Ginning was slow in those days. Sometimes it would mean that Papa could get home an hour or two earlier if he could get to the gin ahead of just one other farmer. So, a good team was valuable to a farmer during the cotton harvest season.
I never heard Papa tell of trying to go around another farmer on his way to the gin. But I have heard him tell of speeding up to beat another man to a crossroads in order to be ahead of him when they both turned the last corner toward town. And I have heard him tell of others trying to pass him on the road. But I never heard of one who succeeded. Papa drove big horses with a lot of endurance, and on a three-mile stretch of level road, they usually held their own.
Despite all the work we had to do, we kids played a lot and had a lot of fun. When it rained at the Exum place, water ran out of our pasture, across the parking area by our front yard, and continued on down a road toward the blacksmith shop.
It had just come a hard rain and was still sprinkling a little. So we took shovels and damned up the road where it was deepest and not spread out so much. Water was flowing into our small lake almost as fast as we could build the dam. The water backed up and covered the parking area by our front yard. By the time the water stopped flowing and we stopped building the dam, water was as much as three feet deep over an area as large as two or three city lots.
I don't remember where Frank got his boat. Nor do I know how long he kept it nor whether he built it especially for that occasion. But I do know we went riding in his boat just outside our front yard. They even took Kodak pictures of us in the boat on our little lake.
In two or three days the dam had to be destroyed and the lake drained so we could use the road again and so we could get in and out of our front yard.
The years passed quickly and during the period from 1912 to 1916 things were happening fast in our part of the country. Hamlin was growing up. In the fall of the years, they had their fairs, with their carnivals, large hot-air balloons, motorcycle races and livestock shows. Prosperity was spreading over our country and everyone who wanted to work could get a job.
Frank took his horse and buggy and carried the mail at times, as a substitute carrier. But for some reason unknown to me, he became disenchanted with the job and gave it up.
Papa bought our first auto in 1916. It was a 1914 model Reo, five-passenger touring car—the cost, $800. We drove it until 1922, then junked it.
That Reo car had a feature I have never seen on any other car. The left pedal was a clutch pedal the first half-way down. The remainder of the way down, it became a foot brake. The right pedal was an emergency brake. Both had ratchet-type bars underneath which held them down to the desired place.