Returning home after his honorable discharge from the army in December, Darl Wagoner needed to find a job to support his habit of eating and wearing clothes as his army uniform would soon wear out. His civilian clothes did not fit as he had gained 50 lbs. and was now pure muscle from all the exercise and hard work.

There was never a problem of job offers and the one that sounded the best was from George Scott of Morris Hardware in McConnelsville, only 10 miles from Pennsville on a well-traveled dirt road.

Soon after going to work at the Morris Hardware, Darl was able to purchase a used Model T Ford which made the run morning and night much easier and in a shorter time -- only about 45 minutes if you did not have a flat tire or bad gasoline or some other problem that was attendant with the famous T model (think of straining the gasoline you would buy from the general store out of a 50 gallon drum through a chamois skin to make it as pure as possible!)

Oh yes, pre-1919 models did not have a self starter and some did not have a battery that worked - only a magneto. If you ventured out in the winter you would need to keep a supply of alcohol for the radiator to keep the engine from freezing and bursting the block. This was years before Prestone came out with permanent type anti-freeze. Their slogan was "One Shot Lasts All Winter."

Darl was still staying with his parents who owned a hotel in Pennsville. So getting up in the morning and helping with the chores around the hotel such as watering the various animals they owned and the drummers used made for the start of a long day. Getting to work at or before 7:30 am, sweeping out the store and then sweeping the sidewalk and washing the windows, all took time.

One morning as Darl and another young man were sweeping the sidewalk a car came careening down the street going west on Main Street. As only a model T could do, it turned sharply and rolled over on its side. Running over to the car the boys jumped on the side of the car pulling open the door and hoisted the occupant up and out onto the street where, not saying a word or looking to the right or left, he headed straight to his law office and slammed the door. Needless to say, that early in the morning the gentleman was well on his way for a very interesting day.

George Scott taught Darl the hardware business from the inside out. Darl learned how tocut and trim gutters, sell the large heavy cook stoves and trim the window blinds. It gave Darl a start that would help him throughout his career as a salesman.

An offer from another gentleman in Amesville who owned a hardware car dealership and monument business sounded like a great opportunity for more money and advancement, so Darl made the change, moving to the village of Amesville about 20 miles south west of Pennsville and about 12 miles from Athens, Ohio.

Making this move meant that he had to rent a room from a widowwho catered to single young men of quality.This lady served home-cooked meals and provided motherly attention. In other words, she made sure, as far as possible, that her renters stayed on the straight and narrow.

Soon after starting work for his new employer, he was assigned to travel to Athens to pick up a new automobile for delivery the next day. This presented a problem as Darl had failed to inform the man that he had never driven any other type of car except the model T Ford. But taking the bull by the horns, he took off for Athens.

Arriving at the Overland Dealership he talked the salesman into giving him a short course in shifting gears in the new Overland Four, as it was called. Driving the car off the show room floor onto Main Street and in the opposite direction from Amesville, he drove about five miles out of town before he felt that he could safely turn the car around in a farmer's hay field and head for home with out a scratch and no one knowing of this exciting experience.

About this time Darl joined a group of young men of the village that met on alternate Thursday nights for fun and recreation. The group called themselves "The Dirty Dozen Club." The principal activities of this group was to either go to a movie or get together for a meal that they themselves would cook. One Thursday they decided to have a chicken supper and invite the village mayor.

A few days before the proposed dinner, the mayor let everyone in the town know that someone had stolen his two chickens that had won several prizes at various contests.

That Thursday evening the young men assembled and served a very fine chicken dinner and congratulated each other about the selection and preparation of the foul. The mayor was not as enthusiastic in his congratulations as they had hoped. (By the way, the chickens were safely back in their cages the next morning.)

One day it was suggested to Darl that he might go on the road to promote the sale of the newest invention for the farmer called the Silent Alamo: an electric power plant that could be installed in the most important building on the property. Most of the time the farmer would select the barn, as this was where he spent most of his time. One man had Darl install the unit in the building he used for the post office which was down at Elliott Cross Road.

Going to the home office for a week's training and then having to spend several days on the road each time he sold and installed a unit, soon proved to Darl that that was not the kind of life for him.

As the hardware also sold monuments, he learned quite a bit about the lasting qualities of each type of stone. Berrie Granite was the longest lasting and the most costly as it had to be shipped in from Vermont.

Needing to replace the cars that the Amesville Dealership had sold meant sending several young men to the Overland Factory in Toledo, Ohio and pick them up. Darl was put in charge of five other young men to make the trip and bring the automobiles home. Armed with a letter of credit, the boys were driven to Athens where they caught the Baltimore and Ohio Night Flier, waking up the next morning on the siding next to the Overland Plant.

One thing that we must keep in mind is that The Overland Four automible was a very hot contender for the number one spot with Henry's Model T, as far as sales were concerned.

After going out to the several-acre staging area where the cars were, then selecting the various models and colors that had been ordered and paying for them with the bank draft, they were off for the three-day trip home.

The oft repeated saying of "pick your rut" as you will be in it for the next ten miles was no joke back at that time, as there were no paved roads outside of the cities. When the young men driving the cars back to the dealershipwould meet a car coming in the opposite direction they would all pile out, go to the on-coming car and lift it out of the rut, drive the new cars past then go back, pick up the car and put it back in its rut. That was just one of the trials and problems experienced. In addition, there were endless detours because Ohio, as well as the rest of the country, was experiencing a boom in road building because of the huge number of cars that were being manufactured by dozens of companies.

The smaller towns of the time might - and I say might - have a paved main street and some of the side streets would have cobblestones. Going over them was not much better than the open road so progress was slow. In bringing cars back to the dealershipyou could count on several days on the road. You felt that you were almost home when you got to Columbus.

One evening Darl along with several other people was invited out to the Harold Antle farm to experience the sound of a broadcast over their new radio. They were receiving a program from Rio de Janerio, Brazil, direct with out any "boosts" along the way as we have today.

About this time Darl received an offer from George Scott to return to his old job in McConnelsville and so that was the end of his adventure of working in Amesville.