Through An 'Old Timer's' Eyes
By Howard 'Mac' McDonald

The crowd under the Big Top cheered and laughed as this miniature automobile came into the tent and parked in the center ring. It backfired, belched a blue cloud of smoke, and then nine clowns climbed out of it.

Those clowns cavorted, did all kinds of antics and then piled back into their cramped quarters and drove out the other end of the tent.

It was July 19, 1939 and it was my birthday. My dad took my brother and me to the Ringling Brothers Circus. This was my first exposure to the circus and also the first time I saw the small car, called "The Baby Austin." This little car got between 40 and 50 miles to the gallon and would be nice to own today.

As I grew older and my interest in automobiles grew, I wanted a fire-breathing animal but could not afford one. My first car after high school was a 1940 Willy's four-door sedan. It got good gas mileage, but I think that was because it broke down a lot. I pushed it more miles than I drove it.

My good friend and neighbor, Joe Jamieson, was one year ahead of me in school. In 1947 when he graduated, his grandmother bought him a 1937 Crosley. Joe was so proud of that car as if it had been a Cadillac. It got good gas mileage and had a radio that would pick up WWVA out of Wheeling, W. Va., the biggest country western station on the air.

One evening Joe stopped at the local company store to get a pack of smokes. He parked behind an International Dump truck loaded with about 16 tons of coal. Joe left the engine running because he was only going to be in the store for a couple of minutes.

The driver of the truck didn't see this small car and backed up over top of it. It squashed that Crosley like it was a pop can. To add insult to injury, because the engine was running it caught fire. I didn't see it, but I guess there wasn't much left of Joe's Crosley.

I have owned a 1956 VW Beetle and a 1962 Karmann Ghia. The old Beetle had the small engine and top speed going downhill was 65 mph. If you had a head wind, the speed would drop off. The Ghia was more powerful and it would fly.

In 1967, I transferred to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and stopped at my mother's. She asked me to drive her to the grocery store, but when she saw I was driving a Ghia she would not get in.

"Son, I wouldn't ride around the block in that Nazi footlocker," she said.

The movie, "The Italian Job," featured a car called the "Mini Cooper." The things they did with that small car sure made a fan out of me. Our neighbors the Stoltzes up the street have one and it is pretty sharp-looking hunk of iron.

Of course, who can afford to drive a car any more? The price of gas could be going up above $4.00 a gallon this year, which I guess is news to our President.

As I write this, gas costs $3.15.9 per gallon in St. Marys and $3.19.9 a gallon in Emporium. If you find out why, give me a call.