Model As, Built During a Very Difficult Time

[John Butts in CT]

This is a Dorothea Lange image from Oklahoma, 1935. Every time I see this I hope that the family Tudor carried these girls to a kinder future.

[Louis]

John Butts,
Thank you for those great pic's. the people of that time were very strong folks, but I would guess the folks before them in the covered wagons crossing this country were even tougher, ....looks like every generation is getting weaker, and I'm one of them.
don't know where it will end, but it cant be good.

[ericr]

according to Dad's contemporaries, long since deceased, what made the '30s so numbing was the previous perception that we were moving into a golden era during the years '26, '27', 28, although in retrospect that belief was somewhat ill-founded; and when the downturn came, and lingered and lingered, it seemed like a bad dream.

[Randy in Illinois]

Tom, right you are about driving and installing new grease smell, but the history will be new along with new memories. great old pictures from everyone.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Randy in Illinois

Tom, right you are about driving and installing new grease smell, but the history will be new along with new memories. great old pictures from everyone.

I always liked going into my grandfather's machine shed and smelling the air filled with grease and the aroma of many different cans of oil, kerosene, etc. I haven't been able to find the same smell in any newer buildings.

Unfortunately the old farm place was sold about 6 years ago and the new owners burned every building to the ground, just to be able to plow up a few more acres.

[roccaas]

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"By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds. "

[Oldnuts]

Great stories and pictures guys. I try to poke at my grand parents about the cars and depression/ dust bowl times but none are old enough to remember any major details of it. I'm only 28 and they are relatively you for grandparents. Thanks for sharing all these stories I'm really enjoying them.

[Randy in ca]

What many left behind:

[TDO]

You got to admit those were and still are some tough cars. Hay they took a beaten. And I've always loved them. Simpler the better .

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by John Butts in CT

This is a Dorothea Lange image from Oklahoma, 1935. Every time I see this I hope that the family Tudor carried these girls to a kinder future.

I wonder if the girl had Polio? I know what it's like, In the same year, 1935, I had it, but at 77, I can still drive! Bill W.

[Bob-A]

[QUOTE=Tom Wesenberg;693767]I always liked going into my grandfather's machine shed and smelling the air filled with grease and the aroma of many different cans of oil, kerosene, etc. I haven't been able to find the same smell in any newer buildings.

In my shop I've got my unrestored '29 Chevy coach and unrestored '31
Model-A deluxe roadster. Both cars are licensed and driven and when
each time I enter the building. The "patina smell" is so great that a big smile comes over my face and I think of how lucky I am to have them.

Bob-A

[WTSHNN]

-Tim

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

I wonder if the girl had Polio? I know what it's like, In the same year, 1935, I had it, but at 77, I can still drive! Bill W.

Bill, you must have had it as a very young infant. Could you tell us a bit about yourself? I've always enjoyed your postings and have often wished I could sit over a cup of coffee with you.

[john in illinois]

Life in the dustbowl era was almost unthinkable today. The best book that I have read on it is "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan 2006. A lot about the cars and how they traveled in the storms.
I always wondered how they could last with no air filter.

My family left Illinois and went to California during the depression. My grandfather got a job in a movie studio. Later he moved back and started farming again. I still live on the family farm in the house built in 1868.

There is a lot of history in this country made by a lot of hard work. No iPhones in 1930.

John

[Terry, NJ]

Tom, with me it was not Granpa, it was "Cousin Les's" farm. About eighty acres in Hunterdon Co. NJ. The shop was there and the smell of old oil and grease that goes up your nose and stays there was there also. When I was doing a little farming and bought my second tractor, an Intl H, the smell was on it too. Cousin Les had a 1936 JD B and a JD 60 with a side wheel, Gawd could they even build those today? I'm like hunting dog, I associate many things with their smells. Like rural poverty has a smell to it. It goes up your nose and stays there. Watching the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter" brought it all back to me.
Terry

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

I always liked going into my grandfather's machine shed and smelling the air filled with grease and the aroma of many different cans of oil, kerosene, etc. I haven't been able to find the same smell in any newer buildings.

Unfortunately the old farm place was sold about 6 years ago and the new owners burned every building to the ground, just to be able to plow up a few more acres.

[ericr]

Originally Posted by Oldnuts

Great stories and pictures guys. I try to poke at my grand parents about the cars and depression/ dust bowl times but none are old enough to remember any major details of it. I'm only 28 and they are relatively you for grandparents. Thanks for sharing all these stories I'm really enjoying them.

Did you know this: hoboes travelling around on trains used to have a way of chalking the curbs on the particular residences near the railroad yards that were generous about giving a meal to vagrants who knocked on the door. One of Dad's friends had a soft-hearted old aunt living near train tracks that had several yards of chalk marks up and down her curb stones.

[John Butts in CT]

Here are some pretty well known images.

In 1939, Russell Lee, photographer with the Farm Security Administration, shadowed Elmer Thomas and his family from Muskogee, Oklahoma to California. Large images can be viewed at http://www.shorpy.com/node/1757

In 2010, the daughter of the young woman in the pickup bed reported that the family, including the dog, made it through to Bakersfield, CA. Other descendants have also posted on the Shorpy site.

[columbiA]

I have a friend in my town who could tell many stories about the the dust bowl.I n 1940, he & his wife drove from Oklahoma to Oregon in a 31 S/W sedan.He is 90 yrs old.while the dust bowl was going on,the same thing was going on in the prairies of Canada.He had the bed on top & the back seat filled with belongings.

[John Butts in CT]

While we're on the "hard times" theme, here are two 1938 images of a '29 Business Coupe with rumble seat conversion and what seems to be a 19" wheel.

Anyway, a far cry from the advertisements of 9-10 years earlier.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by BillLee/Chandler, TX

Bill, you must have had it as a very young infant. Could you tell us a bit about yourself? I've always enjoyed your postings and have often wished I could sit over a cup of coffee with you.

Yo, Bill Lee,
Had Polio at 2 & after numerous surgeries, body braces, etc. at Crippled Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City, I was able to learn to walk again with leg braces.
My "chassis" was like an old Model A frame that not only sagged, but looked like it had been rear ended by Chief, my Dad, drivin an "AA" dump truck loaded with gravel, when he worked for W.P.A! Bill W.