By Alan Wagoner

Fussy was the nickname that a small group of my sister's friends called her after we moved back to Malta from a year's stay in West Virginia in 1937. To my sister, Mary Janet Pharis, it meant that she was back with the “in” crowd at M&M.

With snow and ice covering the ground that winter, our mother Lucille gave Janet permission to have a slumber party at our farm located about a mile and three quarters from Malta on what is now known as Conk Parmer Ridge Road.

Our home, a nice two-story house with six rooms, consisted of a large kitchen and living room and four bedrooms. It was nestled in a vale just north of Conk Parmer's home. Up on the ridge and across the road to the west lived Elsie Miller and her mother.

The air was cold and crisp the night of the party and the young ladies were gathered for a wonderful evening of games, stories, hot chocolate and popcorn. But when it came time to go to bed, young Eleanor wanted to go home. No amount of talking or pleading from Janet or Mary Smith, J. Ray Smith's daughter, or any of the other party-goers could dissuade her. Eleanor wanted what we all have wanted at one time or another - that comforting feeling of being safe at home snuggling down in our own bed at the end of a long day.

For Lucille this presented a serious problem as father Darl was out that evening with the new used truck that George Scott had recently sold him. The problem that confronted mother was that even though her father, Edson Farrell had bought a model T Ford and talked her into learning how to drive it, she didn’t like to drive. Then when the cars with the now conventional gearshift and clutch pedal came out, driving was a whole new experience again.

As there was no consoling Eleanor and the other girls were becoming restless, mother decided that something had to be done and quickly. She decided to face our family’s Chevrolet and risk the drive on the snowy roads. Soon we were all bundled up and ready for our trip into town, an experience that the girls thought would be exciting. They had no idea how exciting it would turn out to be!

After warming up the Chevrolet and bidding Grandpa Farrell farewell, we all piled into the car and started up that long lane to the main road to town. As we got almost to the top of the lane to turn left towards town, the car skidded off the road. Instead of tumbling down into the deep valley below, the car full of screaming girls slammed into friendly fence post leaving it tilted at a precarious angle. With bated breath, we extracted ourselves from the tilting car and made our way through the snow and ice back to the warm fire Grandpa Farrell had kept for us.

The excitement of that event gave the girls plenty to talk about before they all, including Eleanor, tumbled into bed for a good night’s sleep. And that was the end of Fussy's very successful slumber party.

By the way, that was also the end of mother's driving. Lucille never touched the wheel of a car again.