During World War II, gas and tires were rationed and the factories were producing tanks and vehicles for the troops. We had a black 1940 Ford two door sedan.
My mother loading the 1940 Ford with lead cages for an experiment in 1946
We lived in a little house in Roland Park Maryland.
Our house - brown shingles and red shutters. My mother on the porch and my sister at the gate
In 1948, my parents bought a new Ford - a grey two door sedan. We named it Daisy Mae after L'il Abner's girl friend. We were going to drive out to Colorado to see my grandmother - my father's mother. We had only gone out once by train during the war, whereas we visited my mother's parents at least once a year.
This is the story of that trip written from my memory and from my dad's photos. My dad took 35 mm slides and he had a new Bolex movie camera. I had a little Brownie box camera but I haven't found any of my photos from this trip.
Since my dad was as assistant professor, we didn't have a lot of money and we were going to save money by camping. We got camo sleeping bags from army surplus that were rated for Alaska. We didn't have a tent - just a ground cloth to put the sleeping bags on.
Anticipating that it might rain or that there might be a lot of bugs, my mother made screens for the car windows and my dad figured out a way to take the cotter pins out of the front seats and make the area inside the car a level bed. My parents were not tall and I was 10 and my sister was 8. My dad would sleep with his feet under the steering wheel diagonal to the back corner. My mom was on the passengers side beside him with my little sister beside her and I was on the driver's side next to my dad.
During the day my sister and I were in the back seat separated by a pile of sleeping bags.
We left Baltimore and drove west. The first photos I have are of a place in Pennsylvania called Eighty-Four.
Post Office Eighty Four
I do not know why we stopped in Eighty-Four. Maybe just because it was the reverse of the year 1948. Eighty Four was originally named Smithville. Due to postal confusion with another town of the same name, its name was changed to "Eighty Four" on July 28, 1884. In spite of what the sign said it was not named in honor of Grover Cleveland's 1884 election as President of the United States, because that occurred after the town was named.
Eighty-Four sign
Maybe the town was named after the year the town's post office was built, by a postmaster who "didn't have a whole lot of imagination"
Queen Anne's lace - near 84 going west
Mother, my sister and me in a field of wild flowers. Mother has a book so we can identify or press the flowers
Closeup of flowers
WIld flowers
One flower
My sister and I were to write our maternal grandmother in Philadelphia about the trip. My mother gave us maps to look at and keep track of our progress. As we were driving through Ohio, I decided to name my sleeping bag and I picked a name of a town on the map - Deerfield. My sister then wanted a name for her sleeping bag, so hers was Ravena (another town in Ohio. We camped the first night in a parking lot in Elyria Ohio. I think we stayed the next night with Ruth Ellen, the daughter of a friend of my parents, but I don't know exactly where she lived.
Cubby in Wonderland
When my father was driving, my mother read to us. I remember that going through Pennsylvania she was reading a medical detective story called Eleven Blue Men. But of more significance to my sister and me - she read a book called "Cubby in Wonderland". Cubby and his mama bear take a journey from their cave in the Tetons to Yellowstone. In the park they meet and learn more about other animals and the strange ways of the two-footed tribe. This is the story of their adventure. Among the topics discussed were the algae that made the water of the hot springs terraces colored, beaver dams and houses, otters, pelicans and moose. This was a great introduction for us as we were going to visit Yellowstone.
I addition to writing to our Philadelphia grandmother and answering questions on the maps (my mother would ask us to find the town we were in and tell her how far it was to the next place which meant we had to add all the little numbers between the intersections, and to estimate how long it would take to get there- math practice plus it avoided the question "Are we there yet"), my dad would sing. He would sing "You are My Sunshine" and then he would do it in various animal voices.
The wall of sleeping bags between us meant that we couldn't reach each other (none of that "She's on MY SIDE") but we could still talk to each other. I would often make up stories to tell my sister. I would ask her to give me three words that I had to use in making up a story. I remember one story about a Magic Hairbrush. I don't remember the plot - I just remember that was one of the stories.
Next we stayed a night with my mother's uncle (my maternal grandmother's younger brother) in Madison Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin
He was a French professor. My mother's first cousin Ann was only about five years older than I was.
Me, my mother with my sister on her shoulders and her cousin
I don't know what the reason for this bizarre photo is.
Some of the places in the west had minerals in the water (like magnesium salts) which would upset the digestion of people who weren't "from" there. In order to avoid such ailments, we would stop at a local ice house and get ice for our water jug and coolers. Ice freezes faster without salts in it. The ice in the jug would melt and give us cold water to drink
We stopped off at the Mayo Clinic for a photo
Mayo clinic
and then stayed with my dad's college friend's family in Minneapolis.
Schiele's family, me, my sister and my mother
Eating ice cream cones at the Schieles
My dad took a photo of the PO of Dawson
Dawson P.O.
because that was my grandfather's first name,
Capital of South Dakota
and we had to have a photo of the South Dakota capitol in Pierre. (Daddy wanted a photo of each capitol) Pierre ( pronounced Peer) was chosen as the capitol of the state of South Dakota because is was approximately in the center of the state. It is the second least populous state capital after Montpelier, Vermont. It is opposite Fort Pierre which was named for Pierre Chouteau, Jr., an American fur trader of French Canadian origin.
Pierre SD capitol (with our car in front)
My mother loading the 1940 Ford with lead cages for an experiment in 1946
We lived in a little house in Roland Park Maryland.
Our house - brown shingles and red shutters. My mother on the porch and my sister at the gate
In 1948, my parents bought a new Ford - a grey two door sedan. We named it Daisy Mae after L'il Abner's girl friend. We were going to drive out to Colorado to see my grandmother - my father's mother. We had only gone out once by train during the war, whereas we visited my mother's parents at least once a year.
This is the story of that trip written from my memory and from my dad's photos. My dad took 35 mm slides and he had a new Bolex movie camera. I had a little Brownie box camera but I haven't found any of my photos from this trip.
Since my dad was as assistant professor, we didn't have a lot of money and we were going to save money by camping. We got camo sleeping bags from army surplus that were rated for Alaska. We didn't have a tent - just a ground cloth to put the sleeping bags on.
Anticipating that it might rain or that there might be a lot of bugs, my mother made screens for the car windows and my dad figured out a way to take the cotter pins out of the front seats and make the area inside the car a level bed. My parents were not tall and I was 10 and my sister was 8. My dad would sleep with his feet under the steering wheel diagonal to the back corner. My mom was on the passengers side beside him with my little sister beside her and I was on the driver's side next to my dad.
During the day my sister and I were in the back seat separated by a pile of sleeping bags.
We left Baltimore and drove west. The first photos I have are of a place in Pennsylvania called Eighty-Four.
Post Office Eighty Four
I do not know why we stopped in Eighty-Four. Maybe just because it was the reverse of the year 1948. Eighty Four was originally named Smithville. Due to postal confusion with another town of the same name, its name was changed to "Eighty Four" on July 28, 1884. In spite of what the sign said it was not named in honor of Grover Cleveland's 1884 election as President of the United States, because that occurred after the town was named.
Eighty-Four sign
Maybe the town was named after the year the town's post office was built, by a postmaster who "didn't have a whole lot of imagination"
Queen Anne's lace - near 84 going west
Mother, my sister and me in a field of wild flowers. Mother has a book so we can identify or press the flowers
Closeup of flowers
WIld flowers
One flower
My sister and I were to write our maternal grandmother in Philadelphia about the trip. My mother gave us maps to look at and keep track of our progress. As we were driving through Ohio, I decided to name my sleeping bag and I picked a name of a town on the map - Deerfield. My sister then wanted a name for her sleeping bag, so hers was Ravena (another town in Ohio. We camped the first night in a parking lot in Elyria Ohio. I think we stayed the next night with Ruth Ellen, the daughter of a friend of my parents, but I don't know exactly where she lived.
Cubby in Wonderland
When my father was driving, my mother read to us. I remember that going through Pennsylvania she was reading a medical detective story called Eleven Blue Men. But of more significance to my sister and me - she read a book called "Cubby in Wonderland". Cubby and his mama bear take a journey from their cave in the Tetons to Yellowstone. In the park they meet and learn more about other animals and the strange ways of the two-footed tribe. This is the story of their adventure. Among the topics discussed were the algae that made the water of the hot springs terraces colored, beaver dams and houses, otters, pelicans and moose. This was a great introduction for us as we were going to visit Yellowstone.
I addition to writing to our Philadelphia grandmother and answering questions on the maps (my mother would ask us to find the town we were in and tell her how far it was to the next place which meant we had to add all the little numbers between the intersections, and to estimate how long it would take to get there- math practice plus it avoided the question "Are we there yet"), my dad would sing. He would sing "You are My Sunshine" and then he would do it in various animal voices.
The wall of sleeping bags between us meant that we couldn't reach each other (none of that "She's on MY SIDE") but we could still talk to each other. I would often make up stories to tell my sister. I would ask her to give me three words that I had to use in making up a story. I remember one story about a Magic Hairbrush. I don't remember the plot - I just remember that was one of the stories.
Next we stayed a night with my mother's uncle (my maternal grandmother's younger brother) in Madison Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin
He was a French professor. My mother's first cousin Ann was only about five years older than I was.
Me, my mother with my sister on her shoulders and her cousin
I don't know what the reason for this bizarre photo is.
Some of the places in the west had minerals in the water (like magnesium salts) which would upset the digestion of people who weren't "from" there. In order to avoid such ailments, we would stop at a local ice house and get ice for our water jug and coolers. Ice freezes faster without salts in it. The ice in the jug would melt and give us cold water to drink
We stopped off at the Mayo Clinic for a photo
Mayo clinic
and then stayed with my dad's college friend's family in Minneapolis.
Schiele's family, me, my sister and my mother
Eating ice cream cones at the Schieles
My dad took a photo of the PO of Dawson
Dawson P.O.
because that was my grandfather's first name,
Capital of South Dakota
and we had to have a photo of the South Dakota capitol in Pierre. (Daddy wanted a photo of each capitol) Pierre ( pronounced Peer) was chosen as the capitol of the state of South Dakota because is was approximately in the center of the state. It is the second least populous state capital after Montpelier, Vermont. It is opposite Fort Pierre which was named for Pierre Chouteau, Jr., an American fur trader of French Canadian origin.
Pierre SD capitol (with our car in front)
- Next entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': Camping in the Badlands in 1948 - Second Post
- Previous entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': 1947 Trips from Woods Hole
