Out of the Frying Pan

Taking Lizzy for a Spin

Lenny volunteered to go get the bricks, saying that he knew where they were.

Grandpa chuckled, “You better take your brother with you, they may be heavier than you think and that way it will take less trips.”

I knew what bricks Grandpa was talking about, I helped stack them the previous spring. He called them “fire bricks.” Dark red, solid, a little bit bigger than regular bricks, they were made to take heat from a fireplace or furnace. Grandpa used a lot of them to make a trash incinerator behind the smokehouse. There wasn’t any trash pickup out there, those big garbage trucks would most likely get stuck on some of those dirt roads.

Lenny and Lanny went to get the eight bricks Grandpa asked for, and returned shortly, carrying four apiece. Lenny asked Grandpa where he wanted them.

“On the hearth, next to the tree,” Grandpa said.

I helped to restack them on the hearth. “What’s next, Grandpa?”

“Well, it looks like we need a few things from the store.”

“Are they going to be open on Christmas Eve?” I asked.

“Yes, a lot of stores are open late on Christmas Eve to make sure folks have what they need for tomorrow. We’ll go by Dewy Massey’s jot-em-down store to wish him a Merry Christmas. I might even play a game of checkers with him. I’d better bring the fiddle along, just in case.” (A jot-em-down store was one where the store owner knew folks and would give them credit on anything they needed until they got paid. With no interest, he would jot down their names, what they got, and how much they owed.)

Grandpa had two trucks. The one he called Bessy was a fifty-six GMC with high rails on the back and it was used for hauling big things like hay or cattle. The other one was an old sixty-one Ford he called Lizzy after the Model T that he drove for years.

Grandpa said, “Let’s get Lizzy fired up and let her heat up a bit.” We all went out to the garage to watch him start up the truck. The first thing he did was to open the hood and remove the blanket from the top of the engine. Then he checked the radiator to make sure it wasn’t frozen. He shut the hood, opened the driver’s door, put the blanket across the seat, and climbed in. He pulled the knob for the choke, pumped the gas pedal a few times, checked to make sure it was out of gear, and then as he held the clutch in, he turned the key. The motor slowly strained to turn over the first couple of times, then spun into life.

Grandpa pushed the choke knob in and the engine revved higher. He slowly backed just the truck bed out of the garage, put it out of gear, then pushed the emergency brake on with his foot. He waited until he was sure it was going to idle itself, then got out.

He smiled and said, “She’s a little slow to start but she’s always started.”

Grandpa had us fill up a couple of thermoses to bring with us, just in case we might need something warm to drink or come across someone else in trouble out on the road. When we were ready, my brothers and I went out the back door while Grandpa locked it and went out the front door so he could put up one of his signs and leave a note as to where we were most likely to be. He came around the side of the house and said, “Get in, boys.”

I got in first because I was the smallest and the shifter was on the floor. Lenny and Lanny argued over who was going to sit next to the door. Grandpa told them to just get in and they could change places on the way back.

Grandpa backed out, turned the wheel, and went around the house as he turned right to go down the hill. I was a little nervous because he had to go slow on the snow and make sure he didn’t slide or the truck would be in the creek that ran under the road. We made it down the hill fine and he turned right on the main road, toward Mr. Massey’s store.

It was beautiful out, the snow decorating the limbs of the trees we passed. We couldn’t see most of the houses out there because many were set well back from the road or in hollows that kept them out of view. Except for the smoke from their chimneys, we wouldn’t have even known they were there.