CARS

Growing Up in Mid 20th Century America: Chapter Three - CARS

At the time I was born our family did not have a car. After graduating from Tri-State College in 1937 at the age of 25 (now Tri-State University of course) my dad returned to western Pennsylvania and found employment as a beginning engineer with the Struthers Wells Corporation in Titusville. This was quite convenient as his aging father lived just down the road from Titusville on the family farm. Apparently his father was entering a state of dementia and had to be placed at the North Warren State Hospital. My grandfather Will Prichard passed away in 1938 at the age of 68. The farm was sold and the proceeds split amongst the three surviving sons. The two younger boys went to California and began their new lives in the aircraft industry after having had some training in the Civilian Conservation Corps initiated by President Franklin Roosevelt. Reno was a machinist and Arnold was a tool and die designer, skills sorely needed by the aircraft industry. All three of the Prichard boys were smart and their skills were put to good use. Dad liked his job at Struthers and decided to stay in Pennsylvania.

My father’s first purchase after starting his new job was a 1937 Ford V-8 2 door sedan. The Ford is shown below with my sister Susie sitting on the hood. I imagine he was quite proud of that car as he was of my sister. Unfortunately, the car engine went up in flames one Sunday afternoon in 1941 or 42 when the family was traveling from Olean, NY to Warren after visiting Aunt Myrtle Harwood who was a companion to a wealthy elderly lady in that city. It was apparently an electrical fire. I don’t know how they managed to get home. He told me in later years that despite taking the car to the best mechanics in Warren, they could never get it running right. He then got rid of the car and for a year or two in 1943/44 they did not have a car at all. Of course that was during WWII and gas rationing was in place at that time. Many people did not have cars or did not drive the ones they had. Dad rode a bicycle to work every day. Struthers Wells wasn’t much more than a mile from the house. I can remember going to visit our grandparents in Oil City by train and bus when I was not much more than a baby.

By the time I was a toddler, dad had purchased a 1937 Dodge sedan from a co-worker. That car is shown below with my sister and I plus her girlfriend who I believe was named Carol Johnson. This Dodge was not good so was replaced by a sleek, used 1941 Dodge sedan purchased in Oil City on one of our weekend trips to visit the Ebbert grandparents. I had always loved autos so this Dodge made a big impression on me. The 41 Dodge is shown here at one of our picnic grounds, probably Sandstone Springs as that was nearby and a favorite destination. From my size there I would guess I am 4 years old and this is 1948. This 41 Dodge was with us until the purchase of a brand new light green 1949 Kaiser.

A new car was needed due to a cross country trip that was being planned for June 1949. Earlier I mentioned that my father’s two younger brothers had moved to California in the late thirties to work in the aircraft industry. During the forties dad often traveled to distant cities in his work for Struthers Wells Corporation and he had been to Los Angeles several times, managing to also visit his brothers during those trips. I did not learn until just a few years prior to my mom’s death that he had suggested that we might also want to move to California. The 1949 trip was perhaps also designed to persuade her that moving to the west might be desirable. It did not work I might add as my mom explained to me in her last years. She had told my dad at the time that he was welcome to move to California if he wanted but that she and the kids would be staying in Pennsylvania! She wanted no part of that broiling hot climate 3000 miles from her friends and large family. Our mother was a “take no prisoners” personality as anyone who knew her would verify. Needless to say, the whole family remained in Pennsylvania.

The Kaiser is shown behind my red two wheeler. (More about the bike later) Originally dad had ordered a new 1949 Studebaker but it was delayed as all cars were very hard to get in post war America. So he cancelled the Studebaker when it had not arrived by April and bought the Kaiser because the Kaiser dealer in our town actually had autos in stock to sell to the public. Our trip was planned for June 1949 and we were running out of time. Much work and stocking up on supplies needed to be done in the short remaining time. Next week’s narrative will be devoted to describing our 1949 auto trip to California.