About this time, Papa needed a good used tire for his Hupmobile. Earl was unable to find a suitable one in Stamford, so I was asked to pick up one in Abilene. And Earl warned, "Be sure you don't get a Goodrich." Well, I looked all over Abilene and the only tire I found that I would consider buying was a Goodrich--a half inch oversize. It only cost $4.50, so I bought it. Of course I didn't buy a Goodrich just to bug Earl, but when I showed up in Hamlin with it, you would have thought I had set fire to another keg of powder--with Earl sitting on it. He was sure the tire would break and blow out. Besides, he had told me not to get that brand. I told him that if it blew out, I would pay for it. But it didn't blow out; it gave good service. This was another case where I had to make a decision without Earl's presence. It proved to be a good decision. It was another step toward my independence from Earl. During this time I'd had experience with oversize tires and low air pressure on my own car, and it worked well. I had also seen trucks running through Abilene with low pressure in front tires, and it worked there also. So, I wasn't surprised that it worked on the Hupmobile. One year Papa bought a new Dodge truck with all four wheels and tires the same size. Up until that year they had used much smaller tires on the front wheels. But this truck had heavy-duty wheels and tires in front just like the ones on the back. I told Papa that, if he had the money and wanted to invest in two balloon tires for the front, at $30 each, he could save the $60 heavy-duty tires to use on the back wheels later when needed. Earl told Papa that I was crazy to think that a $30 tire would run as far as a $60 tire. Papa listened to me and bought the balloons, and they did run as far. This pushed me a little further away from my big brother. Of course, I though it was time he should review some facts and notice that I might have a little more sense than he was giving me credit for. If Earl had been willing to follow a leader, who knows, he and I might have worked happily together ever after. Other problems came up in Abilene, the likes of which Earl never had to face in Stamford. One day the shipping clerk at Wm. Cameron Company told me he had a shipment of windows going to Stamford and he wondered if I wanted to haul them. I told him, "No, Earl told me to let Rountree's truck haul all shipments to Stamford." The clerk asked, "Clarence, when are you going to stop listening to Earl and start telling Earl?" Well, Earl was the acting manager of the truck lines--not authorized, but acting, and he had told me not to pick up any Stamford freight. Then the clerk told me that the man in Stamford ordered the windows shipped either by Johnson or by rail. Then the clerk added, "By law we can force you to haul them, but we wouldn't do that. We'll just ship them by rail."