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Vacuum wipers memorialized


Normspeed

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A side hobby of mine is picking up used books, like old fiction hardcovers from the 30's 40's and 50's, to read. They are always time capsules of life back then, before cellphones, computers and lots of other modern stuff. Last one I got was a book by Erle Stanley Gardner. It has two mystery stories, and these are a couple of the original Perry Mason series. The case of the Daring Decoy and the case of the Lazy Lover. In the lazy Lover, copyright 1947, there is this passage, and it made me think of all the P15-D24 members with vac wipers:

(Perry and his detective sidekick Paul Drake are headed up a twisty mountain road in southern California at night, maybe something running northeast out of Ventura or Santa Barbara. It's raining, and they're looking for a place where a client is holed up, called the Snug-Rest Auto Court.)

"A sign flashed up in the headlights, gleaming whitely at them out of a cold drizzle, etching its dazzling image on their tired eyes, "Snug Rest Auto Court one Mile".

As Mason eased the speed of the car, the windshield wipers gathered speed, pulsed hysterically"...

Had to share that. Maybe they were in an old Mopar.

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...pick up a few of those books myself :)

A side hobby of mine is picking up used books, like old fiction hardcovers from the 30's 40's and 50's, to read. They are always time capsules of life back then, before cellphones, computers and lots of other modern stuff. Last one I got was a book by Erle Stanley Gardner. It has two mystery stories, and these are a couple of the original Perry Mason series. The case of the Daring Decoy and the case of the Lazy Lover. In the lazy Lover, copyright 1947, there is this passage, and it made me think of all the P15-D24 members with vac wipers:

(Perry and his detective sidekick Paul Drake are headed up a twisty mountain road in southern California at night, maybe something running northeast out of Ventura or Santa Barbara. It's raining, and they're looking for a place where a client is holed up, called the Snug-Rest Auto Court.)

"A sign flashed up in the headlights, gleaming whitely at them out of a cold drizzle, etching its dazzling image on their tired eyes, "Snug Rest Auto Court one Mile".

As Mason eased the speed of the car, the windshield wipers gathered speed, pulsed hysterically"...

Had to share that. Maybe they were in an old Mopar.

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I have a 2nd hand book shop.......Big River Book Exchange and have a couple of dozen Erle Stanley Gardner titles in stock, all 1st's with nice jackets.......any takers?........lol...........andyd

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I think Gene Shephard may have mentioned them several times in his writing of the times.

He was the Author of Christmas Story, and a bunch of short stories based in the early to mid 50's in the upper midwest. He also did a column for Car and Driver and did a radia show years back. Funny stuff for us who did some of our growing up then.

http://www.flicklives.com/

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Used to listen to his radio show late at night on AM radio as a kid. Those stories about growing up in the steel belt were so great. I would get laughing so hard my folks would come to my room to see what the heck I was up to. There was one about the guys stealing thermos bottles full of Benzol from the plant, then filling the tank on their model T with it. By the end of the story, the Model T did a total meltdown in the company parking lot, block glowing cherry red and the motor turning ungodly rpms. After it finally blew up, a co-worker walks over, looks at it and says, "Oh, Benzol, eh?"

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A side hobby of mine is picking up used books, like old fiction hardcovers from the 30's 40's and 50's, to read. They are always time capsules of life back then, before cellphones, computers and lots of other modern stuff. Last one I got was a book by Erle Stanley Gardner. It has two mystery stories, and these are a couple of the original Perry Mason series. The case of the Daring Decoy and the case of the Lazy Lover. In the lazy Lover, copyright 1947, there is this passage, and it made me think of all the P15-D24 members with vac wipers:

(Perry and his detective sidekick Paul Drake are headed up a twisty mountain road in southern California at night, maybe something running northeast out of Ventura or Santa Barbara. It's raining, and they're looking for a place where a client is holed up, called the Snug-Rest Auto Court.)

"A sign flashed up in the headlights, gleaming whitely at them out of a cold drizzle, etching its dazzling image on their tired eyes, "Snug Rest Auto Court one Mile".

As Mason eased the speed of the car, the windshield wipers gathered speed, pulsed hysterically"...

Had to share that. Maybe they were in an old Mopar.

Vacuum wipers were the norm in the 1940's. Chrysler was one of the first to go electric. A friend had a 1964 Rambler American, with vacuum wipers, something Falcon and Comet also had that year.

Love the old who dunnit stories.

Bill

Vancouver, BC

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David.........I have about 8-10 Erle Stanley Gardiner and about the same number of A.A.Fair,his alto ego, however all are from about 1955-1962, British or Australian 1sts, no USA 1sts that I could see........andyd

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