I chided Ms Anita Hart Fuller when she said she used to borrow the family car and drive it with the odometer disconnected and the parents never knew what she'd done.
I said, "Anita, there was no such thing done way back then! What kid would know how to disconnect a speed-ometer?"
She has sent me proof. She found it in the funny papers so it must be true. Take a look at this and picture Ms Anita upside down in the floor board of a vehicle disconnecting the odometer!!
That that Don did is hilarious! As I remember, I didn't have to get down in that position to unhook the speedometer, I just leaned down and did it!
And, just for the record, I would do it on my grandmother's little Ford coupe mostly....Truly can't remember doing it on my parent's Dodge (with Fluid Drive)...but probably did.
Barbara, I had forgotten sending that to you!
Anita, I get a lot of mileage out of that 1948 Christmas card with your mug. Let's see, you would have been twelve in that pic.
Here I grew up believing the old "sugar and spice, etc" saying about girls, I thought just us boys did such things. Guess that comes from not having a sister, just an older brother to learn from. She forgot to tell about the part where everyone would pitch in to buy some gas so it wasn't so obvious that we had driven so far.
Don, that makes it perfect! Thanks. That angel face was deceptive!
Anita, do you REALLY think this was wide spread?
Gay, wasn't she cute?
Harold Gene, are you saying you did this trick too? Goodness!! If we folks in Georgia had had cars perhaps I'd have learned how to do it!
Barbara, we did this all the time!!!! Mother wourld let us have the car to go to a movie or whatever and she would say " Now don't you drive on Race Street, It's too dangerous!" So....we just disconnected the odometer, put 50 cents worth of gas in and cruised Race Street all night....that's where all the kids were. When we got home it would show that we had driven around 1 or 2 miles and all was good at home.
Paula's experience with driving around town was that there were several girls that would take turns driving so no one racked up high mileage. Each girl would pay for the gas except one, Carolyn Thompson. Carolyn's mother insisted that she would ask the girls to chip in. Paula thought that was pretty tacky.
Mary! You were doing this too!
Don, I hope Carolyn Thompson does not read this. LOL
Mary, I like that title for Don, Master Mischief Maker.
Anita, Dude gave me a further run-down and said you could put the car or truck up on jacks and run it in reverse and the miles would go backward. Did you do that too!!
Mary: The Thompsons we were refering to were the Lewis Thompsons. They lived on E. Race Street. He was a cotton buyer, I think. Justine was the wife's name, don't think she worked anywhere. Their children were Lewis, Carolyn and Laura Beth. The Fabric Store Thompson was Eva, I THINK....The Thompson of the Pecan shed and Hatchery was Maurice Thompson, his son was Frank Thompson a few years younger than me. Fayrene Thompson, parents and brothers lived down the street from me.on W. Arch.....it was up the street from me I guess, as they were closer to town.....Her brother's were Lawton, Charles and can't remember the third one. And your cousins.....more Thompsons...were not related to any of the others. Janet was in my class at SHS but didn't graduate with us, did they move away? and then there is Don, who is not related to any of them.
I think I have heard of putting the car up on blocks and running the speedometer backwards. Don will tell us how it's done, I'm sure. Just stay tuned.
Never thought of it before, but it IS interesting, isn't it, that all those Thompsons were not related.
I may as well comment on my Thompson family. Grandfather Thompson had a farm along the Little Red River and my father, Alson Virgil Thompson worked in VA Hospitals in Little Rock, Phoenix, AZ and Palo Alto, CA. My Thompsons weren't related to any of the other Thompsons.
Regarding running a car in reverse to back off odometer miles. That worked when the odometer had a mechanical link to the wheels but with modern cars and electronic odometers, you're out of luck.
Unscrupulous used car dealers were known to do the reverse odometer trick to take miles off cars they were selling.
Mary: I did not know Janet had died.....I will pass that along to some of my classmates who knew her. We played basketball together in the 9th grade, but although she was the tallest on the team and would have been a great asset to our team, she didn't make her grades that year so coud not play!
Barbara, do you think Don's "remark" about unscrupulous used car dealers was a little close to home? Just kidding, of course.
I am totally confused with all these Thompson family comments. I had no idea there were somany and that they are all unrelated!
Don solved the odometer trick question. He may have made a touchy remark about car dealers but my understanding is that the trick was common until a law was passed making it illegal? Is that right?
Hello Barbara and a great story and you sure have some fans & friends around here ... "What a Hoot"
VB ;o)
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