52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. Week 9: Sounds. Describe any sounds that take you back to your childhood. These could be familiar songs, jingles, children playing, or something entirely different.
"Unsafe at Any Speed"
Putt-putt, putt-putt, putt-putt. Silence as the car comes around the corner. Putt-putt, putt-putt, putt-putt. Again, silence. A few seconds later, the muffled noise of a car door closing and the jangling of the front door opening and closing. The tapping of shoes on a hardwood floor. Daddy’s home!
Early in his practice as a dentist, my dad would often get home from the office after we had been put to bed. I used to love the sound of the Chevy Corvair (yes, “unsafe at any speed”) as it rounded the corner to our house. We called it the “putt-putt car" because of the noise it made driving into the neighborhood. Nearly every night, Dad would come home with a little something for me and my brother and sister. Sometimes a little toy, often some sort of candy. Yes, I know, candy from the dentist; but as long as we brushed our teeth well, it was no problem.
In thinking about writing this post, I decided that I wanted more details about the car from my mom. The first thing she told me was that the car was actually hers. Apparently my dad told her he was taking her to a baseball game in Portland, but instead took her to the Chevy dealer and told her the white Corvair with the red interior was hers! Mom can’t remember what year it was, but we guess about 1962 or 1963. She loved the car. She said that they even took it back to Idaho one year – she can’t recall if my brother and I sat in the back, with my sister in a carrier by mom’s feet, or if she was pregnant with my sister. Jeepers! What a ride that would be!
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| Not our Corvair, but very similar |
The only problem that mom remembers having with the car is that the accelerator pedal would get stuck. Just a minor issue! Once when they were coming home from the Washington Coast the pedal stuck. She said it took a bit of work, but dad finally was able to reach down and release it somehow.
The best thing about this whole blog post prompt: After our talk about the “putt-putt” car, mom said that she should really write all of this stuff down. I told her that I have been hoping to interview her and we have made plans to talk next week!
So, thank you Amy and Thomas for providing these blogging prompts. It brought up a lot of happy memories and helped me get the interview with my mom arranged!
