A Career Woman

Great-Aunt was an insurance writer and collector of payments. She worked for a southern insurance company in the 1940's and 1950's. I started to ride with Great-Aunt when I was about five years old or so. She serviced a rural route. Sometimes we rode for many miles around winding and hilly dirt roads before we saw a house.

I remember her driving a Pontiac. At this time, I haven't an idea what year or model the pontiac was, but it had to be a dependable car. I never recall it running hot or breaking down. My Great-Aunt had a funny habit of talking to "Girley", as she called her car. When the car was slow climbing a hill, she would say something like, "Come on, Girley! Good girl! You can do it. You can get up this hill!" Up the hill Girley would go. She would make it to the next house and the next.

The clients seemed to look forward to Great-Aunt's business calls. They usually turned into social calls. Food would be served. Most folks back then sometimes had home-made cakes and pies on hand especially for visitors. They would make fresh lemonade with huge chunks of ice chopped from a large block.

I remember once the client's family and neighbors were slaughtering a hog, and they asked us to stay awhile. Maybe forty-five minutes or so later, we were having biscuits, brown gravy, and the tenderest pieces pork, all cooked to perfection. What a feast that was! We didn't get food everyday on the insurance route, but when we did, that was such a treat for us.