Cash Car has Alexandria home

A car built for Johnny Cash is now owned by '65 Alexandria grad Bobby Watson and is parked by his summer home on Lake Darling.

Inspired by the lyrics to Cash's "One Piece at a Time" ballad, builders assembled a car from a variety of parts: '53 Ford, '54 Chev, 'Edsel wheels, etc., etc. and threw in a rumble seat for good measure.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cash died before he was able to drive the Cash Car. Watson saw it at a car show and just had to add it to his collection of vintage vehicles. Thursday night he proudly fired up the Cash Car for the trailboss and for these photographs. Car sounded great. Don't remember your classmate Bobby Watson? Maybe the license plate on his every day car will jog your memory. It reads "Local Hood Does Good."

Here's a link to Johnny Cash singing "One Piece at a Time" on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDU8Gku7q-w

These are the words to the song:

Well, I left Kentucky back in '49

An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line

The first year they had me puttin' wheels on cadillacs

Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by

And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry'

Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black.

One day I devised myself a plan

That should be the envy of most any man

I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand

Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired

But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired

I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand.

I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

'Cause I'll have the only one there is a round.

So the very next day when I punched in

With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends

I left that day with a lunch box full of gears

Now, I never considered myself a thief

GM wouldn't miss just one little piece

Especially if I strung it out over several years.

The first day I got me a fuel pump

And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk

Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome

The little things I could get in my big lunchbox

Like nuts, an' bolts, and all four shocks

But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home.

Now, up to now my plan went all right

'Til we tried to put it all together one night

And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong.

The transmission was a '53

And the motor turned out to be a '73

And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone.

So we drilled it out so that it would fit

And with a little bit of help with an A-daptor kit

We had that engine runnin' just like a song

Now the headlight' was another sight

We had two on the left and one on the right

But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on.

The back end looked kinda funny too

But we put it together and when we got thru

Well, that's when we noticed that we only had one tail-fin

About that time my wife walked out

And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts

But she opened the door and said "Honey, take me for a spin."

So we drove up town just to get the tags

And I headed her right on down main drag

I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around

But up there at the court house they didn't laugh

'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff

And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.

I got it one piece at a time

And it didn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.