Cars All Look Alike to Mom

Sometime in the mid-50s my dad bought a light green 1953 Mercury two door. It was a real upgrade from our previous autos and even though there were four of us..we made the two door work. It was our primary car until Dad bought a 1955 Ford station wagon. Brown and also a two-door (not many of those around). But back to the Mercury.

I would be in the yard when Mom would come home from the grocery store and she would have me take the bags in the house. One day as I played with a friend a green 1953 Mercury two door pulled up in our driveway and my Mom got out and told me to take the groceries in the house. I said “Mom who’s car is this”, and she said “ours, isn’t it”. I explained that it had different hubcaps and had different seat covers.

After looking the car over and inspecting the contents of the glove box she believed me. We got in the car and drove back to the grocery store down on Butternut St across from the Metro theater. It was a normal thing for stores to have a bench out front and there on that bench was an old man drinking a soda pop. When we pulled up he smiled and waved at us. Seems that he had seen our car parked just next to where his was…and he figured it out. My mom was mortified and blushed and talked more than she wanted to. But he just laughed and said he knew she would be back when she noticed her mistake. He loaded his groceries and drove away.

One of the things about this story is the fact that even in a larger city like Abilene people left their keys in the ignition. They didn’t forget them…they left them there on purpose. My dad taught me to leave the keys in the car in case someone needs to move it. The possibility of the car being stolen was so far fetched it never occurred to us. I don’t remember if the key ring had a house key on it or not. I never remember our house being locked…night or day. We had an old dog named Corkey who could open the screen door and let herself in and out if the door was open. I remember laying in bed hearing the screen slam shut as she went out or came in at night.

Two take-aways from this story.

• The 53 Merc was my first car. I bought it from Dad when I was twelve in a deal we made that included me not buying a motorscooter. I was still driving it when we moved to Roby…had YOGI across the back glass.
• In many ways these are the “good ol days”. But before we wish for them back we must remember they were signs on water fountains saying “Colored” and “White Only”. Not everything was good.