I found this barefoot brother and sister in Del Rio, Tennessee, in 1973. The buggy in the background was a marvel of homemade engineering. It was a precursor of all-terrain vehicles. The man had created it himself by removing a car frame from its chassis. This reduced the weight of the vehicle while increasing speed, torque and maneuverability. Many people in Tennessee still operated their own “stills” at this point in time. They would typically hide them in the woods. Had these two had a still (and I’m not saying they did), such a vehicle would have come in handy in evading arrest. Such tails inspired the hit movie “Smokie and the Bandit” in 1977, starring Burt Reynolds and Sally Field. Come to think of it, they look a little bit like Burt and Sally, don’t they?
