Junk Trades, Cold Kayo, and Daddy's Infectious Laugh

The trips in the car with Bobby and Daddy were probably very significant in our socialization. When we’d get in the car, Dad would tell Mom when we’d be back but never ever tell her where we were going. The girls were rarely included in these trips, though they always wanted to go along. This was Dad’s way of getting us away from “all those girls,” as he put it. It was definitely a guy thing. These little trips were often daily and they had only one theme. Junk. Hugh Chase was Dad’s horse-trading partner and best friend, and we liked him because he often gave us each a whole cold bottle of Kayo, a sweet, weak carbonated chocolate soda, whenever we arrived at his house. He and Daddy would then either trade stuff, often as wildly divergent as guns for furnace parts, or go somewhere else to trade with some other guy. Sometimes there were elaborate three and four-way trades. The upshot of all this bargaining was: Did Daddy get the best of the other guy in the trade? Well, did he? Yes, definitely. And then, retelling how he did it, he’d laugh his head off. We met a lot of people this way. And they were always glad to see Dad because he would always kid around with them. He called everyone “Good Looking” until he could remember his name. He’d bait them with a wild story and get them going and then laugh at them because they fell for it. His laugh was so infectious they’d start laughing, too, even though the joke was on them. I never saw anyone get angry with Dad. He was a charmer.