Family Reunion

You never know what you might find out at family reunions. This is a story my dad told this past weekend.

Dad was 15 when he decided to join the army. Although he wasn’t old enough to join, he and a buddy of his set out to California via hitch-hiking. Along the way, a large man in a brand new 1946 Chrysler picked them up. Sometimes the man would stop in different towns and do some pool hustling. He told the boys they would have to wait in the car and that he might be an hour. This went on all day and they stopped that night in Rawlins, Wyoming. It was raining when they checked in but the roads were covered with ice and snow the next morning. They hadn’t gone down the road far when the car slid off the road. The man told them they were lucky he was a good driver or they would have been in trouble. They continued a little further and when they were going around a curve, the car slid off the road again and this time went down a ravine. The car rolled over 4 times and each time, Dad said the fat man would land on him. It was a miracle none of them were killed. The car landed on its side and it took a while for enough people to stop that could help push the car back on its wheels. Dad said the man was extremely frustrated and began to blame them for his bad luck. He told them that they jinxed him and he took them back to town they had just left. He let them out and drove away. Sometime later my Dad recognized him on TV…. Minnesota Fats.

By the way, my dad did succeed in joining the army at 15 years old. He persuaded an old drunk to pose as his father and say he was old enough to join.