Whitewall Switcheroo: A Tire Tale…

Just a few years into their marriage, my mom, Eileen, was already juggling the care of my sisters, Christine and Debbie, who were born only two years apart. She was also pregnant with my sister, Susan. It was 1958, and my dad had just splurged on brand new whitewall tires for the family stationwagon, which were all the rage at the time.

One day, mom needed to use the car to run errands and do the weekly grocery shopping so she drove my father to work in the city. After dropping him off, she took Christine & Debbie to the grocery store. After loading up the car with groceries and kids, she didn’t notice anything strange about her car. She drove home unloaded the groceries, started dinner and then went to run the rest of the errands. Still not noticing anything about the car as she drove around town. Soon it was time to pick my father up from work, so she loaded the kids up and drove into the city to pick him up. He preferred to drive so he got into the driver seat to take the crew home for dinner. As he began to drive, he noticed something odd about the way the car was driving, that it was a bit on the wobbly side. He pulled over to inspect the car and that’s when he immediately noticed the tires. He asked mom what had happened. She got out of the car and looked and said “I don’t know what are you talking about”… he replied “Where are the whitewall tires that we just bought? ..These tires are old and bald…. and they are only being held on by one lug nut!”

She recounted all the places she had been…that’s when dad realized the shocking truth—someone had stolen all four of the new whitewall tires off the car and replaced them with old, bald tires.

Most people would have been outraged, but not my mother. She simply looked at dad, with her sweet smile and said, "Oh well, at least they put four tires back on, they probably saw I was pregnant and had two little ones! That was so nice!”


She always saw the positive side, thinking that the thief must have seen she had her hands full with all the kids. Dad just shook his head in disbelief, amazed at her ability to find humor and positivity in even the most bizarre situations. This became a hilarious addition to the cherished stories in our family.

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The Joyride…