There was a time when most cars didn’t have the nice decorative wheels that are standard today. Cars had a standard steel wheel with hubcaps or wheel covers. These hubcaps had one major drawback: they could come right off the wheel, and you might not even notice. It was not uncommon to find one in your front yard. If you found one, the decent thing to do was prop it up next to your mailbox post or a telephone pole. If it came off a car that regularly traveled that road, they might see it, stop and pick it up. People were looking out for each other back then.
If you lost one and couldn’t find it, you could almost certainly find one at the local auto junkyard. I remember daddy going to one, and when we went into their building, one entire wall was covered with hubcaps. I thought there must surely be every type ever made on that wall.
The traffic on Jonesboro Road is probably 100 times more than it was in my younger days, but I don’t ever see hubcaps anymore. Most of what I find are food wrappers and drink containers. But I have found quite a collection of odd things too.
One time I found a pocketbook in the ditch. It had everything you would expect in a woman’s purse except money. We contacted the owner, who said the bag had been stolen from her car a few days before in the subdivision next to us.
Another time the police had stopped a car in front of our house. They pulled everyone out of the car for some reason, and our front yard looked like an episode of COPS. A couple of days later, I found a crack/meth pipe in the ditch. I suppose one of the suspects had conveniently dropped it without the officers noticing it.
I’ve found some other interesting things – cell phones, tools, knives, car parts, credit cards, a driver’s license, and other junk. Most recently, I found the shovel shown in the picture above. In the spirit of the old hubcaps, I propped it up against the telephone pole in front of my house, hoping the owner would see it and pick it up. As you may be able to tell from the photo, it’s been there a while. In our era when porch pirates will steal anything delivered to your house, not having any idea what it is, I thought someone would have stolen it by now. I guess a shovel looks too much like work. So, if you need a shovel or just want to prove me wrong, stop by and pick it up.