Credit Cards
Written 3/13/96
On one of our trips to Detroit, we had quite an experience with credit cards. My brother-in-law and sister (Reuben and Middy) drove. We went the northern route, enjoying the scenery and appreciating the lack of traffic that is evident when going around Chicago. All went well until some miles north of Flint, Michigan, when I noticed the "hump" in the middle of the car in back was very hot. We decided to have a garage check it out at Flint. Since we were still quite a distance from there, I tried to keep it cooled down by pouring water on it from time to time from our thermos jug. It steamed a great deal and made a sizzling sound, but seemed to get hotter and hotter. We were getting nervous about this and stopped several times to investigate, always to no avail.
We finally arrived in Flint, but it was already past closing time for most garages. After searching awhile, we found an open garage. They set about to find and solve the problem, finding a hole in the exhaust system under the "hump". When the time came to pay for it, we didn't have enough money! All four of us pooled what we had, but it still wasn't enough. Middy and Reuben had a credit card, but Middy had left it home for safe-keeping! So now, what to do? We called my husband's brother, Wally, in Detroit, and told him of our predicament. These were the people we were going to visit. They had to drive to Flint and bring money so we could get the car out of hock and continue on our way. How embarrassing! We learned that credit cards are pretty important, -especially on a trip, and that they are to be taken along!
One summer after that, we took a trip out West. Never having had a credit card, we decided we'd better get one for this trip. It came in pretty handy to charge motel bills and gasoline. However, after the trip and after we paid up our credit card bills, we disposed of it again. We have been without since then and get into much less trouble. As we get older, it is also one less thing to worry about!