Prewar cars, their importance to history

[Rodney Bullock]

There are so many reasons to have an old car. People around here want them but they say they can't afford one, this is not a money thing. They can't afford the TIME it takes to have one.

When I was young I thought of all old cars as what Grandad and daddy drove. Yes the hood and the ornament made the car, I can remember riding down the road standing and looking at the hood ornament. Many years later I was driving my grandfather to the feed store to get some food for the ducks and he'd say "Do you know your way home" This was something he use to ask me when I rode with him. He would just laugh because I would always point to the swan, The hood ornament. If we follow the swan it will take us home.

Just as a 45 record played on a phonograph, a smell in a kichen and a old car can conjore up memmories, it's the memory that makes it historic because the story happened in the past.

These cars were made in a time when automobles needed the owner, new cars need no one. Old cars were built by human hands, with love and understanding. The human feeling, condition and emotion were incorperated in it. New cars are "perfect" until they fall into a state of disrepair then they are discarded, You can find a barn car put some gas in it change this and it will start because that car was never thought of like that, "we will use it until we use it up. Old folks never did that, Thank goodness for us that they did not:) We are still finding cars as we type. All the new cars my wife has owned I could tell you where all of them ended up....CRUSHED.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Rodney Bullock
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[T120]

...I'm not a collector of auto literature but I do have shop manuals and some parts manuals for the vehicles I have.I actually enjoy reading the manuals and looking at the illustrations - photos,drawings,exploded views,etc.and also reading the text.I find it interesting the detail in these manuals produced for a given year for the autos and all the various models.- Done before computers were available to be used as a tool.There must have been a huge staff of photographers,draftsmen,and technical writers employed by the various auto manufacturers of the time to produce these manuals.

[Flatie46]

I was looking at a special on FDR today, at the end of the special as the train was making it's way accross the states carrying his body to it's final resting place. I watched at how people and cars were lined up along the railroad tracks. It made me think of the fact that during this major crisis in America all the people, industry and the world was on one page. Those cars from 1936 to 1941/42 were here and lived though the most trying time in our history. I think because of FDR's illness he used those open Packards to his advantage, He traveled everywhere and was seen in some of the most grand convertibles of his time. These cars made him look strong and connected. When I look at the 1940 and 1941 cars I own, they remind me of a survivor and a reminder of what was in our past. The frontal design looks much like what we lost on Dec 7, 1941. The great Navy ships. The motors these cars used the 6 cly mystery that seem to last forever. The body of these cars that stand so tall and the interiors that seem to extend the living room outside the home. I watch as folks turn these cars into street rods and think sometimes could they be desacrating a memory or extending the life of these fine machines. Some of the folks here have some great looking cars in their original form, they are beautiful, outstanding examples. They are so regal with the white walls and cloth interiors. You all should be commended on your fine design and great color choices. Keep up the good work and enjoy your summer:D I think I am!

Outstanding post! Your preachen to the chior!

[Joe Flanagan]

Ralph,

The manuals are amazing. They'd be worth keeping even if you didn't own a car. I have a couple of originals but I don't touch them. I use a reproduction instead.