<TITLE>16. Par 53-55</TITLE>L-53 And so he said, "I tell you; I will take my girlfriend, and you take your girlfriend," and said, "we'll take them riding in my dad's old Ford," said, "if I can get the thing started." Said, "How much money can you rake up?"
I said, "I don't know." So we raked up enough to get two gallon of gasoline. We had about forty cents between us.
He said, "Now, we got to get them something, some soft drinks, or ice cream, or something."
So I said, "Well, you do the driving of the Ford, and I will do the buying." So I--I put the forty cents in my pocket. So He--he--he took... He was going to drive the Ford. And we got our old Ford and jacked the back wheel up, you know. And you know how you used to have to spin it and crank? My, my. We got her started, and down the road we went, and got our girls.
Well, I set in the back seat, you know. And my, I looked over her; I thought, "You know, maybe they're not all that way." But... I was changing my mind. So she'd look over, she said, "It's pretty tonight, isn't it?"
I said, "Yes, ma'am."

L-54 So we stopped at a little place, just about a square from where I live right now, a little old place called... a little old drive-in of affair. So I said... I... Jimmy Poole and I, we had it all made up what we was going to say, you know. And I--I said, "Jimmy, I'm kind of thirsty." And I said, "Don't you think we ought to stop?"
And he said, "Yes." And so we pulled in. So he says; he said, "I will go get it." And he didn't even have a dime, and I had his money, and I said, "Never mind, Jimmy. Just a minute, I will go get it." See?
So he and I go. Sandwich for--for a nickel, great big baloney sandwich for a nickel, you know, and got onion and everything on it. So we--we come back out. And I had some Cokes, you know. And oh, was we--was we somebody then. We set there and drink these Cokes, you know, and eat these baloney sandwiches, the girls and all of us; we talked, you know.
And so, then I went back to take the Cokes back, and it was just about the time that girls begin to act smart, begin to come smart alecks, smoking cigarettes. When I come back out, to my surprise my little queen was smoking a cigarette. Well, I've always had my opinion of a woman who'd smoke a cigarette, and I haven't changed it yet. It's the lowest thing she ever done. That's right. It's just as bad as drinking.

L-55 Go ahead, I see your faces getting red. But let me tell you something, let me tell... Mama... It'll be good for you; it'll help you. Now, don't get up, I will know, and the rest of them will know you're guilty.
Look, let me tell you. Mama used to tell me... When I was a kid, we had to... we... To get our grease we'd have to boil meat skins in a pan, you know. And we'd have to take a lot of medicine, and every Saturday night, a bath in an old cedar tub, and hold our nose and take castor oil: every Saturday night. I can't even stand the thoughts of the thing now.
And I used to hold my nose and gag; I said, "Oh, mama, please, don't. Please don't. Please don't. That big old spoon that old greasy looking stuff. Oh, mama, please don't, it makes me so sick."


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