Dad in the Driver's Seat

This family story may appear quite remarkable in this day of regulations and warnings on everything from a cup of hot coffee to every part on a motorized vehicle. Dad related this to me in 2010.

            In the late 1930s, Bill McFadden, the father of Helen McFadden Buxton, operated a mechanic's garage in Fairfax. As he visited with Edmund Gates, Sr., my paternal  grandfather, Mr. McFadden said, "Ed, your boys are getting old enough to drive. You need to buy a pickup."

       Evidently, Grandpa had been thinking about "getting up with the times" - favorite phrase of my father's. So Grandpa bought a used 1937 green International pickup right there on the spot. He knew this newfangled mode of transportation would be much faster than the horse-drawn wagon or buggy. Using either the wagon or buggy required a half day to get to Fairfax. Then the rest of the day to return the 14 miles back to the Gates' place in the northwest side of the Bend.

Martha, my father's sister who is about six years younger
than him. She is posing in front of the Green 1937
 International pickup. What an asset and source of pride
to the Gates farm and family in that era of time!

        Chuck Shell, the younger brother-in-law of Bill McFadden, worked at the garage. Chuck was the brother of Bill's wife, Bertha Shell McFadden. (Bertha would later be a dear neighbor of mine when I taught scbool in Fairfax.) Chuck drove the newly-purchased pickup, with Grandpa and my father, Edmund Gates, Jr., as his passengers,out to the hill next to the Fairfax Cemetery on the north.

         Chuck's driver's training for Dad consisted of this brief instruction. Keep in mind that my father had never driven a motor vehicle in his life! Nevertheless, Chuck, only two years older than Dad, coached him by saying, "Edmund, drive in the middle of the road. If you see someone coming, get over so they can pass."

        With that ultra-condensed version of drivers' ed, Grandpa and Dad headed west on the dirt road. Fortunately, Dad recalled few cars were on the "trail" that day. 

        Dad's prerequisites to his inaugural driving excursion consisted of having ridden in the car with his maternal grandpa, Bob Black, driving. Dad had watched closely from the back seat as his grandpa drove. Those experiences with his grandpa gave him a working knowledge of the clutch, the brake, the foot pedal, and the gear shift, but he had never been behind the wheel. 

        Since Grandpa was profoundly hearing impaired, my father assumed the role of the family driver until he went to World War II. The family driver position was held by whomever was the oldest child still living at home.

        My grandmother, Mamie Tripp Gates, tried unsuccessfully to drive. Grandpa sought to give her directions even though he had never driven a motor vehicle. This made Grandma too nervous to safely maneuver the Gates' family vehicle. Her issue was not her inability to drive but being unable to ignore Grandpa as he tried to tell her how to operate a vehicle he never had driven himself!

         In that day and time, when Chuck Shell turned the wheel over to Dad, no drivers' licenses were required. No insurance proof was needed in those days either.
        As simplistic as it may sound, most parents, in those days were preoccupied with trying to do their best for their children so their families could "get by" - not "get ahead" but just "eak by." They would never have conceived of the many requirements not only to own, but to drive a car. Several of our staunchly independent ancestors would have interpreted these regulations as "excessive government overreach." Yet these people who survived the Great Depression with long days of backbreaking work retained a strong moral compass. It usually translated as simply treating others the way they wanted to be treated. So oversight and a myriad of laws seemed unnecessary since they daily tried to live out the Golden Rule. Why did they need someone to tell them what they already knew and implemented each day?
        Our ancestors would never understand the need for tamper-proof containers for food, medicine, makeup, and 1,000, 001 other items. Security systems, locks, and home surveillance equipment would seem an unthinkable expense from a limited family income. A mutual respect for what one's neighbor had acquired and the preciousness of human life undergirded most of our forebearers. A couple of foundational truths guided their lives. They believed God saw everything that a person did and secondly, that each human being would one day be held accountable for those actions. These two tenets drove community members to look out for the wellbeing of each other as taught in the Scriptures. (See I Corinthians 10:24, Philippians 2:4, and Romans 15:2).

         I seldom clip articles but one tiny printed piece caught my eye recently. It was a quote by our second president, John Adams. He said, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

         Solomon wrote, "Doing right brings honor to a nation, but sin brings disgrace." As the king during the era in ancient Israeli history dubbed, "the golden era," Solomon and his subjects reaped the benefit of the godliness of the previous generation.

          Laws are good but only if citizens obey them because they realize they are for the good of the individual and the community as a whole. A government will never thrive if its citizens must be monitored or "made" to do the right thing. May we search our hearts and seek God's way for us to live each day to honor the principles on which our nation was founded.