck
Edited by Debra Joan Buck

Chapter 4, “Growing Up”, Page 41

Drive To Town – 1926

My brother and I thought I would be fun to drive my father’s car to town. I was 5 years old and my brother ‘Bob’ was 4 years old. Town was four miles away. We had seen our father drive many a time so we knew how.

The car was a model ‘T’ Ford and to start it my father parked it on a hill. He had the emergency brake on and a rock in front of the back wheel and when he wanted to start it, he took the rock out, released the emergency brake, put it in gear and that would turn over the motor to start it. The farm buildings were on each side of the lane built on the side hill. The corn crib was the last building and from there was a gate to the pasture.

My brother was to drive; imagine a four year old driving, I was to get the rock out to release the emergency brake. I got the rock away from the wheel, got in beside my brother, released the emergency brake and down the hill we went, past the chicken house, the cob house, the house, the barn, the hog house, and finally past the corn crib, through the pasture gate, which for some reason was open, out into the pasture and there coasted to a stop.

The miracle is that no one saw us doing anything. My father thought he had left the emergency brake off and the car rolled out there without anyone doing anything. My brother and I didn’t volunteer any information either, another secret between my brother and me.

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