Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 16. THE BUGGY WHEEL JOKE (Pp 26-27) When I was growing up men spent a lot of
time thinking of ways to play pranks on their friends. Everybody liked a good joke, especially if it was played on someone else. There used to be a couple of fellows who lived in the Sardis community that just took a great delight in pulling pranks on others. They were both married men and had families but they loved to have fun. One was Solie Chancey and the other was Frank Murray. These two liked to pull pranks when it wouldn't hurt anyone. Everybody
in that country would go to town of a Saturday if they had a horse and buggy. One time there was a farmer named Frank Roddenberry (old man Frank, there were two of them). It was Mr. Roddenberry's habit to hitch up his horse and ride to town every Saturday, and Solie and Frank knew this. They also knew that Mr. Roddenberry was one of the best-natured friends they had, so they decided to pull a joke on him. One Friday night after Mr. Roddenberry had gone to bed, Solie and
Frank slipped up to his barn and took the front buggy wheels off (they normally were about six inches lower than the back ones) and put them on the back. They put the back, higher wheels on the front of the buggy. The next morning Frank and Solie spread the word among their friends that they had changed Mr. Roddenberry's buggy wheels so several of them had gathered at Mr. Jim Mattox's to watch as Mr. Roddenberry passed by on his way to town. Mr. Roddenberry got up that
Saturday morning, took his horse out, put the harness on him and hooked him to the buggy. He got in and started on his way to Folkston. Mr. Mattox had a little store at his home and as Mr. Roddenberry came down the road he saw a number of his friends gathered up there, but he figured they had come to trade. He had driven about a mile from his house to the Mattox store, riding in that buggy with the wheels changed around. Little Jesse Mattox was about seven years old and
was playing in the yard when Mr. Roddenberry drove up. Jesse said, "Hey Mr. Roddenberry, what you got your front wheels on the back and your back wheels on the front for?" Mr. Roddenberry said "Well I declare! I have been riding in this buggy for a mile trying to figure out what was wrong!" All the men standing around laughed and laughed. It was a funny trick and Mr. Roddenberry knew right off who had done it. He took it good-natured, like they knew he
would, for even though he was much older than Frank and Solie, he was full of fun himself. Those folks were all the time pulling a trick on someone. | 
