Car Trouble

 When Loveta and I first got married, Loveta worked at the Concho County Hospital in Eden.  She drove back and forth to Eden every morning to work until our son, John Carol, was born.  One morning she couldn’t get her car started.  I checked the battery and it was totally dead.  It had been raining all night and it was extremely muddy where Loveta’s car was parked.  I couldn’t get my pickup in the right position to jump the car off.  So, I decided I would get a chain and pull the car out into the road.  I got my old 1963 red Dodge truck positioned behind Loveta’s car. I hooked the chain on to it and I had Loveta get in the car to steer it. When we got it in the street.  I began the process of pulling the car out into the road.  I couldn’t figure out why it was so hard to pull.  I was revving the motor and I could smell the tires burning and spinning.  I was beginning to worry about burning the clutch out.   The car was literally skidding on the mud.  It was as if all four wheels were locked up.  I kept wondering why the tail lights were on.  I thought maybe this is the reason the battery had run down,  Maybe the tail lights were stuck in the on position.  I finally got the car out into the street.  So, I got out of the pickup to unhooked the chain and I checked to see if Loveta was doing ok. I thought maybe we had left the parking lights on and that would account for the tail lights still being on.  That is when I noticed Loveta still had her foot on the brake pedal.  I asked why she had her foot on the brake and she said she was afraid the car would get to going too fast, and run into the pickup.  I now knew the reason  the car was so hard to pull.  So then, I circled the pickup around and got in position to jump the car off.  I hooked the jumper cables onto the car battery.  Whatever was wrong with the car battery shorted out the battery on the pickup.  There I was with both the pickup and car stuck out in the middle of the street.  Now we both needed batteries.  It goes without saying, money was tight.  But, some way, we managed to go buy a new battery for the car.  I think my pickup had to wait a few days before I was able to buy a battery for it.  We can look back on this day and laugh now.  But, it sure wasn’t fun then.