With that Butch continued to adjust coils as he began to
relate the tale of the Footpad.
"Me and Bettie liked to go out to that meadow just east of
the Doon Fox Farm and have a picnic every so often on
Saturday. I would hire the Mason kid, George junior, or
Jar as everyone calls him and give him two bits to come
along with us and play phonograph records on the Grafonola.
I didn't know it at the time, but Jar was being punished and
his punishment was to come with me and Bettie.
His mom made him work for me because he had electrified the
front door knob on his house with a T coil, and his
father was not too pleased when he grabbed the knob to
open the door after coming home from work one day. At
any rate, Jar was irked going with me on a Saturday and
having to help me unload the Grafanola. Bonnie's family
has a big Grafanola, a floor model, not the table top kind.
We would take it along with us so we could listen to music
while we ate our lunch. Jar and I would hoist it into
the back of the pickup box and then rope it down.
For some reason it also irked Jar that Bonnie had him change
needles after each record was played. Bonnie can tell by
the sound when a needle hasn't been changed, and she'd
let Jar know if he slipped up. She always let him know so
sweetly that sometimes I think he'd forget just to be called
"dear" or "honey" or something like that by Bettie. I
think his mom kept the two-bits that I gave him too, which
made him even madder. So anyhow, me and Bettie have
our blanket and basket about fifty yards from the T and
we're eatin' sandwiches and drinkin' lemonade and listening
to songs, which Jar is doing a good job of keepin' 'em
playing. What I didn't know at the time was that the kid
had a plan to "get" me. He had un-winded a T coil and
inside is a bunch of real fine wire – probably a mile long
or so. His plan was to stretch a piece of this wire between
two tree branches, at about nose high, and when I walked
into it, let me have it. He would put on a phonograph,
then while it was playing he would figure out which coil
would buzz as the spark lever was advanced. He'd put on
another record, then string his wire. He'd put on another,
then open the hood of the T and hook the wire to the spark
plug. We weren't paying any attention to him. The songs
were coming and the needles sounded fresh. We should
have known something was up from the fact that the needles
were fresh. Then, something was wrong. The first
thing I noticed was that the song had finished, yet no new
tune was put on. I was about to yell at Jar when I noticed
the robber. He had a gun and was coming toward me and
Bettie. I looked around for the Mason kid, but he was no
where to be seen. Me and Bettie stood up and the robber
ordered us to give him my wallet and Bettie's purse.
I didn't know what to do other than what he said so I started
to walk toward him to give the stuff. He said
"that's close enough, just drop it on the ground". I
dropped it on the ground and started to back away.
He walked toward the stuff and suddenly he reeled
back and fell right over onto his behind, just like
he'd been kicked by a mule. When he did, he
dropped his gun, which I picked up. I told him to
stay on the ground, which he seemed happy to do.
He wasn't too happy when Bettie came over and
kicked him in the ribs though. It sure enough surprised
me at the time to see Bettie do this. At any
rate, it seems that Jr was hiding under the dash of
the T and right when the robber came in contact
with the wire to his nose, which he didn't see, because
it was so very fine, the kid pulled down the
spark lever and walloped him a good one . We
then roped up the robber and brought him back to
town and let the police deal with him. Anyway,
that is why I think a model T coil would make a
good defensive weapon."
The customer was obviously amused by this story.
Butch continued to spin the machine as he made
the final adjustment to the last coil. As the flywheel spun down, Butch straightened the machine
on the bench. The customer was even more
amused by Butch's reaction after accidentally contacting the spark-ring whilst straightening the machine.
(end of story)
