Sunday afternoon on Mount Clod. It wasn’t exactly planned you know. Augustus “Dad” Dusted and neighbor Finley Flay took their wives for a Sunday outing on the Downtown Dirtpile Transit (DDT) to the top of Mount Clod.

 

Their Jitney Touring Coach hit a dime on the tracks and derailed. So while DDT rail men worked to right the cars and return them to the trolley track, the touring couples and other passengers strolled the rocky terrain taking in some sunshine. Two other coaches stopped to give aid (it was the only track) and soon the entire transit company was atop Mount Clod, not to mention most of the population of Dirtpile City.

 

Gus and Dorothy, Finley and Faye posed on some rocks in the sun while another passenger with a box camera took this picture.

 

Later the next week Finley remarked, “Your friend with the pointed hat was a bit strange.” He blew a bit of foam off his schooner of lager.

 

To which Gus replied after a long pull on a cool draft, “My friend? I thought she was your friend! I don’t know her.”

 

“Gosh Darn!” (Actually not an exact quote,) “I gave her a hundred bucks because she said she was collecting money for your birthday!” said Finley.

 

“NO! She said the same of you and I gave her a fiver,” Said Gus and he belched.

 

“I believe we have been bilked a bit,” fumed Finley. “Wait a minute. A fiver?”

 

The conversation that followed is also not quotable but continued far into the night ending only at closing time, as far as anyone knows.

 

It turned out to be a nice photograph even if in the background Ezzard Yoost did choose that very moment to practice flashing.