Son of a Picker!

By Chuck Clore

1955 Crawfordsville memories? Yes, I have a few. As a young lad, I remember riding shotgun in my dad's 1948 Chevy pickup sitting at Shady Lane and 136. While we waited for traffic to clear, he would say, "Cannon to right of me… Cannon to the left…Cannon behind…Volley and thunder!” He popped the clutch, spitting gravel all the way back to Fremont. I had no idea he was paraphrasing Lord Tennyson and the Charge of the Light Brigade. It was his way of charging into the adventures of the day. Don't let the dusty old pickup fool you. He was a well-read intelligent man whose ability to read people served him well.

You see, Pappy (Austin “Aus” Clore) was a picker. And I am the son of a picker. Way before American Pickers hit the television screen, we hit the back roads of Montgomery and the surrounding counties searching out rusty Indiana treasures. I remember the meter of the auctioneer’s voice as we pulled into the estate sale of a farm just past Yountsville somewhere around highways 32 and 25. The auctioneer was a small man with a big deep voice. Deep enough, he could have sung bass for a gospel quartet. I got the feeling he knew Pappy well. By high noon the bees were buzzing around the blackberry bushes. The old pickup was loaded with rusty gold.

We headed on down the road to Granny’s (Delta Smith’s) house within the shadow of the obelisk to Willis at Alamo. After a White Mill Lemon Lime soda at Pickett’s Grocery, it was back to C-ville. Eventually, we hit the auction barn on north Washington. Next, we drove over a couple blocks to McDaniels Freightline on Walnut Street, where Mom (Georgia “Jo” Clore) was about to get off work as a cashier. I remember the orange and green logo on the side of the building. Aus and Jo, while not wealthy, they were quite blessed with many colorful friends and life adventures.

Crawfordsville, Indiana