Model As, Built During a Very Difficult Time

[Ed in Maine]

I recently picked up a book entitled "Children of the Dust Bowl" by Jerry Stanley, copyright 1992. It has pictures of 1920s and 1930s cars going from Oklahoma to southern California. The families are looking for work and a new life in the rich farm belt of California. No jobs, no food, dirty cloths, no indoor plumbing during the trip (it lasted 3-4 months), no motels, no schools, sickness in the camps and no AC. It was often up to 120F in the desert. All their possessions are tied to their cars. Three or four children in the back seat. There is one picture of a sedan with a goat in a wooden crate fastened to the running board. The goat is the only one who looks happy! Any money that is available is spent on gas and oil and car repairs. The cars are held together by a thread, a very worn one and then they had to face the Rocky Mountains with mechanical brakes, bad tires and leaky radiators.

So the next time you are trying to decide how much of a shine there should be on your firewall, you might give a thought to the misery that your car was a part of when it was used for every day transportation. Ed

[Oldnuts]

As I was pulling the parts off my sedan I was wondering about the stories that could be told by the car. Why the engine was only bolted to the tranny by a hand full of bolts. Why was it parked in the first place. How long ago were the crude looking welds made on the fenders and firewall.

[BobbyG]

I love the history and the stories behind these old cars - I hope future generations have as much love for them.

[WTSHNN]

If you haven't ever read The Grapes of Wrath I strongly recommend you find a copy.

There is one chapter in which the Joads struggle to fix bad piston in their Nash and Steinbeck goes into great detail about how they fixed it on the side of the road with only basic hand tools.

-Tim

[Terry, NJ]

Bobby G, I don't know how much you know or have heard about the "Dust Bowl" of the midwest in the "Dirty Thirties", But It was about as bad as it can get. Previously fairly prosperous farmers got a double hit. First the depression, then the Drought and the winds blowing away the topsoil. The dust got in everywhere! House, cars, engines. Research has shown that the farmers unknowingly caused some of the problems by cutting treelines at the edge of their fields and deep plowing. Both contributed to the damage when the soil blew away. This caused a great migration west, mainly to California where the influx was treated as a scourge. The Book,The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, although mainly true, is regarded as greatly slanted and was propaganda for Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. Especially the movie. Well worth seeing, though !
Terry

Originally Posted by BobbyG

I love the history and the stories behind these old cars - I hope future generations have as much love for them.

[Napa Skip]

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Herewith a thumbnail sketch of what life was like during the production of the Model A (October 1927 thru March 1932) admittedly leaving out many important aspects of life in the US during this time (e.g., the dust bowl, etc.):

Population & Demographics: The US population was 123,202,660 (1930); today it is estimated to be 2-1/2 times as large (316,057,000). The average life expectancy in 1927 was 59 years (men) and 62 years (women); today it is 76 years (men) and 81 years (women).

Entertainment: The Jazz Singer – popularly regarded as the first talking motion picture – had just opened in 1927 and the Academy Awards presentation started in 1929. Mickey Mouse first appeared in 1928 and Popeye appeared in 1929.

Science & Industry: The first car radio was introduced by Motorola in 1929. The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930 and in 1931 the Empire State Building was completed and work started on Boulder (Hoover) Dam.

Politics: Women had received the right to vote in national elections in 1919; Calvin Coolidge was president in 1927 and Herbert Hoover in 1931.

Aviation: In 1927 Charles Lindberg had just completed his solo flight across the Atlantic (followed by Amelia Earhart in 1928) and in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin completed the first round-the-world flight. By comparison, design work on the B-17 bomber started in 1933, with a first flight in 1935.

Culture: Work had just begun on Mount Rushmore (1927). Heavy rains caused the Mississippi River to break its levee system in 145 locations, causing the Great Mississippi Flood of April 1927 that affected some 700,000 people and flooded 27,000 square miles, including parts of Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and 14% of the state of Arkansas. In 1931 the Star Spangled Banner became the US national anthem. Prohibition (1920-1933) was in place.

Medicine: Penicillin was invented by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and polio was still a wide-spread summer health threat (the iron lung was invented in 1928).

Economics: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was about 200 at the beginning of 1928, peaking at just over 381 in 1929 before plunging to about 86 in March of 1932; today it is approaching 15,600. 1350 banks failed in 1930; another 2500 failed in 1931. In 1930 (in un-inflated dollars) the average new house cost $7145 (down to $6790 in 1931); average rent was $15/month (up to $18 in 1931), average wages were $1970/year (down to $1850 in 1931), gas cost $0.10/gallon, bread cost $0.09/loaf and ground meat was $0.13/lb. In 1931 the unemployment rate was 16.3%.

As someone once said, "The good-ol' days are today."

[Gary/IA]

My Dad, Mom, brother and sister migrated out of the dust bowl in their Model A with their possessions tied on the car. They left their first born buried there as he died of dust pneumonia. Our family knew to well the effects of those times. I came along later but still remember riding in the Model A.

[jimvette59]

[QUOTE=WTSHNN;693408]If you haven't ever read The Grapes of Wrath I strongly recommend you find a copy.

There is one chapter in which the Joads struggle to fix bad piston in their Nash and Steinbeck goes into great detail about how they fixed it on the side of the road with only basic hand tools.

-Tim[/QUOTE

If I remember correctly that chapter also mentions the smell of the grease as he was working. I remember that smell so well from my youth. Jim.T.

[Randy in Illinois]

Almost ashame when we restore we remove this history of the car ,the dents, rust, old repairs and the smell of old grease and age of long ago. when this is gone the next generation won't know what these cars went through.

[BobbyG]

Originally Posted by Terry, NJ

Bobby G, I don't know how much you know or have heard about the "Dust Bowl" of the midwest in the "Dirty Thirties", But It was about as bad as it can get. Previously fairly prosperous farmers got a double hit. First the depression, then the Drought and the winds blowing away the topsoil. The dust got in everywhere! House, cars, engines. Research has shown that the farmers unknowingly caused some of the problems by cutting treelines at the edge of their fields and deep plowing. Both contributed to the damage when the soil blew away. This caused a great migration west, mainly to California where the influx was treated as a scourge. The Book,The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, although mainly true, is regarded as greatly slanted and was propaganda for Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. Especially the movie. Well worth seeing, though !
Terry

Terry as you rightly appreciated I knew nothing of the 'Dust Bowl' I had a totally different idea of what that meant - I appreciate what a terrible time that was for all those involved, Thank you.

[TinCup]

This pic says volumes about it.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Randy in Illinois

Almost ashame when we restore we remove this history of the car ,the dents, rust, old repairs and the smell of old grease and age of long ago. when this is gone the next generation won't know what these cars went through.

If we drive them enough we can instill a new grease smell and history.

[mhsprecher]

A very thought provoking thread. I read Grapes of Wrath long ago, but enjoyed it very much. A lot of good songs written about that period, too.

[29ModelA]

My car was built, sold and driven only in CA until I got it. I am pretty sure it led an easy life, especially based on its condition.

Those were very hard times that no one now-days can really appreciate.

[oliverguy]

I was watching a PBS special about Woody Guthrie a few months ago. One of the interesting things I learned was many of his folk songs were about his days during the dust bowl. Along with his own health problems, his music kind of died out during and after WWII. People had lived through the depression and wanted to move onto better things in th 1950's and really didn't want to remember all those hard times of the 1930's. The last thing they wanted was to hear music about it.

He didn't become popular again until the late 50's with the new folk singers looking for a mentor. The boomers at the time evidently didn't really know these songs were about those times, but applied them to their own struggles.

Looking at it from my perspective as a grandchild of the greatest generation I'm amazed at all they live through

[Dale G.]

My father left Seminole, Oklahoma in 1935 in a 29 Chevrolet to California and made it on old Route 66. Mind you, he didn't leave because of the Dust Bowl because it was actually farther West in Oklahoma, but because Gulf Oil had depleated all the oil fields in and around Seminole. When they pulled out, they left acres and acres of land that was unusable for anything especially farming. All the stuff they pulled out of the ground besides the oil was salt water and other impurities that polluted the soil. The town of Seminole turned into a ghost town so off he went to California looking for a job picking oranges as all the ads in the magazines said to do. He got there and found there were eight people for every one job. Hoovervilles were all over the place and flooded with people. He turned around after several months and came down through the desert toward Yuma, Arizona and the only way to get into Yuma was to cross the infamous sand dunes on a one lane board road. Have picture of his 29 Chevrolet on a siding. If you met someone on that board road, the closest person to the siding had to back up to let the other person pass. He made it to Yuma then on to Phoenix and found a job there and never left the area. Hard times indeed.

[John Butts in CT]

Wonder how well this roadster ran after the dust cloud passed?

[Terry, NJ]

When my youngest daughter was in her last year of HS, we visited my other daughter in California. although I had been to New Mexico and Arizona a few times, It was my first trip to Ca. and we wanted to see as much as possible. So we headed up towards Bakersfield. Diane (My youngest) saw "Weedpatch" on the way, but off "the 5" We were going to see "Rim Rocks", where many a 1920-30s cowboy shoot em up was filmed. She had studied the Grapes of Wrath in school and wanted to see it. Well, It wasn't much as I recall, just a little settlement in the San Joaquin valley, but it really exists!
Terry

[marc hildebrant]

The tough people of the 30's are quite a contrast to the people today.

Marc

[John Butts in CT]

I have a few more images of Model "A's" in the depths of the Depression on another hard drive. I'll post more if this thread continues.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to Shorpy's great photo site.

In all of these images, watch for missing parts, including radiator caps, hubcaps, rear fender guards, and spare wheels. Looks like the lady in the Tudor has her family's alarm clock propped up on the dash.