Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Look at the car behind the 39 Plymouth. The drivers side headlight lens is missing and the bare bulb is showing. I wonder how well the owner was able to see while driving this car at night.

Rich Hartung

Posted
Look at the car behind the 39 Plymouth. The drivers side headlight lens is missing and the bare bulb is showing. I wonder how well the owner was able to see while driving this car at night.

Rich Hartung

He could probably see as well as I do, with all these new "brighter than a mig welder" lights on cars today. I try not to drive any at night any more. I can tell when a Ford truck is behind me. Have to pull over and let him go by.

Posted

Thanks for sharing these great street scenerys!

Once upon a time streets looked like streets and cars looked like dreams on wheels...

The '39 Plymouth was a handsome car - nice details - not much of those around anymore...

Posted
Look at the car behind the 39 Plymouth. The drivers side headlight lens is missing and the bare bulb is showing. I wonder how well the owner was able to see while driving this car at night.

Rich Hartung

If I squint hard at the '39 Plymouth I think I can see that the license plates are for 1939. It certainly is nice and shiny so it was probably a new car and the photo was probably taken in 1939 or 1940.

Which makes the condition of the 1934 Plymouth behind it a little interesting. It was only about 5 years old at the time the photo was taken.

Maybe its just in the area I live in. Or maybe its just me with my "new car" 6 1/2 years old. And my wife's "new car" (in better shape than mine) 9 1/2 years old. But I would expect a 5 year old car to be in lots better shape. It has had a hard life. Bumper out of whack, missing one of it's two optional trumpet horns, broken headlight, etc.

Posted (edited)

Yep, gotta remember in 39/40 probably less than 30% of the roads were paved. Out of town and off the state highways, most stuff was graded gravel with lots of rockadillo's and logasaurses. And no street lights, so traction and visibility were probably less than optimal most times.

Edited by greg g
Posted
If I squint hard at the '39 Plymouth I think I can see that the license plates are for 1939. It certainly is nice and shiny so it was probably a new car and the photo was probably taken in 1939 or 1940.

Which makes the condition of the 1934 Plymouth behind it a little interesting. It was only about 5 years old at the time the photo was taken.

Maybe its just in the area I live in. Or maybe its just me with my "new car" 6 1/2 years old. And my wife's "new car" (in better shape than mine) 9 1/2 years old. But I would expect a 5 year old car to be in lots better shape. It has had a hard life. Bumper out of whack, missing one of it's two optional trumpet horns, broken headlight, etc.

I suspect that just as we have now they had then people with more and less levels of caring for their belongings.

Posted (edited)
Yep, gotta remember in 39/40 probably less than 30% of the roads were paved. Out of town and off the state highways, most stuff was graded gravel with lots of rockadillo's and logasaurses.

What'd'u call those rocks that the streets are paved with in english language?

Cobblestones?

Tiles? - sorry, Bricks?

The material in pic1 is different from pic2. Pic1, under '39 are bricks, right?

Under the sedan delivery the street is made of rock.

What are rockadillo's and logasaurses? Lizards? Bugs?

Edited by Uncle-Pekka
added ?
Posted

The street in the photos is paved with bricks. It's the same street in both pictures, I believe. But the round stones you sometimes see on streets are called cobblestones.

Rockadilloes is a play on words. Greg means rocks but is also referring to the animal, armadillo, that you sometimes see on roads in the southern USA.

Logasaurus is the same. He is talking about logs in the road but making a reference to dinosaurs (stegosaurus, brontosaurus, etc.). The roads were primitive back then compared to today. Now it's the behavior that's primitive. Primates on wheels. Not a good thing.

Posted (edited)

Rockadillos, and logasauruses were terms used to describe common hazards found on dirt roads we used to use on road rallys. The increased speed and volume of rally traffic on these lightly traveled roads would erode the surface and wake up the rockadillos. Generally used to describe any medium to large rounded rock laying inthe road, about the size and shape of a rolled up armadillo. Bowling ball sized or so, hitting one was usually detremental to the under side of your car.

Logasaurus are as mentioned, any piece of tree that had deposited it self across the right of way either fully or partially across the driving surface.

Most of which would be just around a turn or just below a dip in the road.

Either or both were often cited as reasons why a rally crew did not make it to the check point on time.

These days of paved superhighway, they are little encountered, however, they have been somewhat replaced by roadgators, those long strips of rubber shed by the retreads used on semi trailers.

Edited by greg g
Posted (edited)

Joe & Gregg, Thanks!

This builds up my vocabulary...

BTW, "Roadgators", what a mighty name for a finnish hot rod club, especially because nobody here knows that is means a wreck of a truck tire lying on the road...:D

OT - I tried to google for "Rockadillo": - got a plenty of hits in finnish web pages, because there is a record label named so in Finland. Producing mostly jazz and rock music. If you like modern jazz, you should sample Piirpauke or RinneRadio. - OT

Edited by Uncle-Pekka

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Terms of Use