By Dickie Dixon

For Posterity’s Eyes February birthdays:  1^st:  Jeanette (Rodriguez) Pittman 3^rd:  Debra Fae (Havard) Cheek, Pat Crager  4^th:  Debbie (Guidi) Lee Guetner, Amy Gehr, Titter Hogan  5^th:  Larry Havard 6^th:  Sekela Minor 7^th:  Jordan Wagstaff 9th:  Mary Sheffield-Smith, Blake Smith, Vetta Quackenbush, Kathy Grigsby  10^th:  Emily Hubert Betty Preston, Tony Brown, Stephen Hudson 12^th: Hope Martin

Looking All Like Lamb Chops The June after I graduated from Lufkin High School my father came to me and advised me to trade in my 1965 lavender Chevy Sport Coupe on a newer car.  I made the leap all the way and visited my uncle B. B. Dixon who was selling cars for Ralph New Motors on Mantooth and Herndon.  I looked at a cherry red 442 with a white top and factory mags with a 350 cubic inch, 300 horse motor, and I bought it shortly thereafter, financing it at First Bank and Trust, where I had financed the ’65.  The sticker price was $4445; they gave me $1945 trade-in and my notes were $102 per month.

Wanting to get ahead on my car payments, I managed to scrap together three jobs.  I worked for my father at his furniture store Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m..  Also, I worked for Gibson’s with Kenneth Whitton and Jack Squyres,  where my hours were Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, getting them ready to sell groceries.  Then, on Sunday Les Cahill hired me to, clean the printing presses at Southwest Color Print, where I worked with Glenn Lovett, Rudy Wilkison, and Larry Evans on Sunday.  For working eighty hours per week, I netted $130 per week after taxes.  However, I did get six months ahead on my car payments that summer.

I was very proud of my car, the second one I had purchased with money I had earned.  I washed it frequently and kept it spic and span. Frequently I waxed it, and it was a beast, being a muscle car.  The next summer I got a ticket on I-20 with my mother in the car going 100 miles an hour outside Anniston, Alabama.  That car drove at that speed effortlessly.  Later, I went to my first bar outside Zwolle, Louisiana, with some friends, and, on the way back, I had it pegged out at 120.

Eight months after I bought it, I think in February of 1970, I was coming from a geology lab one afternoon, and I was approaching Angelina Chevrolet on the left and the Rock House Café on the right.  That part of South First is four lanes; I was on the inside lane going north toward town, and there was a two tone Chevy pickup with his blinker on turning left into Angelina Chevrolet.  So, long before I approached him, I changed lanes  to the outside, right lane.  To my amazement, the pickup turned right for the pavement in front of me, and I hit him behind the rear quarter panel.

Of course, the driver turned off the blinker, so the Lufkin policeman did not believe me when I told him what happened. So, I received a ticket for following too close.  My brother was eating inside the Rock House when it happened.

So there I was with a ticket I didn’t deserve, and my pride and joy, that red and white beast was wrecked, looking all like Lamb Chops

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Send your queries to Kissin’ Kuzzins P. O. Box 15-1001 Lufkin TX 75901 by email to dickie.dixon@hotmail.com or by phone to (936) 240-8378