Interesting photo, and well worth scrolling down to read the story 'Vernon Evans Interview'
http://www.shorpy.com/node/13549
An interview with Vernon Evans (at center in photo) about how this picture came to be taken:
Well, we was all without jobs here [in South Dakota]. And the jobs was so few and far between at the time we left that you couldn't even buy a job. We had friends that we knew out in Oregon, and we decided we was going to go out there and see if we could find some work. We had $54 between the five of us when we started out from here to go to Oregon. And when we got to Oregon, I think we had about $16 left. We had absolutely no idea what we was going to do.
We all got in an old Model T and started for Oregon. We started out, and, I don't know, we got out six miles and broke the crankshaft. This old rancher, he had some old Model T motors laying around. He said we was welcome to a crankshaft if we wanted one. So, we went back and proceeded to tear the motor out of the old Model T and put the crankshaft in. And that night we made Baker, which is a matter of 24 miles from the night before.
Well, then we had pretty good luck all the rest of the way. But we got around Missoula [Montana] and we was having a good time. See somebody along the road or something. And here was this car sitting alongside the road, and a guy sleeping in it. So, we honked and hollered at him, having a good time. Pretty soon, this car was after us. We'd heard they was sending them back [police sending migrants back at state borders], wasn't letting 'em go on through. So, we thought, "Well, here's where we go back home." He motioned for us to pull over to the side of the road.
Anyhow, he come up and introduced himself [as Arthur Rothstein] and said he was with the Resettlement Administration and asked us questions about the conditions here and one thing or another. Where we was headed for. This "Oregon or Bust" on the back end was what took his eye. Then, he asked us if we cared if he took some pictures of us. Oh, we said, "I guess not." I think he took eight different poses. And then after we was out there [in Oregon] I guess probably it was that fall or winter, why these pictures started showing up in the different magazines and papers. Anyhow, we got out there and I went to work on the railroad.
Go the "Shorpy Store" and waste even more time!!! Great stuff, thanks Dane.
Thanks Royce, I have often wondered about the circumstances surrounding that picture.
Hope Vernon could finally afford a haircut... or a comb.
Here is a little better quality:
"So, we went back and proceeded to tear the motor out of the old Model T and put the crankshaft in. And that night we made Baker, which is a matter of 24 miles from the night before."
I love the casual tone of this comment. He makes it sound about as difficult as changing a spark plug. I find it amazing and a testament to the fortitude and determination of these folks. No AAA, no tow truck, no cell phone, no fully equipped garage. Just what they carried with them and what the rancher had on hand. My hat is off to them!
Here is what they were leaving behind. An abandoned farm in the South Dakota Dust Bowl - May 1936
And another of Vernon and they changed the position of the role of wire.
This is my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl....
It is Darel - no extra letters.
William Sanderson, Tony Papenfuss, and John Volstad as brothers Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. The three, whose last name is never mentioned, are backwoodsmen who live in a shack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newhart
Love the one guy's hair squatting down. The woman on the right looks expecting. WHer the heck did all of them ride?? I guess on the frame? Wow, and that "road" looks like a pasture!
Scott, that looks to be a sedan. Two in front and three in back. Dave
An uncle, my Dad, my 5mo. pregnant Mom, and my 4 oldest brothers and sisters moved from western Nebraska to Ashland, Oregon, in late December 1933. They were in a '29 A Tudor pulling a 4-wheel trailer made from a T chassis. We don't have any pix from the trip, but it must have looked like the above.
rdr