OVER MY SHOULDER

One of my grand children asked me last week “if you had cars when you were a kid”-----yes, Ashley, we had cars when I was a kid---such as they were. The first car that I remember the folks having was an old model A---I don’t remember much about it, except that when we went anywhere, we often had to stop on the road and fix a tire--or two --- or three, before we got to our destination.

I also recall that when I was quite young many of the roads were ‘full’ of ruts---that once into, it was difficult to get it out of. Once in the rut, you hardly had to ‘steer’ the car at all (I remember when I was only 4 or 5, it was at this time that Dad would ‘let me drive’). You could not drive very fast, as the ruts were never straight, thus they would ‘swing’ the car back and forth as it followed the rut. This was not too bad, unless you happened to ‘meet’ an oncoming car in the same rut, then it would be necessary that each of you gave up at least one of the ruts.

The ruts developed, because many of the roads were truly ‘dirt’ roads---certainly no concrete or blacktop, and seldom no gravel except on the main roads or the highways. Therefore, if cars went anywhere when the roads were wet, they would ‘cut ruts’. I can recall that Dad had an old ‘road drag’ that he would use to drag the driveway from the road to the house to smooth the road and to fill the ruts. In the case of the Ford Place, the driveway was at least one-half mile long.

I can recall that Dad often (maybe all time I do not recall) had to crank the car to start it. When the weather was freezing, the car radiator had to be drained when the car was not is use, as there was only water in the radiator---I don’t remember whether or not there was anti-freeze or that we just could not afford it. On cold days, Dad would start the car, and then pour the water into the radiator (in very cold weather, he would use hot water to start with) (if he poured water in before he started the car, it could freeze and break the block).

Often, he would either hang a piece of canvas or gunny sack , or place a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to keep it from freezing while we were driving. Then when we arrived at our destination, he would drain the radiator if we were going to be there more than a few minutes, so that it would not freeze while setting there. The the same process would be repeated when we went home.

As a young child, we did not have heaters in the car---or perhaps the one in our car did not work----Mom would heat bricks, wrap them in cloth or blankets and place them on the floor of the car to assist in keeping us warm. We would of course be bundled up in our winter clothes, with blankets to wrap around us.

During the summer, the water would be left in the radiator, but we would have to add water quite often. There was no air conditioning in the car---or for that matter anywhere else where I was. We drove with the windows rolled down and the small window in the front of each door opened, to deflect the air into the car. Needless to say, if we had a good distance to go in weather like last week, one would get quite warm----however, we did not think much about it, as with no air conditioning in home or places of business, we did not know any better.

The tires I believe were usually 21”, and were much smaller in width than the tires of today and all had tubes in them. If one had a flat tire, (and we often did at home, as well as on the road)---you would have to jack the car up with the jack, remove the tire from the wheel, take the tube out, and patch the hole in the tube. Usually, this would be done with a ‘cold patch’. A cold patch process involved---’scratching’ the area around the hole in the tube, painting the surface with a compound provided with the patching material, then burning the compound off. You would then peel the backing off the appropriate sized patch that was cut from a large piece of patching material, and press the patch on to the area----and hope that it would stay.

The tire would then be aired up with a hand operated tire pump. A hand pump was a metal cylinder that stood 20 or 24 inches in length, which had a handle attached to a rod which had a gasket on the other end that went into the metal cylinder. When the handle was depressed, it forced air out through a hose at the bottom of the cylinder which would be attached to the valve stem of the tube. It seems to me that the ‘service stations’ may have had an ‘air hose’ available, but I am not sure, as we rarely were at the service station when we repaired tires.

I recall that about the time I reached Junior High, the ‘hot’ patch became available. Approximately the same process was followed up to the point that the patch was put on the tube. However, with the hot patch, the patching material came attached to a metal cup which held a compound that would burn when lighted with a match. The metal cap with the patch was clamped to the hole in the tube, and the compound would be lighted. It would burn, thus vulcanizing the patch to the tube. The metal cup became quite hot, and if one forgot, and touched it before it cooled they would get burned.

The hot patch was a better patch, but we still had to pump the tire up, and often had to make the repairs on the road. I recall that the old ‘inner tubes’ that were discarded were made of excellent rubber, and could be cut into strips of about 3/8 to 1/2 inch in width, and would make excellent ‘bean flippers’ or rubber guns. (more about the bean flipper, sling shots, rubber guns etc at another time) A few people had spare tires, but we did not have the funds for that investment at that time.

I do not recall the price of fuel at that time, but I can recall that 25 - 50 cents worth of fuel would run quite awhile----of course, we did not drive a whole lot, sometimes the car would set a week or two without being driven. Sometimes if Dad was going alone to some of the neighbors and not too far, he would ‘saddle up Daisy, our riding mare, and ride her instead of starting the car. ------(more about cars and ‘my’ car later) LDC