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I often chuckle at the frightened look on the faces of my parents, Buel and Hallie Smith, in their 1937 wedding picture. However, a more terrifying thing would follow later. In fairness to them, they had both finished high school during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that affected the central part of the country and Oklahoma, where they lived. Times had been challenging, and they didn’t know what was coming. 

Buel was living and working at a funeral home (driving the nighttime ambulance) to put himself through college at East Central State College in Ada, Oklahoma. He hitchhiked (no cell phones back then) to a nearby town to talk to a friend’s sister, Hallie Hays. He arrived unexpectedly and found her outside trying to get her thick, freshly washed curly hair to dry in the sunlight—yes, no hair dryer either.

She invited him to an upcoming party so he could meet some girls. However, she soon decided she didn’t want this handsome fellow dating other girls. After marrying in 1937 in the Ada home of the Furlongs, they eventually bought the Model A Ford seen in the picture below.

They got adventurous and decided to take a belated honeymoon in 1939. Hallie packed their car with food (some she had canned), and they took their bedding since they planned to camp across the country from Oklahoma to California. In central or western America in the 30s, people could pull off on the side of the road and put down their bedding for sleeping. (You’ll notice in the picture that they packed the inside, back, and outside of the passenger side. They could only use the driver’s door.) All went well until they were on their return trip home and decided to see Pikes Peak in Colorado. 

The 19-mile gravel road completed in 1915 to the summit of Pikes Peak changed elevation by 6,700 feet and had about 156 turns, most without guard rails. The sheer amount of maintenance in attempting to keep it safe with all the heavy snow and water run-off meant this road only lasted about two decades. A few years later, in 1948, the City of Colorado Springs took over the road to improve it. 

However, Buel and Hallie Smith were on the old weather-beaten gravel road. Although their heavily loaded Model A Ford reached the top of Pikes Peak, the 30-degree drop in temperature meant they were shivering with the cold when they pulled into the parking area. They immediately dashed inside for something hot to drink. While inside getting warm, people started shouting about a car rolling out of the parking lot and over the side of Pikes Peak. Buel panicked. He thought the ground was level and didn’t put the brake on when he parked.

I often heard him describe how heartsick he was to go out and stare down at their car that nose-dived onto a pile of rocks. They were hundreds of miles from home and had little money left. His eyes always teared up when recounting the story. 

He called a tow truck but was disheartened. A tow truck had never been to the top of the mountain and didn’t intend to try. In the meantime, a group of men had already scrounged ropes and chains to see if they could help “the young couple.” Someone climbed down to where the car lodged and attached their chains. Then, all the men pulled the Model A Ford back onto the parking lot. Big cheer! But it wouldn’t start, and no one knew how to fix it. 

Buel reasoned, “There’s only one way to get his car to the bottom and fixed.” He and Mother climbed into their “powerless” car. They asked the men to pray that the Good Lord would help them coast to the bottom and then asked them to please give their Model A a shove to get it moving—and they did.

They coasted down the 19 miles of winding, sharp, curvy road with guardrail-free switchbacks and rolled to a stop in front of a filling station with a mechanic who fixed their car. Buel was worried they wouldn’t have enough money to pay for the repair or enough money left afterward to get home. But the mechanic probably admired the young couple with the courage to coast down the mountain and wanted to help them by charging very little. Anyway, they managed to stretch their remaining twenty dollars to get home to Oklahoma—with quite a tale to tell.

How could they get home on less than $20, you ask? Inflation may have slanted your view of how much things cost. They did this in the late 1930s when you could fill your tank for around a dollar. I remember being able to find gas in the mid-1960s for $0.24 a gallon in Oklahoma and Kansas. So, the cost of things used to be lower than inflation has made it now.

The Smiths, looking fearful in their wedding picture, went on to face and overcome many obstacles. They graduated with their master’s degrees in August 1954, retired from teaching in May 1977, and have now gone to be with their Lord and Savior.

My parents’ story reminds me that our circumstances do not limit us, but what is at our core can. This principle was illustrated in scripture when Israel was “set free” when taken out of the circumstances of slavery in Egypt. However, their sinful, rebellious lives showed that they still needed to be saved or “set free” from the slavery within their hearts. Scripture shows us patterns or pictures of how life works since all human life is one long story.

In the earlier days of this country, hope appeared to be a persistent characteristic that showed up despite difficult circumstances. To be an American was to believe your circumstances or the status you were born into were never the final word. There seemed to be a spirit of faith combined with striving in a spirit of hope that goes back to the very beginnings of America. May these stories of overcoming remind us that God is still on His throne, and we still have hope regardless of how the circumstances look.