By: W.C. Reader

Editor's note: Country Boy will take a leave of absence during the month of June due to illness in the family.

The other day, while we were toddling down one of the area highways, we came upon an unusual sight. It was a vehicle parked on the side of the road, and a man was busy fixing a flat, while his wife presumably, was standing along side, offering moral support. You hardly see such sights anymore, and we suppose that is because over the years, dirt roads have been replaced by hard-top highways, and the quality of tires have improved considerably.

But it wasn't that way in earlier years, when grandma and grandpa were mere kids. Those were the times when roads were nothing more than tracks that went around everybody’s farm and the tires usually were sizes 30 x 3's and 30 x 3 1/2's. They were mounted on thin rims, and were inflated with rubber tubes.

Cars were not equipped with spare wheels and tires in those days, so it was prudent for owners of vehicles to make certain that they had a can of patch, a hand pump, a jack, a couple of loots, an extra tube, and tire wrenches when they took a trip out of town. And by the way, in those early days when you went traveling, you didn't measure the distance in miles. You measured it in the number of flats and blowouts you could expect to encounter along the way.

The first great stride which was made in eliminating all of this misery for the motorists was the invention of the demountable rim. It had a tire, which already was inflated, and it could be strapped on the fender, or it could be carried on a frame on the back of the car. With this arrangement, it usually was very easy to deal with a flat or blowout. When this happened, all you had to do was to jack up the wheel with the damaged tire. You then loosened the spare tire and rim into place on the wheel, and in a matter of minutes, you were on your way.

That was a far cry from the days when you had to fix a flat on the side of the road. First, you had to jack up the wheel and remove the tire. Then you pulled out the tube, pumped a little air in it, and listened for the escaping air. Then you marked the spot, roughened it with a scraper, and put some special kind of adhesive (glue) on it. Afterwards, you cut a piece of patch and pressed it down on the glue. Finally, you took the hand pump out, attached it, and inflated the tube in the tire. Then you were on your way again, wondering all the while why you ever got rid of your horses and buggy.

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