I like these types of rememberances:

https://fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?s=1d45a6f846b5306076d7386218b479e6&t=2 32319

Me too. Love hearing old stories. We need a story telling section and some of our old (and wise) members to share with us how it used to be.

Good read. Thanks for sharing Herb.

Dave I think that is an awesome idea.

Herb, I wish the older folks would tell more stories. I know more about history than most my age because I would sit and listen to people in there later years. The history around my farm for one. Where the houses used to be , the brick factory down from my house that in the 30's was just the brick ovens was all that was left. I guess I could relate the way we grew up. I grew up in the 70's and early 80's. Most of the time growing up we had no indoor toilet. We lived places where we pumped all our water. Most places wood heat is all we had.we were poor as church mice as far as money was concerned but rich in so many other ways. Thanks for sharing that story. I was around cars all my life. Dad always had to repair the junkyard buys we had to drive. We rarely had a garage to fix things in. I can remember changing engines in a snow storm in front of the house so dad could go to work. 3 pine trees about 4 inches around with a tire iron driven through the top and a piece of chain around it and grandads chain hoist is how we done it back then. I hope this will bring our more stories.

I hope Stan Howe would contribute to that story telling section. Stan has the gift.

Amen.

How it used to be. I've told this before, but this seems like a good place to drag it out again.

Most drivers today, zipping along I-40 between Barstow and Flagstaff, have no memory of old US 66. Steinbeck called it the Mother Road. It was the main road, as the song says, "from Chicago to to L.A." It was also the road we took when traveling in the old 1941 Plymouth to visit Grandma and the other relatives in Kansas.

As today, you crossed the Colorado River south of Needles. But instead of heading east, the road turned north by northeast up a long gradual grade toward the mountains. This was not the graded four-lane divided interstate of today. It was paved, but just two lanes. It followed the contours of the land. In this straight stretch, that meant up and down, as the road dipped into dry washes and up over the low hills between. Then you reached the mountains and began to climb in earnest. The road was narrow by today's standards, and twisted around the ridges in curves and switchbacks as it climbed. You passed through the old mining town of Oatman and on up Oatman Grade. This being the main cross-country road, there was no shortage of traffic. That included trucks. It was not unusual on a hot summer day to be in a long line of cars snaking single file up the grade behind a truck in low gear as it toiled up the mountain toward the summit at Sitgreaves Pass. At every turnout there would be at least one car stopped with its hood open as the driver waited for it to stop steaming.

The next time you're traveling between Kingman and Topoc, it's worth a detour to drive old 66 and marvel at what a narrow, twisting thing the main road used to be.

My 94 year old Aunt tell's the story that on her Birthday back in the late 20s or early 30s She had a Aunt that was driving up from Houston 35 mile trip with her Daughter's for the party when the Radiator cap on their model T fell off on a two lane road and while She and the daughters were looking for the cap in the ditch a Drunk driver ran off the road and killed the Aunt the Daughters were not Hurt, She wondered why that didn't show up, Her parents didn't tell her for a few days as not to spoil her Birthday. My Aunt B is still kicking at 94 She used to help her Dad work on model Ts at His shop back in the late 20,s and 30,s, She lives in a Nursing Home and I am hoping to take her for a ride in my T before She passes, her health permitting, but it will probably take a couple of folks to help get her in and out of the touring and a warm day would be nice too.

Steve,
I have driven our 13 model T (Starting/Finishing) at the Colorado River driving thru Oatman to Kingman on old 66 and returning. Had lunch in Kingman. Enjoyed the Donkeys in Oatman.....good place to stop for ice cream/potty stop. We had no problems with our model T which has a Ruckstell and Rocky Mountain Brakes.