Stories from my Father - Automobiles

The First Automobile
The first automobile I remember seeing belonged to my father’s step uncle, Ike Richerson.  It was a CarterCar, a two seated touring car.  I am not sure it had a top covering.  As I remember it, the top was either always folded or that it did not have a top.   That car had a clever type of clutch-transmission.  attached to the rear of the engine was a leather faced disk about 18 inches in diameter. When in the driving mode, a smaller wheel rolled against the large disk and thru gears turned the rear wheels of the car.  When the small wheel was moved along an axle near the center of the disk, the car was in low gear.  As the small wheel was moved nearer the perimeter of the large disk, the highest gear was reached and of course the faster speed was obtained. I remember that mechanism because most of the time Uncle had the transmission apart placing a new leather face on the drive wheel.  The sand beds of the roads of that era made the leather face wear out often.

Advantage of a Hill
 I have mentioned the many advantages of our house being on a fairly high hill.  That Hill had another good use.  That was as an aid in starting our old Model T Ford in cold weather.  We would pour a kettle of boiling water on the intake manifold of the engine.  Then, with someone under the steering wheel, the other members of the family would give the car a push-off.  By the time the car was rolling good the driver would release the clutch.  Most of the time the engine would fire off promptly.  If alternate rounds and clutching did not start the engine by the time the car reached the bottom of the hill we would scrub the proposed trip because nothing else was going to start it.  Of course if it came to that, and the need to go was urgent enough, we would hitch the team to the old car and pull it back to the top of the hill for another kettle of water on the manifold and another run down the hill.
 
Cars and Trucks
The first car I owned was a Model T Ford coupe.  Paid $100 for it,  $25 deposit and three $25 payments each month thereafter.  We were living in Graham.  Patsy was about two and a half months old.  We decided to drive to my parents' home 4 miles north of Godley, anxious to show off our new baby.  Started the journey soon after five on a Friday evening.  A front blew in before we reached mineral Wells, and it began to rain.  We had the bad luck of two flat tires along the way.  Didn't have a spare so I had to get out in the rain and patch the tires.  It was cold.  Car had no heater.  Patsy was crying most of the time and Mom and I felt like crying.  It sure was not a pleasure trip.   The first new car we bought was at Fort Stockton.  A 1936 Chevrolet sedan.  It was painted a bright yellow.  Stood on the show room floor for a long time because no one wanted that gaudy a car.  Finally the dealer said he would knock off the price of a repaint job if I would buy the car.  I did buy it but never painted it.  We called it the, "Yellow Queen."  Paid $800 for it, drove it five years and sold it to brother-in-law Marvin Miller for $200.  Cheap transportation compared to prices today.

Driving to town
I remember driving our old Model T Ford from the farm north of Godley to Montgomery Wards at Fort Worth for three spools of new barbed wire.  We needed to do some fence repair.  Nothing remarkable about going to the city for a few spools of wire except that I was only 17 years old.  I had no trouble finding Wards because the highway I came in on ran into the street Wards was on. Because Wards is going out of business reminded me of that trip.  We often ordered tires and repair parts for the Old Model T from Wards by parcel post.  Send an order in the mail on Monday and the goods would be at our mailbox Wednesday.

The High Wheel Harley

I just today remembered that I once rode motorcycles.  Paid $60 for a used high wheel Harley-Davidson.  Rode it around town on the pavement until I felt I had acquired enough skill to handle the dirt road.  Started out and, within a hundred yards, dropped the front wheel in a rut and fell over on the side.  I jumped up and jerked the cycle upright again.  The motor was still running and it was in gear so the motorcycle pulled loose from me and fell over again.  That got my attention and I turned it off and rolled it out of the rut and rode safely on after that, of course on the lookout to stay out of ruts.

I must have traded that bike off because later I had one with a side car on it.  Thought the girls would flock to ride in that.  Maybe one in five would take a short spin with me.  A sidecar makes a motorcycle is hard to handle.  First, it is a load dragging you back.  Second, turn fast to the side the car is on and you lose control easily.  Swapped the sidecar off for a battery for the cycle.  I last rode the cycle when about half mile out of Venus en route from visiting my cousins near De Soto.  The motor froze and the wheels skidded.  Got it out of gear and pushed it back to a garage at Venus.  Asked if I could store it there and come back for it later.  Caught a bus on home.  When I went back, the  garage man told me as soon as the motor cooled down it became loose again and was ready to run as soon as I put oil in it.  It had run low on oil.  Later hauled it home and sold it to a guy before I ever rode it again.  Guy never paid for it.  Good riddance.

Tires
The first car tires I have any memory of were made of two layers of woven cotton fabric enmeshed in natural rubber.  Over this was vulcanized a pattern molded tread, also of natural rubber mixed with carbon dust, to give it body and color.  Black unless some dye was introduced to give it another color. The tire was inflated with a natural rubber inner tube.  Of course my early experience with tires was with the ones used on the Model T Ford.  They were called clincher tires because they were held on the wheel rim with molded projections which fit into grooves on the steel rim of the wheel.  The size tires on the Model T Ford were 3 x 30 inch for the front wheels and 3 1/2 x 30 inch on the rear wheels.  Of course if anyone was affluent enough to carry spare tires, they required two, one for the front and the other size for the rear.

Those tires were placed on the wheel with tire irons.  One tire iron came with the tool set that was furnished with a new Ford.  Most users had a pair of broken buggy springs for tire irons.  The spring part was about 1 1/2 inches wide and tapered from the thick end to a very thin point.  Worked real smooth, better than the standard tire tool.  Punctures were repaired with cold patches which came in the kit.  You peeled the backing off and applied the soft side to the tube where the adhesive held it.  I have seen tubes with 35 or 40 patches on them.  Of course those thin tires punctured easily.  To inflate the tires, every driver carried a pump.   The Goldenrod brand of pump was the favorite.  It had a longer barrel than most others.

Next, the cord tire was put on the market.  That replaced the fabric kind with a stronger body.  Then four ply cord tires came out.  Those reduced the blowouts considerably.  About the time of, or soon after, World War I synthetic material began to replace natural rubber in tire manufacturing. "Necessity is the mother of invention."  As natural rubber came in short supply a substitute was found to replace it.

The Company Pickup Truck

I drove a Ford Falcon pickup for the telephone company for a few years.  It, being small and light, was very peppy.  Got in a race with a guy in Chevy pickup once out west of Mineral Wells.  Crawled off and left him behind.  As old as I was, I should have known better than to be racing. But he pulled up even with me and, so to speak, threw down the glove, so I took him on.  Slowly crawled ahead of him then slowed and waved him on.  Another time I was on that road in the rain and a car coming to meet me began to aquaplane all over the road.  I took to the bar ditch and immediately bogged down. The lady in the car got it stopped and offered to try to pull me out.  She was very upset.  I said, "Lady, you have enough trouble already.  Just go on. Someone will be along soon to pull me out."  She went on.  Soon a truck stopped and pulled me back on the road.

Another time, one of our heavy construction trucks ran out of gas few miles out of Breckenridge.  He called the office so I ran out in the Falcon to pull them in.  Tied into that big truck and that little pickup could not move it.  Skidded tires and bounced up and down.  I drove back to town and got some gasoline, as I should have done in the first effort.

The Policeman
While en route from Fort Worth to Breckenridge a few years ago, we were stopped in the east side of Mineral Wells by a policeman.  He asked for my driver's license and then said, "Mr. Anderson, you were clocked driving 55 in a 35 mile zone.  I will have to give you a citation." I said, "Sir, you are to be congratulated."  He asked what for.  I replied, "I have been driving for 60 years and you have the honor of being the officer who is giving me my first traffic ticket."  He tore the ticket out of his pad and tore it in two pieces. saying,  "I am not going to spoil a record like that.  You be careful on your way."  I had gone into mineral Wells with the cruise control on and did not see the change of speed sign, but had slowed before he pulled me over.