begin partial quote from:
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012
Wooden Wheels on Cars before 1925 or 1930
OLD WOODEN SPOKE WHEEL
You just don’t see many like this anymore. My father talked about his father having wheels like this on their touring car while traveling from Texas to California. There were no paved roads between Texas and California except in large cities. He said going across the desert they broke a spoke on a wooden wheel and put the spare wheel on. So they had spare tubes so they wouldn’t get stuck without a tire and a tire pump and an extra wooden wheel in case a rut in the road broke the wheel or too big a rock or a combination broke the wheel or punctured a tire. When it rained it wasn’t usually a good idea to travel unless you were on a graveled or rocked road because you would get stuck. This was about 1915 and probably before to 1925 when my Grandfather rode on Wood spoke wheels. Somewhere around Arizona they broke a front spoke wheel so my Grandad stopped to put a new wheel on that was tied onto the trunk of the car. The dogs rode on the running boards (they tied them on) so they wouldn’t mess in the car back then because they were outdoor dogs and mostly to hunt with so were not housebroken. My Uncle was 4 years old and went and stood over on a large red ant hill and his screams when they bit him all over drew everyone to save him. Where they lived in Oregon and Washington and Texas I don’t think they had the large red ants that will attack humans sort of like bees if you are near their hives. I myself, when I was 4 had this same experience in El Cajon, near San Diego, because they didn’t have ants like this in Seattle where I had come from either. It is so painful that it only takes one time to learn the lesson of the large red ants of California and Arizona and possible a couple of other areas as well. My father said that the alkali dust roads were so bad that only the driver wasn’t crying from eye irratation and it also created sores in your mouth from the dust that it took about a month for all the sores in your mouth to heal from all the dust. Only the driver, my Granda who had goggles on didn’t have eyes watering from the alkali roads. And everyone had the mouth sores for over a month after they reached California likely in the early 1920s. I found this wood spoke wheel in Big Sur on the coast of California next to the rest room. It is near the Shell Station($5.99 a gallon for premium) today in between the River Inn and the Post Ranch and Ventana Ranch. If you want to see more wooden spoke wheels go to google images and type in: ‘Wooden Spoke wheels’.Posted by intuitivefred888 at 7:31 PM0 comments Links to this postLabels: Wooden Wheels on Cars before 1925 or 1930
No comments:
Post a Comment