Hubert bought one of the first cars in the area, but his children agree that he was never a very good driver. I don’t suppose this had anything to do with it, but his "driver training class" left something to be desired. He bought his first car in Batesville. The dealer gave him a demonstration while driving up Brock Mountain. At the top of the mountain, the dealer left and Hubert was on his own. He had not mastered shifting gears. Clee and Cleston were terribly excited about the car and wanted to ride at every opportunity. The car travelled so slowly in low gear that Clee would complain that he could get off and run faster than the car would go. "Can’t this car go any faster, Dad?" Hubert indicated the pedals at his feet and expressed a view that it had something to do with them, but he didn’t know what.
One day the car broke down on the way to the sawmill and they all left it and walked on to work. During the course of the day a man drove up in his own car. There was a discussion concerning the broken down car and the man said he’d take a look at it. He cleaned the spark plugs and got it started and then, to the joy of the boys, shifted the car into higher gears and achieved greater speed. Pure magic!! Needless to say, the boys did not need to be shown a second time.