{After the end of that war, they moved further out West from Texas and he recalls trying to get over the last mountain range to California... The old car couldn't handle it but reverse was apparently more powerful so they crossed the full span of the Sierra Nevadas driving backwards in reverse in their old car circa 1920! (This backwards thing explains a lot...) }
I laughed when I read this because my mother told me stories of her uncles backing up Stone Mountain in Atlanta because going forward uphill the gas wouldn't get to the engine.