Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

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Tim Rogers
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Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Tim Rogers » Fri May 29, 2020 11:47 am

Hard to imagine that Robert Weighton was alive when the first Model Ts were hitting the streets...

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<o><o><o><o> Tim Rogers - South of the Adirondacks - Forum member since 2013 <o><o><o><o>

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Rich Eagle
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Rich Eagle » Fri May 29, 2020 1:30 pm

That is something to think about.
I remember Charley Blaisius (sp?), our Harley dealer, saying he and his brother would go down to the freight yard and watch them unload brand new Model Ts. "It was the sweetest sound you could imagine" he said. "After 10 miles they all sounded like hell."
I wasn't there so I can't comment.
When did I do that?

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RichardG
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by RichardG » Fri May 29, 2020 6:28 pm

just think of that,what that man see in his lifetime, not only the automobile but the light bulb the Edison , the phone, and so much more, what the Wright bros did, i go back to a time when cars were shipped 5 in a rail car, 1951 I worked at a FORD LINCOLN dealer, in WHIT RIVER JCK VERMONT,the rail cars holding the autos were shipped to the WESTBROUGH YARD IN WEST LEBANON N.H.i will never for get the time we broke the seal an slid the two big doors open to see three brand new Lincolns all crunched , this is how they were loaded for transport, two were lifted by chain fall on a rack just high enough to allow a car to be backed in under them and chained down then one was slid in between those and chained,we had to use a jack with special wheels to bring one end out on the ramp, if you were lucky it would fire up, this day one of the raised cars broke loose, and destroy'd it self and the two under it. what a mess, i under stand the t's were shipped in piece's .that's a memory of mine long ago i will never for get, 112, wow good for him, he lived through sorrow and good times .

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Ruxstel24
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Ruxstel24 » Fri May 29, 2020 6:38 pm

Mom’s dad who lived next door to us, was born in 1897....he had some stories for sure. Always called my dad’s car the T Model.
He lived through 2 world wars, was unable to serve from issues with his feet from Rheumatic fever as a kid. But worked at B.F.Goodrich for 35 years. Living through the depression with 3 kids gives one a whole different outlook on things that many today can’t even begin to fathom.
Not sure if grandpa had a T, but I know they had an A when mom was little.


HPetrino
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by HPetrino » Fri May 29, 2020 6:49 pm

My maternal grandmother was born in 1902 and died in 2000 at the age of 97. I have often pondered all the changes, both good and bad, that occurred in her lifetime. The effects of several wars and all the technological advances are immeasurable. I can't possibly list all the wonderful art, architecture, music, medicine, and on and on. At the same time there was hate, prejudice and gynecide.

It is impossible to summarize the world today as compared to the world she was born into. I think, unfortunately, underneath all the technology, political rhetoric, self awareness, tolerance, and all the rest of it we are still collectively relatively unchanged. This is proven to me every time i read the news.

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Jeff Perkins
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Jeff Perkins » Fri May 29, 2020 7:16 pm

My wife’s grandmother lived to be 107, passing in 2005. Lived in three centuries! My favorite story she told was of the first time she saw a “horseless wagon”. The family lived on a farm in Finlayson MN, up north. One spring day in 1905 (she was 8 yrs. old) the children were playing in the yard when this contraption came down the road......it was a car, the first anyone had seen. Every time it went by after that all the kids would run to the road to watch it go by. Unfortunately she never knew what kind of car it was.
1913 Model T Runabout,
1926 Model T Touring,
1948 Chrysler New Yorker,
1991 Mazda Miata


John Codman
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by John Codman » Sat May 30, 2020 5:48 pm

Sorry Richard G - Edison invented the lightbulb in 1876; the same year that Bell invented the telephone.


Burger in Spokane
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Burger in Spokane » Sun May 31, 2020 12:01 am

Both electric light and the telephone were slow to become commonplace,
especially in rural areas. The first phone system in my area was begun in 1886,
a full ten years after it was invented. For many, it would by another decade
or more before telephone reached more remote towns around here. Electricity
was even slower to come to backwater areas, some of which did not get power
until the REA brought it in the 1930's-50's.

I spend a LOT of time thinking about the nuts-and-bolts angles of how life was
lived 100+ years ago. From planting lilacs around the outhouses to how special
that stained glass parlor window was to the woman of the house ... amazing little
details of another world.
More people are doing it today than ever before !


John Codman
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by John Codman » Sun May 31, 2020 11:28 am

Hi Burger, I did know that electricity and telephones were slow to be widely adopted in less-populated areas; my comment was simply referring to when they were invented. Some modern convieniences are still being adopted slowly in rural areas. We still have a land-line due to the lousy cell phone signal here out in the Florida sticks. There isn't a cell tower within miles of our house; a day when I can get two bars is considered to be paradise. Often there is no signal at all.

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John Warren
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by John Warren » Sun May 31, 2020 4:17 pm

This sure gives you allot to think about. Covered wagons to landing machines on mars in his lifetime, WOW. I was able to spend some time with my Great Grandmother, born 1875. I was not old enough to appreciate having the opportunity to ask more questions. She did shared a story, just after getting off of a jet airliner, about a trip in a covered wagon that took two weeks. Just thinking of all things that happened in just one life time is mind boggling. You have to wonder why the industrial revolution started when it did and not some other time. I think that I would have loved being part of that thinking and inventing process. Of course I still ponder of many things today. I'm sure that there are still opportunities to invent and design things but I probably would have fit in better when things were more mechanical.
24-28 TA race car, 26 Canadian touring, 25 Roadster pickup, 14 Roadster, and 11AB Maxwell runabout
Keep it simple and keep a good junk pile if you want to invent something :P

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DLodge
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by DLodge » Sun May 31, 2020 5:17 pm

Interesting thread. I was 20 when my great-grandmother died, so I knew her well. She was born in 1866 in North Augusta, Ontario, and died in 1962, so she saw a lot of things in her lifetime. She lived her last years with my grandparents here in St. Louis. My birthday was October 26th and my grandfather's was October 27th, so the family always held a joint celebration for us. In 1959, I was a freshman in college and not home for the traditional birthday celebration. My dad borrowed a reel-to-reel recorder and the whole family recorded a birthday tape for me. Through the years, it has migrated from reel-to-reel to cassette to CD to a digital file. This means that my grandchildren can hear the recorded voices of ancestors back to and including their great-great-great-grandmother.

She never went anywhere in the car, it was always "the machine." :D


Randy SR
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by Randy SR » Sun May 31, 2020 5:39 pm

One of my grandmothers was born in 1896, and remembered moving from Virginia to Ohio in a covered wagon. She always said the house was in Virginia, the barn in Kentucky, and the outhouse in Tennessee, (and made it obvious it was a slight exaggeration!) She remembered being let out of school to watch the first time an automobile went by. The first car she and my grandfather had was a Model T touring car. She passed away in 1992, having gone from covered wagons to jet travel, and from the Wright brothers to the moon landings, two world wars, and the depression. What a different time from the beginning to end of her life.


D Stroud
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by D Stroud » Mon Jun 01, 2020 6:11 am

My parents were born in the early 1900's and passed in the mid '80's. They grew up with horse drawn equipment, drove Model T's, lived through the Depression in the '30's, the war years, and saw the moon landing in '69. Dad drove a fairly new John Deere tractor for a local farmer for a while in the early '70's, quite a jump from horses. I installed a CB radio in Dad's car when he was in his late '70's so he could call for help if something happened with them on the road. He bought a new '72 Ford Torino that had air, power windows, auto transmission and power brakes. I never thought too much about it at the time, but they sure saw a lot of changes. I guess I haven't thought too much about it, but I too have seen a lot of changes. I was born in 1949. When I was a kid growing up in a small town (90 some people) along the railroad in NW MO.,I remember well the wall mounted handcrank telephone we had with a "party line", usually three others on the same line. We had an outhouse (no indoor toilet). For water we had a "pitcher" pump which was a small hand pump in the kitchen until Dad had a "sandpoint" driven in the ground and had an electric powered pump on it to provide water for the house. There was an "elevator" (for grain handling along the railroad) across the street and I remember the long lines of farmers bringing in very small wagon loads of ear corn with their tractors lined up for two blocks waiting to unload in the Fall. I remember the first four row planter that I saw in the mid '50's, that thing was impressive! I went to Vietnam and survived, came home and went on with my life as best as I could. Now look at what all we have, I am in awe and kind of worried about what all our Kids, Grandkids and Great Grandkids are going to see in the future. Kind of scarey for me actually. Dave
1925 mostly original coupe.

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RustyFords
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Re: Alive During The Birth Of The Model T!

Post by RustyFords » Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:31 pm

My mom's grandmother was borrn in the 1880's and lived to be 102. She was in the Oklahoma Land Rush as a child.

I knew her well and never tired of hearing her story of being a young girl crossing the Red River from Oklahoma into Texas. Her uncles swam across the river and tied thick ropes to trees on the other side then their wagon crossed with oxen pulling it, and they used the ropes to keep things steady.

Her first husband (my grandfather's dad) was shot and killed when he stole some food from a grocery store during the Great Depression. She remarried and her second husband died in the 1960's. She lived alone after that and spent her final years in my grandfather's house.

For someone who had such a hard life, she was always positive, always thrilled to see her family and made the best homemade biscuits and sausage gravy I've ever had.
1924 Touring

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