Carla Emery: Author of the Old Fashioned Recipe Book
(Page 11 of 17)
May/June 1975
By the Mother Earth News editors
Then, just before the money began to come in from the Ralph Story Show, our poor old car broke down. I guess it was kind of funny now that I think of it, although it didn't seen) so at the time.
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I had the car burdened down with books and children and the window on the right-hand side wouldn't roll up. So when we traveled in cold weather, we'd shove a blanket in the hole except when I got on a freeway and I had to be able to see. And the door on the driver's side wouldn't shut tight and it kept opening as I went around corners.
The engine was even worse. It had this thing where it wouldn't start by itself and Dolly and I had to kind of hot wire it to get it going. We'd pull into a gas station and, if we turned the engine off, we had about one chance in three that it'd start again. And if it wouldn't, I'd jump out and lift the hood and poke around at the battery terminals with the tire iron while 10-year-old Dolly pumped on the gas pedal to get the car going. And we always did get it running again and we'd drive off down the road, you know, while everyone around kind of stood back and looked at us with an amazed expression on their faces.
But finally that old car gave up the ghost completely and we drove it into a used car lot on its very last rumble and said we wanted to trade it. I didn't have a nickel in my pocket at the time but I told the guy in the lot that I was on my way to L.A. to do a TV show and that I just had to have something that would take the children and me around the country so we could do all the interviews and personal appearances that Julaine had lined up.
Well another miracle happened right then and there because the salesman let me trade the car in on a 1974 Dodge Minihome. But he wanted $1,000 down so I got on the phone to my husband back in Idaho and Mike said that he'd just checked the bank account and we didn't have any thousand dollars. So I said, "Don't tell the salesman that. Just write out a check for $1,000 and put it in the mail. By the time it gets back to the bank, we'll have the money to cover it."
Then I went out and told the guy at the car lot, "OK. They're going to send you a check for $1,000 from Idaho." And he said "OK" and I drove off with this Minihome and, of course, by the time the check cleared the bank we had the cash to make it good.
And that's how we got our fancy camper. It's got a double bed and a bathroom and a propane heater and everything we need and our life has been a lot easier since we bought it. The only trouble is it's two feet longer than a regular car and I can't park it because I'm a lousy driver.
PLOWBOY: What do you do when you're on a radio program or a TV show? Do you take the children on with you?
EMERY: Generally they wait in the lobby and drive the receptionist up the wall.
PLOWBOY: Well on this particular swing around the country you're doing 45 cities in approximately four and a half months. That's a long time for the children to be away from home . . . especially during the winter. What do you do about school?
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