Lavinia "5 Gallons Please"
Time never stands still and so when our little town was visited by the "tin-lizzie", it brought a change to our way of life. It was a pleasant spring morning and I was on my way to town. My husband, Tom, was driving our Phaeton, a light four-wheel carriage with open sides. Our 'one horse' powered carriage was always the talk of the town. Tom was the doctor and it was important for him to have a reliable means of transportation. Making house calls to the rest of the county required him to travel late at night sometimes. The 'clicky clack' of the trotting horse could be heard to announce his approach to the any farm house. Folks around these parts knew with Doc Tom was coming. Being the wife of a country doctor has it benefits as well as its downside. Tom is well loved by all who he comes in contact and because of the folks who live nearby, he is always taking items for pay. Most folks around here are honest and hard working but little money to speak of. Tom would doctor them for nothing but because of their pride and independence, they won't let him do that. Most evenings, Tom brings home eggs, ham, bacon, potatoes and other types of food that he received in payment. Once he got a pig for delivering a baby. He laughed and said that the baby was 'way prettier than the pig'. Once more folks moved to Guyandotte, his practice grew.