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Sand Ruts and Pine trees
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Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 3:32 PM

Many of you learned to drive after having had driver's ed. You probably learned to drive in an automobile equipped with power steering, power brakes, power windows, an AM/FM radio. a multitude of dials and a host of other gadgets unheard of before WW2.

It was a bit different during my younger days. We didn't have driver ed, at least in the form we see it today. We watched our parents and then we sat behind that huge steering wheel pretending we were driving. Finally, with the approval of our parents and, quite often without their approval, we cranked up that old tin lizzy and off we went. On some of those old cars, particularly the old Ford Model T, we had to literally hand crank the engine.

We didn't have power steering, power brakes, power windows ---- heck, on the old Model T, there were no windows. The most difficult part of learning to drive was getting a smooth acceleration. It was sorta like a bucking bronco before we got the hang of it. The more we laughed the worse it got.

Not many people owned a car in the 1920's and 30's. The most common cars were the Ford Model T, followed by the Model A and the Chevrolet. The only paved road in my home town in North Florida was Main Street and the only reason it was paved was because it was the main highway. All of the other streets and rural roads were that famous Florida sand.

That famous Florida sand was noted for having deep ruts. If the driver was careful, the car would remain in the ruts with no trouble, But, if for any reason the front wheels caught the edge of the rut just right, the car was going to head for one of the nearby pine trees. Fortunately, those old cars were not noted for NASCAR speeds so the impact of car and pine tree was not going to result in serious injury. Another safety factor was the front and rear bumpers. There were made of spring steel and when car collided with a pine tree, then car would bounce backward.

If any boy living on a farm and the family had a car had not hit a pine tree before graduating high school, he was considered not qualified to receive his diploma. Some of the boys living in town also found a pine tree during their early driving. I suppose hitting a pine tree was the closest thing we could refer to as having power brakes.

My Dad did not allow my older brother and I to drive on those rural roads alone, he had to be with us. We learned to drive by going around the block hundreds of times. The family car was always parked so that the only turns we made were to the right. I once told someone I had been driving for two years before I could make a left turn.

And that's the way it was back in the dark ages.

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^^ Another super-dooper & funny story Joe21..


Apr 1, 2019, 4:12 PM

but you’ve got to shorten them (for me at least) since ADHD challenged! LoL

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 4:15 PM

Absolutely great read..... I am surprised you didn't wrench a shoulder with the hand crank.

I came up much later,,, mid-70's

Drove an FJ40 landcruiser, all metal.. no radio, no ac, 3 speed 50 mph.
lower quarter panal vents worked great.

Thing was an absolute chick magnet... Nobody had one.

Still got it... though it is not used as a chick magnet.

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 4:22 PM

Joe,

Did you have to stop and take the car apart if a horse and buggy were coming by? Read somewhere where those kind of laws existed.

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 4:31 PM

Joe .... I had lunch one day with General Wm. Westmoreland several years before he died and he told me some wonderful stories of growing up in Spartanburg. He said that his father was the superintendent of a mill on the outskirts of Spartanburg. However, his dad thought the schools inside the city were better than the more rural district where the mill was and where they lived, so when Gen. Westmoreland was 12 years old he drove a model A Ford back and forth to school every day of the week.

I'll tell some other good stories later about then Colonel Westmoreland visiting Ike at the White House in the middle 50's.

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 4:33 PM

PS: Joe, I still haver a 30 Model A (or B can't remember) rumble seat coupe and when I used to drive it I liked to start it with a crank. It really isn't quite as hard as people think .... that is if the engine is in good running shape and wants to start.

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 5:18 PM [ in reply to Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees ]

That should be interesting to hear some of those stories.

I plan to post a sequel to my above story based on info my older sisters told me. I wish I had a greater interest in some of these tales when my sisters were still living and had written down things they told me.

This is why I try to encourage each one of you to keep a diary for your children, grands and great grands to cherish years from now.

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Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 5:41 PM

Interesting perspective Joe , always like hearing these things from someone who lived it .
Thanks for posting .

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DB23


Re: Sand Ruts and Pine trees


Apr 1, 2019, 8:54 PM

I learned how to drive in a '61 Rambler. 3 on the tree. I could go on dirt roads and field roads for miles without having to get on a paved road. We had paved roads, I just would rather drive on dirt. Orangeburg and Calhoun Counties. Good times.

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