Reflections

A few months later our fun times in Florida were interrupted. That woman that had bought dad the red car, turns out daddy had tricked her and run off with that new car and the money she’d bribed him with. Well now her husband had somehow found out and wanted the car and cash back, and or daddy’s body dead or alive. He’d found out where we were living and came looking for dad and the car with his bodyguards. Dad must have known he was lurking around cause he hid the car and also made himself scarce. One day while me and mom were at Gin’s visiting and daddy was at work, the bad men come to Gin’s house looking for dad and or the car. Mom answered the door and told them that he wasn’t there. I guess when he saw dad nor the car was there, they thought they’d just take mom. One of the men stepped onto the porch and took her arm telling her that she was going with them. Mom was about 8 ½ months pregnant with my sister at the time. He was trying to pull mom from the doorway and off the porch about that time my aunt stepped into the doorway. Then out from under her apron she took this big long gun she called Blacky. She pointed it at the man and told him, "You take your hands off her this minute and get your ass off my property or I’ll shoot you both dead where you’re standing." The man let go of mom and stepped off the porch. The woman’s husband had a bad leg, walked on a cane and was still standing beside the porch. He looked at my aunt and said, "You wouldn’t shoot a crippled man would you?" My aunt replied, "The hell I won’t. You stand there another few seconds and they can carry your dead ass out in a body bag along with your buddy there. Don’t make any difference to me!" The men left that day, but there were many other occasions. Dad had been playing hide and seek with the car for months now and they were really getting mad. One night they shot at us as we run from them in that car. I had to lay down in the back floorboard as we raced through the night on sand roads through the orange groves. The bad men were not just trying to get the car back now but some kind of satisfaction. For some reason after that last shooting episode the ordeal with the red car had seemed to calm down lately. Then one night Red, daddy and me had went to the wrestling matches down town and drove the red car for some reason. After the show when we come out the red car was gone and we had no way home. We called Gin and mom to come pick us up. Soon after that we found out there was a warrant for dad’s arrest for fraud and grand theft auto. The sheriff of our hometown in Kentucky came to Florida arrested dad and took him back to Kentucky. Since the car was actually in dad’s name he got out of the auto theft charges. And as for the cash, there was really no proof. The man got the car back and dad was cleared of all charges. The last time dad and the man were face to face was at the courthouse getting on the elevator. He cussed at dad and swore, "I’m not finished with you, you little bastard. I’ll get you someday; it may not be today, tomorrow or next week, but some how I’ll get you." For a long while after that we all lived with death threats. Luckily nothing ever happened. Now it’s been over 43 years and he hasn’t got him yet. A few years later we heard that woman had killed herself. What an awful story but true.