Here is a photo from Grandma Nettie's collection. It's dated and labeled, so I'm pretty certain the children are Aunt Donagene and Uncle Jim. Maybe the Great Grumpy can tell us what kind of car that is. Are the children sitting on a big box that blocks the driver's door? Is that a ten-gallon hat on the trunk? I think those wheels have wooden spokes!
3 comments:
Boy, you sure are digging into the past.Better be careful, there may be some skeletons in there!!
The "children" certainly are Donagene and James, respectively. Those dogs that they are holding were before my memory, although I believe I should have been "around" at this time.
I believe the automobile is about a 1925 or '26 Dodge Brothers business coupe (it would have had a kind of box-like thing behind the driver's and passenger seats that would accommodate kids, dogs and salesman's wares; it belonged to one of the neighbors. Probably dropped in for a visit or to have some of my mother' good meals. It has wooden spokes, as did all automobiles until Henry started putting steel spokes on the wheels of his "Model A's" in 1927. Other automobiles, including Packard, Oldsmobile, Buick and some others continued to use wooden spokes up until about 1932 or '33. Not only were the spokes wooden, but the main rim was also wood! (All of the wood was oak.) A steel channel was wrapped around this wooden circle and held the circumferentially-split rim on which the tire was mounted.
My Dad cut two or three of these wooden wheel circles into halves and used them for the ribs for the first canoe I every used. Yes, it had a perfectly round bottom -- stable about like one of those bidarka's you made, Jim! My Dad bragged that "That canoe is what my boys (Bob and me) learned to swim in!"
Chevy went to solid disc wheels in 1927. Cadillac had beautiful steel spoke wheels in 1932 -- not at all frumpy like the Model A.
You asked about the box on which Donagene and James were sitting. The box is sitting on the "running board" (a now extinct part of automobilia which served several purposes: 1. It served as a step to assist climbing into the automobile (these cars were higher than my 1986 Ford Heavy Duty pickup!); 2. It served as a place to store extra equipment, like a prybar and shovel to dig oneself out of a snow bank or mud hole, a set of chains to put on before entering the mudhole, and a complete set of tools to fix the car when -- yes, I said when -- something broke after overheating in the process of getting out of the mudhole, and of course, a jack and tire changing and/or patching tools; 3. A place for a rider to stand who couldn't fit inside with the driver, his wife & kids and a pig for market (not very safe, but it wasn't illegal in the "olden days").
Ah yes, the box: NO it did not obstruct the door. I told you that the floor of those cars was high off the ground! The bottom of the door actually cleared the top of that box. The long-legged driver had to rear his near leg up like getting on a horse to board this buggy! No problem, because his other choice was to --- get a horse!
Should be a close-paren on that second paragraph, probably right after the word "automobilia"
I would be most appreciative if you would modify that comment accordingly and delete this one.
Thanks
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