Flashback Friday #42

Gattabout Gets-about

Hello all, welcome to another trip down memory lane. On this trip, we will not be walking. Sir Gattabout will drive us (YIKES!!!)

My brother, Sir Gattabout was sooooo excited when his 16th birthday rolled around. He could now drive (legally). He had been driving on back roads with Dad, and some of his older friends also allowed him to drive their cars. That was how he was involved in a car wreck before he had his license.

One of his buddies let Sir Gattabout drive when he was about two miles from home. He over steered and wrecked the car. He was the only person hurt. His friend told the sheriff that he swerved to miss a deer and wrecked, so Gattabout wouldn't get into trouble. In the rural area where we lived, that was totally believable.

But I digress, I mentioned that Gattabout was injured. He had a three inch gash on his forehead and another one on his left wrist. Did we take him to the emergency room? Nope. We called our family doctor at his house and drove Gattabout over there to be stitched up in the doctors kitchen. He only charged us for an office call that way.

Gattabout had been learning to drive for years by driving our riding lawnmower. He even arranged drag races with other older teens with their mowers. If Jeff Foxworthy didn't say it, it's still true, If you've ever drag raced with riding lawnmowers,you might be a redneck. More about the riding mower escapades in a future post.

Gattabout's first car was a tan Pinto. Out family wasn't real good at picking cars. Dad always had a big car like a Buick or Cadillac, while the other car was a Pinto or a Nova. Gremlins were my favorite car back then. Gattabout always fantasized about putting the motor from dad's Cadillac into his Pinto.

Once Gattabout got his driver's license, his favorite activity was going to the drive-in movies. Mom told him, if he was going, he had to take me. How can you go to a drive-in with your girlfriend and you little brother? He figured out a way. When we got to the drive-in movie, he would take a quilt out of the back of the car and lay it on the ground in front of the car. He would then give me $3 (which would buy soda, popcorn, and two candy bars) and told me not to move off of the quilt until the movie was over. Worked for me. I saw "Smokey & The Bandit" 21 times. I doubt if Gattabout ever saw it in it's entirety.

The first driving lesson I ever had, he gave to me. We were about a mile from home coming home late from the drive-in. He asked If I wanted to drive, I said sure. I was 12. We pulled into a church parking lot and switched seats. Now I had always noticed that when someone is driving, their hands don't stay still, but are constantly moving and making minor corrections to keep the car straight. I thought they did this on purpose. After we pulled out onto the road, I moved my hands right and left, back and forth, I thought I was doing a good job. Gattabout was white as a sheet and had a death grip on the car door. After a few minutes (which probably seemed like an eternity to him) he barked"Stop the Car!!!". "In the middle of the road?" I asked. "YES, NOW" was his reply. I guess I had really scared him. Serves him right for scaring me all the time with "The Tingler"