Cora's motto: Have 'rascal,' will travel

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Date: February 8, 1987
Writer: Daniel J. Roy
Photographer: Donald Boorse

She drives "the little rascal" down Perkasie sidewalks with a singular intent. Nothing is going to stop Cora Musselman.

But, Mrs. Musselman, who is 84, warns that it is not a hot rod she is driving. "I won't break any speed limits," she said. "It only goes 10 miles per hour."

She bought the motorized cart last year and since has been wheeling her way to errands — and to freedom.

She cannot walk very far because of trouble with her legs and asthma. The cart frees her to live life as she chooses — independently.

Overcoming adversity is not new to Mrs. Musselman. At 14, she had to leave her family farm in Bedminster Township to live and work in Perkasie, taking a job at the former Perkasie Silk Mill.

"There was nothing for me to do on the farm," she said, making light of living alone at such an early age. "In those days people started to work younger than they do now.

"I've been working ever since. I slowed up, but I never quit."

Mrs. Musselman's sense of humor is infectious. She breaks into a belly laugh as she relates stories about "the little rascal" or invites a guest to take a ride on the motorized elevator seat attached to the stairway of her small second floor apartment.

Her face sparkles with a conspiratorial smile as she watches from atop her stairway a hesitant visitor slide slowly down the stairs.

Life is a joy to Mrs. Musselman. But when she talks about the illness that kept her an invalid two years ago, her exuberant, youthful-looking eyes turn sad and overcast.

"I was alright 'til I got pneumonia," she said.

Following a long hospital stay, the illness confined her to her apartment for months.

It was not a happy time for her but she refuses to dwell on that. She changes the subject.

"More people talk to me now than they ever did," she said, her eyes opening wide with amazement. "People stop me all the time and want to .know where I got the cart."

She said learning to ride the cart was difficult at first. "It's tricky to handle, but I haven't fallen and I don't intend to."

Her tiny second floor apartment reflects her personality. It is cheerfully decorated with the things she loves most. Pictures of her eight children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren are all over.

She was married three times. Her first two husbands died and she and the third were divorced 15 years ago. "I've been living alone ever since," she said.

"She's got more energy than I have," her oldest daughter, Alice Petchner of Ottsville, said.

Some of that energy goes into making things like the afghan that covers her bed and sequined calendars which she gives to friends and family.

Until the weather improves, Mrs. Musselman is grounded. Her "little rascal" is now in storage, but it will be retrieved when all the snow melts.

According to the Social Security Death Index, Cora passed away in Quakertown on January 6, 1992. She was 89.