Summary: The forth Modern-day Cartwright Story.
A real news story inspired this tale of what could happen to the modern Cartwrights.
Word Count: 800
A Quarter’s Worth Of Glory: Joe in the Machine
Territorial Enterprise
Boy Stuck in Machine
Virginia City Nevada (Oct. 25, 1985) – Four-year-old Joseph Francis Cartwright went fishing for a stuffed replica of a black and white pinto pony and ended up trapped in a vending machine in the Virginia City Supermart. The toddler’s adventure began with a Saturday evening shopping trip with his older brothers, Adam Cartwright, age 16, and Eric “Hoss” Cartwright aged 10.
“Pa left me in charge of my younger brothers while he went over to the bank to do deposits,” Adam Cartwright, a high school junior explained. “I had just taken the SATs and I was pretty tired so I suppose I wasn’t really keeping close watch on them.” He took his two younger brothers to pick up a few groceries at the Mercantile. Adam ended the trip by giving each boy some change and telling them to have fun in a retailer’s game room while he and his friend Carl Reagan talked to cashier Sue Ellen Terry. “Pa was going to pick us all up there after he finished at the bank and stopped for gas. He was going to take us back home for lunch so I was catching up with my friends.”
While Hoss played Ms Pac Man, a stuffed black and white pinto pony in a vending machine’s bin caught Little Joe’s eye. He put in his quarter and tried without success to fish it out with a plastic crane. The lad claimed he wanted to give it to a little girl in his nursery school class, Amy Bishop. “I love Amy!” Little Joe declared. “I want to give her a good present but that bad machine tooked all my quarters.”
“I told Little Joe I could get that little horse for him,” his brother, Hoss said. “He’s a real character. He said, ‘Oh no, I can get it myself. I’m no baby. I’ll round up that horse for my own self’,”
When Hoss turned his back to get another quarter from Adam for a second try, Little Joe, slender and small for his age, took off his green corduroy coat and squeezed through an opening in the machine. He landed in the stuffed animal cube.
“Carl and I were in the front of the store for just a second and I turned around and looked for my little brothers, and Hoss was by the candy display but my baby brother was no where to be seen. I called out for him and Little Joe said, ‘Brother, I’m in here’,” Adam said. “And there he was, stuck inside that huge machine.”
“I thought I would just have a heart attack,” added Sue Ellen. Carl Reagan nodded in agreement.
Flustered by the emergency, Sue Ellen Terry couldn’t find a key to the machine, so Little Joe waited while she called the Virginia City Sheriff’s office. “The manager had gone to lunch so I called 911 right away.”
“He was having a ball in there, hugging all the stuffed animals and singing,” Regan said.
Miss Terry added, “Little Joe is so cute!”
“Little Joe only sings when he is hungry,” Hoss explained.
“He was so good-natured, but I was shaking like a leaf. I was sure our Pa would kill me if I lost Little Joe,” said Adam.
Sheriff Roy Coffee quickly arrived. He broke one lock but then spotted two latches inside the plastic cube. “I just couldn’t get my hand in there in the tight little space but Adam Cartwright figured it all out. That boy is mighty smart. Adam said his brother could manage on his own to undo the latch from the inside if I could pass the screw driver in to him.” Sheriff Coffee passed a screwdriver to Little Joe and the boy took care of the rest.
“At that point, Little Joe knew I meant business and he did just what I told him to do,” Adam explained.
“He was getting hungry too,” added Hoss. “We all were.”
“He stacked up all the stuffed animals and used that screwdriver to open the latch,” Sheriff Coffee said. “You should have seen him go. He’s quite a rascal that boy.”
Eventually, Little Joe freed himself. But his brothers said they were lucky that he remained calm when another child might not have. He went home safe – happily clutching the stuffed pony and none the worse for wear. “Amy will really like my present!” the boy told Sheriff Coffee.
“I sure hate to see what sort of trouble this little fellow is gonna get himself into in fifteen years!” the sheriff chuckled.
The End
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