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Anonymous
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Mabel and Junior Kennedy were a married couple who lived about a quarter mile from us in the late 1940's and early 50's. Junior was a small man, about five feet, four inches or so and maybe 130 pounds soaking wet, Mabel was about the same height but looked shorter because of her girth. She weighed in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, probably more, and because of her weight she had a difficult time getting around, especially getting up and down. They were regulars at the Tabernacle revivals and really nice people.
<img src="http://jb-ms.com/images/Pics2/42ford.jpg" align="left" vspace="5"hspace="7"/>Junior had a beat up 1942 Ford pickup, and though it was only 8 or 9 years old it looked like it had been in a demolition derby. It had dents and scrapes all over it and someone had taken the bed, rear fenders and back bumper off so it only had the bare frame from the cab back. He was always going to build a wooden bed for it but never did. It smoked so badly we could tell who was coming long before they came in sight, and once we could see them there was no doubt. Mabel was so much heavier than Junior that the pickup leaned to the passenger side at about a 45 degree ange. The running board on that side was almost dragging the gravel and the drivers side was 2-3 feet off the ground.
It also had a problem with the gas tank, something had hit it and put a big dented area in it that had knocked the pickup unit up so that when it was less than about half full it wouldn't go up even a moderately steep hill forward without going dead from lack of gas. That caused all sorts of problems. Junior would have to turn it around and back up a lot of the hills, and some were steep enough the tires would lose traction in the gravel because of Mabel's weight and the lack of weight on the rear wheels because the bed had been took off. When that happened he would help Mabel out, back up the hill and then walk back down the hill to help her walk to the top. Cotton Gin, Pisgah and a few other hills in the area were so steep he couldn't get Mabel up them after he had the truck on top of the hills.
Once he was trying to push Mabel a hill and just before they reached the top his foot slipped in loose gravel and he fell, which caused Mabel to fall also. She fell backwards on top of Junior, smushed the breath out of him, broke a couple of his ribs, sprung one of his legs up pretty badly and threw his back out. Mabel rolled almost to the bottom of the hill before she made somewhat of a right turn and rolled in the ditch. Surprisingly she only had scratches and a few bruises but Junior didn't fare as well. He had trouble breathing, walked sideways and was sorta crooked for a couple of months before he was okay.
I hadn't thought about Mabel and Junior in years, writing about the Tabernacle has pulled a lot of memories from the darkness that I would probably have never thought of again. I feel a little guilty writing about them but their trials and tribulations had a lot of humorous incidents, one took place during one of the revival services at the Tabernacle. I'll post it in a day or two.
JB
<img src="http://jb-ms.com/images/Pics2/42ford.jpg" align="left" vspace="5"hspace="7"/>Junior had a beat up 1942 Ford pickup, and though it was only 8 or 9 years old it looked like it had been in a demolition derby. It had dents and scrapes all over it and someone had taken the bed, rear fenders and back bumper off so it only had the bare frame from the cab back. He was always going to build a wooden bed for it but never did. It smoked so badly we could tell who was coming long before they came in sight, and once we could see them there was no doubt. Mabel was so much heavier than Junior that the pickup leaned to the passenger side at about a 45 degree ange. The running board on that side was almost dragging the gravel and the drivers side was 2-3 feet off the ground.
It also had a problem with the gas tank, something had hit it and put a big dented area in it that had knocked the pickup unit up so that when it was less than about half full it wouldn't go up even a moderately steep hill forward without going dead from lack of gas. That caused all sorts of problems. Junior would have to turn it around and back up a lot of the hills, and some were steep enough the tires would lose traction in the gravel because of Mabel's weight and the lack of weight on the rear wheels because the bed had been took off. When that happened he would help Mabel out, back up the hill and then walk back down the hill to help her walk to the top. Cotton Gin, Pisgah and a few other hills in the area were so steep he couldn't get Mabel up them after he had the truck on top of the hills.
Once he was trying to push Mabel a hill and just before they reached the top his foot slipped in loose gravel and he fell, which caused Mabel to fall also. She fell backwards on top of Junior, smushed the breath out of him, broke a couple of his ribs, sprung one of his legs up pretty badly and threw his back out. Mabel rolled almost to the bottom of the hill before she made somewhat of a right turn and rolled in the ditch. Surprisingly she only had scratches and a few bruises but Junior didn't fare as well. He had trouble breathing, walked sideways and was sorta crooked for a couple of months before he was okay.
I hadn't thought about Mabel and Junior in years, writing about the Tabernacle has pulled a lot of memories from the darkness that I would probably have never thought of again. I feel a little guilty writing about them but their trials and tribulations had a lot of humorous incidents, one took place during one of the revival services at the Tabernacle. I'll post it in a day or two.
JB
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