I was called to remember another great childhood memory the other day after reminiscing on Joel’s “Rockingham Memories” website. I was clicking through the John Dubose Collection of old building photographs long ago taken in our small textile hometown. One of these pictures was a very old picture of the old Walker-Carr motor company.
Joel has always encouraged me to put these memories in story form and share them with others instead of just sending him an email with a comment. This old picture triggered an immediate flashback and once again became very vivid in my memory, The more I gazed at this old black and white photograph, the more I could remember the good times spent there as a boy. I could once again hear the stories and jokes that were told just as if it were only yesterday. I can still smell the burnt oil and exhaust fumes from the garage area. I can hear the racing of the engines as they were being tuned up by the mechanics. I can still smell the indescribable, distinctive and pleasant aroma of the leather in the brand new automobiles on the showroom floor. Most of all, I could once again taste the unmatchable taste of a small 8 oz. Coke in an old green glass bottle. Suddenly, I could once again see the many different men and boys that would gather there on any given Saturday morning. I could once again hear the stories and jokes that were told just as if it were only yesterday. Worth Walker, my Dad (Dick Smith), J. P. Phifer, Clegg Yates, Leroy Yates. Leon Jenkins, Jim Perry, Frank Stilwell, L. F. McCaskill, Ike Isenhart, Judge Pittman, Paul Scholls, Tom Covington, Happy Covington, Bill Poplin, Bob Bryson, Ralph Harris, James & John Pittman, Elsie Webb, and on, and on, and on. These men and many more, too numerous to name, were all gathered there on any given Saturday morning. The men would bring their son’s with them. Sometimes even a daughter would appear. I know one thing for sure, I have spent many a happy moment on a lazy Saturday morning in this old Chrysler dealership with my Dad and the men and boys from around our town.
The co-owner of this car dealership was the father of one of my classmates, W. G. Walker (RHS '64). The W. G. stood for Worth Galloway. Mr. Walker went by Worth and his son simply by the initials, W. G.
Walker-Carr Motor Company used to be the Chrysler dealership in town. My Dad never owned any other type automobile as I was growing up other than a Plymouth, so much so that Mr. Walker and Dad’s friends would tease him by telling him that when he died, they would have to bury him on the end of the Chrysler assembly line. I can still remember the Chrysler TV advertisement that listed the car models in the Chrysler line. They were, and in order: “Plymouth, Dodge, DeSota, Chrysler, And The Exclusive Imperial”
You might ask yourself! Why in the world would one of your fondest memories of growing up be of going to a car dealership on Saturdays with your Dad? Let me share.
As everyone knows that Rockingham was hometown to, Friday night was football night; therefore, Saturday morning was the logical time to gather anywhere and discuss the winning ways of the mighty Rockets and our beloved Coach Bill Eutsler from the night before. If it was not football season then, then shoot, we could always talk about college basketball, major league baseball or the even Friday night fights on TV, sponsored by the likes of Gillette and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.
Dad and I would get up early on Saturday morning. Mama would have breakfast prepared for us, and once we were through helping her clean the table, we would depart for Walker-Carr Motor Company. Just to chase a rabbit, I can remember that the only thing that would hinder this departure was if Mama had plans to rake the pine straw in the front and back yard. I swore to myself that if I ever owned a house, there would not be a single long leaf pine tree anywhere in site, much less in the my yard. I didn’t even want to be close enough to them that there was a chance that those hellacious needles would even blow into my yard from a neighbor’s house. I fulfilled this promise to myself.
Mr. Walker’s establishment was located almost at the top of the hill and at the corner of Mill Street and US 1 South. Dad would park his Plymouth outside and we would enter through the big garage door, and immediately go to the right side wall and open the slider-type Coke cooler and grab a good ol’ Short-Necked 8 Oz. Coke a piece. Dad would always let me get mine and his, just because it was so much fun retrieving them out of the old slider type Coke cooler box.
The cost? One nickel! Five cents! Occasionally we would even be able to buy a pack of what we referred to as “Bus’-Opens”:
(Lance Cheese Nabs - Lance Toast Chee With Rich ‘N Creamy Peanut Butter) delivered and stocked by another of my Dad’s friends, Jim Perry (Mike’s Dad). They were referred to as such because you would “BUS ‘EM OPN’ & EAT ‘EM”.
After we purchase our cokes we would always go back to the left side of the big garage door near the show room floor, because Mr. Walker didn’t want us to block the entrance to the garage bays where the mechanics worked. The entire group of men and boys would then begin to play what was referred to as "Travel" and, as you will see was properly titled. To win, you had to have purchased a Coke, and the name of the city o the bottom of your bottle were the bottling company was located listed on the bottom had to be the furthest distance away from Rockingham, NC.
Everyone sought to be in possession of one that was bottled in Hilo, Hawaii, as that was the Coke bottling company that, at the time, was the farthest distance from good ol’ Rockingham, NC in the ‘50’s. Following are some other bottlers that you could pull from the old cooler.
The rules of this game were very simple. Whoever possessed the bottle that was bottled at a Coca-Cola bottling facility the farthest distance from Rockingham won the pot. We would simply deposit our nickel into the coin slot, slide the Coke to the end of the tracks and lift it out of the bottle locking mechanism that had now been released and opened when you lifted the bottle. There was also a trick you had to remember when retrieving your drink from these old “Slider Coolers”. You must keep a constant pressure on your Coke as you lifted it out of the mechanism. If you didn’t or if it slipped out of you hands and fell down, the only way to get your purchased drink was to either get someone with a key (Mr. Walker) to open the grate, or put more money in. This mishap would occur more often than you would think. Looking back at it now, some men had a better knack of retrieving their Coke than others. I even remember them betting that someone would not be able to retrieve the Coke. I also remember Mr. Walker putting more money in the machine to retrieve a Coke out of his pocket so that he wouldn’t have to constantly unlock the sliding mechanism to retrieve it.
Once you had your Coke in hand, you were then best served to drink the Coke first before turning the bottle upside-down to check the city, because if you did turn the Coke upside down it would then spew all over everybody when you popped the cap. You had to be careful though and not drink too fast or you would get a “brain freeze”. I vividly remember the Cokes that came out of Mr. Walker’s cooler were so cold that they had ice flakes in them when you popped the cap. You couldn’t cheat in this game, because, you had to slide the Coke out of the old slider cooler upright; therefore, you were unable to view the bottom of the bottle. A lot of times you could win with just a Charlotte, N. C. because there were always a lot of Hamlet, N. C.’s due to the geographical location. I will always remember that during all the years we played “Travel” I garnered only one Hilo, Hawaii in all those attempts .
Not every week, but sometimes, Dad would buy me a Coke and pack of “Bus’ Opens”, but there was a decision to be made. If I were to be allowed to play “Travel” with the rest of the men, then I had to buy my own Coke and be able to cover my own losses with my money, allowance, or whatever you want to call it. It probably was not right for us to gamble, but it did teach us a lesson as to not bet on anything if you couldn’t cover the bet, but winning was surely “COOL”. Shoot, if you won, you could stand there all morning long and drink Coke after Coke, eat multiple packs of “Bus’ Opens” and even buy some peanuts to put in your Coke (this is the only picture I could find with peanuts in a glass Coke bottle, and yes I know that it’s not a picture of the old green bottle).
There’s nothing better than the Southern tradition of pouring peanuts in a good ol’ Coke after you’ve taken the first swallow. There just nothing like a crunchy salty tasting Coke. Sometimes, we would take home an unopened coke and some peanuts, because even Mama liked ‘em.
As if this was not as much fun as any youngster could muster wanting to have, you could also make all the Coke buttons you wanted. They were super fun to make and wear. If you’ve never made one, check this out. It’s amazing what you can do with a little imagination.
The ol’ 8 oz. “Dopes”, as some of us referred to them as, or Cokes had a metal bottle cap that looked like this. The inside of which was made like this and lined with a cork insert.
Now, if you were really careful, you could take you “Old Timer” jackknife (just like Daddy’s) ream around the outside of the cork and carefully pry out the entire cork insert in one full piece. You could then, with your left hand, take the Coke bottle cap and hold it right-side up on the outside of your tee shirt. Then you would take the cork insert and stick it up under the inside of your tee shirt and then push it really hard back into the bottle cap, pressing the material of the tee shirt into the bottle cap. Da-Da!!! - you have an instant “Coke Button”. Ain’t it amazing the simple things that gave us pleasure and also cause us to remember them in our old age?
All of the above shenanigans could take all mornin’ long if you could get your Dad to just stay. just a little bit longer. It was so cool! All we did was just lean up again the wall of the garage or the old slider type Coke box there at Walker-Carr Motor Company and shoot the bull. Shoot, if we could get there early enough, it was possible that you could remain hypnotized in this time warp for as long as three hours. I know that for me it never lasted long enough; however, in retrospect those times spent with my Dad and the other men and boys of our little textile town of Rockingham, NC have not only remained a fond memory but also one that has become etched within my memory and will remain for a lifetime.