Last week I recounted how I was with my Dad, Uncle Glen, and my brother Donal in Artesia, NM when my youngest sister was born in Oct, 1938 at Mount Pleasant, Titus Co., TX. Shortly after receiving the news, Dad decided to go back to be with Mother. We went back to Marietta, OK to leave Uncle Glenn there and then we headed for Mount Pleasant, TX to get Mother and see the new baby. On the trip back from New Mexico the clutch on the car had started slipping worse which made climbing the hills a slow process. Dad also had the problem of the tires on the car getting worn out. Two of the tires had gotten so bad [worn out] that Dad was forced to buy two new tires to replace them. But he decided to "make do" with the other two. For a little background to what follows: It would be hard for young people today to understand what automobile tires were like in the 1930s. The only cords I remember that were used in tires at that time were cotton cords. [ Rayon, and steel belted tires came later.] So if one could not afford to have all his tire repairs done at a tire shop or garage; he would carry a jack, tire pump, and a patch kit for repairing flats on the road. As the tire tread got thin, there was an increase of the chance that a small rock on the road could cause an break in the tire cords on the inside of the tire. So, along with patches for the tire tube [no tubless tires then] a supply of "boots" were carried along to place in the tire to cover internal breaks to reinforce the weak spot in the tire as well as keeping the break in the cords from pinching the tube causing it to lose the air. There were also "tire liners" which would go inside the tire to reinforce the whole tire. And if one could not afford to buy some of these "supplies" he would make them. Now for the trip from Marietta, OK to Mount Pleasant, TX and back. ... The distance from Marietta to Mt. Pleasant is about 165 miles. It took us the better part of two days to make the trip. Donal told me that on the trip from Marietta to Mt. Pleasant and back we had thirteen flats and blowouts !! This meant that we spent lots of time along side of the road repairing tires and tubes and pumping air into them. [Most of the air for the tires was supplied by me and Donal working a hand pump.] I remember Dad taking blownout tires that had good tread and trimming the beads off so that they could be slipped over a bald tire. He would peel the tread off bald tires that had good casings, to make inner liners. He would rivet boots inside of tires that had holes where they had blownout; but had "too good a tread to throw away." I don't remember much about the visit with Grandma and Grandpa Sackett. Probably because it was mostly an "adult world" there. Mother was the 11th of 12 children. So most of her siblings had married and moved away from Mt. Pleasant. Of the three sisters who still lived in Mt. Pleasant, two of them, Mae and Ione, were childless. Aunt Ophelia had one daughter who was the same age as my brother Donal. So most of my associations with my Sackett cousins came after we moved to Yuma, AZ where three of Mother's sisters and her younger brother lived. Two of those cousins were in the same high school class with me. While in Mt. Pleasant; I do remember that it was something of a shock to me when Grandma Sackett wanted me to kiss her and she had snuff in her mouth. Recently my sister Elysse expressed the same thought to me about when Grandma Sackett would say: "Come here and kiss Grandma." Ah, that generation and their snuff !! While we were in Mt. Pleasant there was a picture taken of our family. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~teking/sackett_docs/pictures/193 8-fam.jpg Well, on the way back to Marietta from Mount Pleasant Dad, Donal and Mother were in the front seat with the rest of us in the rear seat. Not far from Mt. Pleasant, near Talco, TX a radiator hose broke filling the car with steam making it impossible to see. Donal was sitting in the middle of the front seat with the gear shift and emergency brake levers between his legs. [Now, I have neglected to say that Dad had also been having a problem with the hydrolic brakes on the car leaking fluid so in order to save fluid he had been using the emergency brake to make normal stops and had allowed Donal to do some of the breaking.] So, when the car filled with steam; Donal grabbed the emergency brake and locked up the rear wheels. When the car came skidding to a stop, Dad not only had a radiator hose to repair; but there were two rear tires with flat spots in the tread !! When we got back to Marietta our family of five moved into a three room house [shack?] with Grandma and Grandpa King and my cousin Joyce, who is 10 months younger than me ... But thats another story. Thurmon