Here's why brother Mike may have had to buy the steering wheel:
(copied from Mike's blog...where he wrote):
I think it was the summer of 1967 I know it was in August because the fair was going. They actually canceled the remainder of the fair because of the damage caused at the fairgrounds. There were three big Black Walnut trees along the road in front of the Log Cabin. The two that you can see in Nancy's picture don't seem to be that big but they were probably 2-3' in diameter. Harry Schwimmer, a neighbor and regular at the Log Cabin, was working for the telephone company and was burying cable along route 2 with a trencher. Dad was giving him a hard time about tearing up his driveway but going on the other side of route 2 was not an option, so as they went along with the trencher the operator brushed the trunk of one of the walnut trees scraping off a little more bark from a tree that had already been hit multiple times by cars. So of course Dad did not let this opportunity go by to give Harry a little more grief about hitting his tree as well as tearing up his driveway. Harry responded with the comment that he didn't think it hurt the tree that much and that it was not going to fall over that night and would probably be there for a long time.
Well......that very same night a big storm blew up in the middle of the night and took down all three of the Walnut trees as well as a big Boxelder tree that was by the back corner of the store. We were in the basement during the storm and I can remember Dad coming down and reporting that the Boxelder tree had fallen across our car which was sitting in the driveway. I don't remember much else from that night but I do remember the next moring when we were out surveying the damage, seeing the stunned look on Uncle Waynes's face when he pulled in to go to work. He was in shock as they had no storm damage at his house which was only about three miles away. The scene from route 2 was the tree on the west side of the station, which the trencher had bumped the day before was laying across Dad's tractor, the other two trees and a light pole were laid perfectly in the driveway between the store and the fruit stand, with no damage to either building and the Boxelder tree was laying across our Pontiac Station Wagon smashing the roof in. Also my new bike which I had saved up for and just gotten a week or so earlier was under the Boxelder tree but unharmed.
So we had a lot of clean-up to do, the storm really changed the looks of the landscape around the Log Cabin and Harry Schwimmer had a lot of ribbing to take, which he still remembers to this day. The tractor had a broken steering wheel, and crumpled fender but little other damage. The car had a V in the roof by the right rear door and the back window was blown out we figured from the air pressure change, it was sitting on the ground from the weight of the tree but when the tree was removed none of the tires were blown and Dad kept the car for a few more years for Janet and I think even Susie to drive with the V in the roof.
(Looks like I have a subject for another flashback Friday...the pics are in the archive...but not scanned yet)!
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Ten years since we smiled thru the tears for this picture.
Ten years since we smiled thru the tears for this picture.
