Mistakes Were Made: Chris Kirkley, “Tinker and the Saturday Night Car”

In rural communities, the automobile isn’t a convenience, it’s a necessity. We depend upon our cars and trucks for survival and begin to regard them almost like family members, since there’s no public transportation and the commute to work often means a 20- or 30-minute drive to a neighboring town. A breakdown on a lonesome stretch of backroad feels a lot different than a breakdown in more metropolitan surroundings. It feels a lot more desperate, a lot more like the end of the line. In what’s left of rural America, a dependable car is a well of hope and possibility. Sitting out in the driveway, a reliable ride seems to promise: If it gets to be too bad, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.

On the flip side of that coin, a car can be your undoing. “Mistakes Were Made” storyteller Chris Kirkley shares a wonderful story of one such instance. His story, “Tinker and the Saturday Night Car,” is a moving personal memoir and tribute to a man named Tinker from Minden, Louisiana. As you’ll hear in Kirkley’s unique voice, Tinker made the questionable decision to purchase a used car of unknown provenance at a roadside bar somewhere outside of Minden. The rest of the story is one of unforeseeable consequences as well as, in the end, the kind of resilience to keep moving that you find in well-built, older American cars and the well-built, older Americans that drive them.

The next All Y’all live event, “Under the Influence,” will be held at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13. Tickets and lots more info can be found here. Team All Y’all is going “all-in,” as Sara says, and we’ll be releasing an episode of All Y’all every single damned day between now and “Under the Influence.” So, check in often – there are some great stories on deck.

Just as a little aside: One of the most ridiculous car accidents that I’ve ever heard about also happened in Minden, Louisiana, where a dog named Honeybun drove a van through the front entrance of a Regions bank a few years back. This unbelievable story is, thankfully, still available to be read via the website of KTBS.com.