In about 1955 after a drought on the farm, my father moved to Sea Drift, Texas where I started to school but was only there for a few months before moving to school at Port Lavaca. My father worked for a car dealership in running a wrecking yard on the edge of town. That location now has a freeway passing through it. We lived on the premises of the wrecking yard in a small travel trailer. My father’s job was to dismantle all of the wrecked cars that were brought to the site. Each part was removed from every car piece by piece and placed inside an old house where the parts were sold to anyone who needed an old, but working part for their car. After each car was dismantled it was dragged to the back and stored for a while. After 30 or so cars were accumulated a crusher would be brought in and each car was crushed and loaded onto a truck and hauled away.
Being a 9-10 year old boy, my dad allowed me to help him take the cars apart. I helped remove just about every car part except the engine—that was too dangerous for me at my age. Even some of the engines we would take apart—remove the carburetors, starters, heads, etc., until just the block remained. I think in the spring of 1956 we moved back to the farm to try another year of farming.
I think I could still now work on the old cars at age 74, but the newer cars of today are an impossibility.
Jenk (5-9-2020)