The Quiet in Snow

Posted on by Beth Powell

When it snows and it’s all quiet, it takes me back to my favorite memory with my dad. He plowed snow in the winter at the local Jamesway discount store and A & P grocery store in Somerset, PA in the 1970’s.

He would get up very early in the morning so it would be all plowed before employees started arriving. The stores were supposed to put up all shopping carts the night before.

This started with a WWII truck. The battery was on the passenger floorboard. When I would ride, I would rest my feet on the battery with instructions to avoid the battery terminals.

The next truck was a former municipal truck that was much bigger. It was an International. It was a great step up.

The last truck that he used he built. It was a 5-ton dump that we bought from surplus. He engineered to put a 250 Cummins and 5-speed in it and custom painted it. He put boards on the bed for advertising. It was an exceptional piece of equipment.

I didn’t get to ride with my dad all the time. Some days I would have school. In those days we didn’t get out of school for bad weather! On days that I didn’t have school or the weekend I loved to ride along. It was so quiet and peaceful.

He would make a circle around the parking lot and keep going around and around. I see people today go in straight lines back and forth and just don’t get it. It’s so efficient to go around and keep going around smaller and smaller circles around the parking lot.

We would plow the up to the light poles. Occasionally there would be a random shopping cart that didn’t get put inside the store. We would joke about it and plow it up in a huge pile of snow around the light pole. They would find it in the spring!

We started plowing across the street at the bank and Kentucky Fried Chicken. We also plowed our long driveway in the woods.

Often on days off from school there was a tiny little gas station up the road that was run by a friend of my dad’s. It wasn’t as big as a convenience store today. There was a little device similar to a toaster oven but super fast for packaged sandwiches. They only had a few sandwiches. My favorite was the chuckwagon. I have no idea what it was about that sandwich, but to this day I love a good chuckwagon sandwhich. It must have something to do with the memory of good times with my dad.

This is one photo of the last truck. I know I have other photos of the other truck too somewhere in my collection.

Some of my Shenanigans

Posted on by Beth V Powell

It’s time to share my stories. There are a bunch!

This photo was taken about 1980 give or take. The green ’60 Studebaker Lark was the nicest one we’d ever owned. We had only ’60 Larks except for two 1962’s. This one we spotted off the turnpike exit. I don’t remember how my dad managed to find the owner, but the owner was a salesman who said the engine blew up. I think he had to rent a car. Yes, he wanted to sell it.

My dad bought the car and since we had a lot of 259 ci V8 engines for Studebakers it was easy enough to swap it out. The building you see in the background was our 40′ x 50′ shop he built before moving our mobile home from a mobile home court to the property. He did the engine swap inside the shop. My mother never went into the shop. I don’t think I realized what his plan was.

This car was super clean, had a wonderful paint job, had fender skirts (that I have today), a hood ornament, padded dash and reclining seats. It was a regal package with most every option. The push button radio worked and it was an automatic. It also had a professional, heavy duty 3 hole punch in the trunk that was just a big find! I have kept that punch with me all my life. I was in high school at the time and now am 62 at this writing so that hole punch has been my pride and joy for over 4 decades. Yes, I am a nerd!!!

My dad polished the car and kept it in the shop. Then he ran a string from it and all through the woods and up and down the creek. It ended at the home attached to a small package about the size of a jewelry box with a note to follow the string. He made it as a gift for my mother as a really nice car to be proud to drive to work.

This photo of the two cars together was one of my shenanigans that I got in trouble for more than once. The convertible was my car that I got for my 16th Christmas gift. That would’ve been 1979. It was white at the time and just like the one my dad got as his high school graduation gift it had the 259 ci V8, 3 speed (on the tree) and overdrive (OD). I had it painted red so it would just like the one my dad had. (Can you tell I’m a Daddy’s girl?)

The green Lark had radial tires which was a new thing for us. My convertible had bias ply tires. I would park them side by side like shown and swap all four. I can tell from this photo that the green Lark had my bias ply tires in the photo because besides the winter treads in the rear, I can clearly see the red rims on the green car. I would get better mileage with the radials. I was obsessed with mileage and tried my best to get 25-30 mpg. I would have to swap back when my dad noticed the red rims on the green car. I did this at least twice.

Indecently, the German Shepherd in both photos was Obi Wan Kenobi. She was a female and I was obsesses with Star Wars when it came out, but only the Jedi. I decided that Obi sounded like a uni-sexual name. That was on her AKC registration. Yep, color me a nerd!