Sometimes it is nice to let other people tell the story. And this is one of them. (Sometime, I will tell the story of my road trip with my aunt Ladeen. But this time, I'll let her tell about a trip with her Grandmother Martha Alice Benton Godley and her Aunt Velma Leavelle Wallace!
Westward Ho! (1950)
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| Ladeen, Nettie Ida, and Lavonne |
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| Evelyn and Velma, Buddy, Aubrey, Alton and Travis |
Grandmother Leavelle, Lavonne, and I were going back to California by bus, after spending the summer in Pennsylvania. Aunt Velma got to calculation what three bus tickets would cost. With our bus money and some of hers, she bought a '38 Pontiac in 1950. (Ladeen's note: Wasn't she spunky?!)
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| 1939 Plymouth 2 Door |
I was 15 and Lavonne 13. I grew up on a tractor and knew how to shift and drive. Daddy would let me take the tractor to the store when I was so small, I'd have to jump off the seat to engage the clutch and the brakes. I had also driven my boyfriend's hot rod quite a bit, but I had no license. Aunt Velma was the only legal driver, but off we went across the country. We kept going until we got to relative's homes. (No motels)
We ate out of a picnic basket except at relative's houses. I have a tendency to go to sleep every time I'm in a moving vehicle. I guess I come by it rightly. Aunt Velma fought sleepiness a lot. I talked her into letting me drive. As soon as I got behind the wheel, she'd wake up. Sometimes she spread a quilt on the grass on the side of the road to take a nap and that was very boring to us. Perhaps that's when I nagged her into letting me drive. Lavonne and I wrote down every "Burma Shave" advertisement and collected a leaf from every state. I wish I'd kept them!
When we got to relatives' homes, they gave their spare beds to the adults, and we kids slept on the floor. We made pallets with quilts-no egg crate foam or air mattresses. I woke up sore and stiff one morning-at least I must have complained that I was, and someone said, "Ladeen's a woman now if it bothers her to sleep on the floor." That made it almost worth the pain.
Aunt Velma insisted I not go over 50 MPH and I didn't. She insisted we stop for gasoline every hundred miles. I'm sure by then someone had to go to the bathroom anyway. She even let me drive at night, she told me to wake her up and let her drive through the towns. She'd be sleeping so good, I'd sneak right on through the towns. It seemed a shame to wake her up.
We visited Alabama kin folks, East Texas kin folks, and I think Uncle Aubrey and Aunt Grace lived in Oklahoma then and we may have visited them too. I wish I had kept a diary. The main thing I remember about visiting in Mt. Aire, N.M. at Uncle Alton and Aunt Francis' home, is she made enchiladas, with a fried egg right on top, I loved them.
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| Aubrey |
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| Aubrey |
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| Aubrey and Grace |
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| Alton |
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| Francis |
The only trouble we had with the old car is, we had to get the radiator flushed out once out in the desert. And another day we had a flat. First you hope someone will stop, then you're afraid they might. Sure enough, two drunk sailors came by. Thank the Lord Aunt Velma already had the tire nearly fixed. We got in and took off. (My, wasn't she self-sufficient.) She kept the tire iron out and put it beside her between the driver's seat and the door. After some slick maneuvering on her part, we finally lost the sailors who had followed us! I'm not sure how long the trip took, but we all enjoyed it.
After a nice visit in California, Aunt Velma sold the car to Uncle Buddy to pay her way back to Pennsylvania. Maurice hot-rodded the car and blew the engine out a short time later.
If any of you remember any details, I don't remember, if there are things that I've forgotten or aren't accurate, please write or email me.
Mainly I want to keep the memory of my auntie and Grandmother alive.
(Written by Maryon Ladeen Lindbeck Ring)
So who are these people?
Grandmother Leavelle is Nettie Ida Godley Leavelle. Lavonne is Marlita Lavonne Lindbeck Taylor, Ladeen's sister. Aunt Velma is Mary Velma Leavelle Wallace. Uncle Aubrey is John Aubrey Leavelle, son of Nettie Ida and Grace is his wife, Grace Beavers Leavelle. Uncle Alton is Wilbur Alton Leavelle, another of Nettie Ida's sons, and Francis Martin is his wife. Uncle Buddy is another son, Elvin Rufus Leavelle and. Maurice is Travis' son. (Uncle Buddy was my grandmother, Evalyn's twin.)
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| Evalyn and Elvin (Buddy) |
And what is the world were Burma Shave Signs? Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small sequential highway roadside signs. One of them was: Cheer up, face – the war is over! Burma-Shave. Small signs would be posted along the edge of highways, spaced for sequential reading by passing motorists.
Other examples were:
Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave;
Does your husband / Misbehave / Grunt and grumble / Rant and rave / Shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave;
Past / Schoolhouses / Take it slow / Let the little / Shavers grow / Burma-Shave;
Slap /The Jay/ With /Iron / Scrap/ Burma-Shave;
The last signs were in 1963 but the method of using consecutive signs to entice people continues.
The road trip sounds like fun but a little scary. We sure couldn't get away with that type of trip now!
Donna Evalyn Mohney
December 8, 2022
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