MTFCA Forum

It was a HARD life for most of those model Ts, and their owners! Yet, some folks had some style or class. Notice the third from the last photo. A small dogbone radiator cap with a leaping greyhound hood ornament! You have to love that.
Thank you Tom R.

I suspect that most of those pictures were taken during the Great Depression. The T's looked very worn and some had mattresses and other household items on them. I also notice some early 1930s cars in the background. My dad had a 1936 Ford with a greyhound on the hood. I think that was a Lincoln emblem. Quite popular during that time period.
Norm

Most people today have no idea, the hardships, the struggles, that millions of good people suffered through, fought to survive, during those terrible years. And then, to go from the economic realities of those years, from just recovering from those hardships, being dragged into a World War with a whole new set of hardships on the home front. And far worse realities overseas.

Most people today have no clue.

Wayne is so right.... nowadays some folks think it's a disaster if they can't get cell phone reception. My parents and grandparents lived thru those times and tried to instill some of the values learned in me....for which I am grateful. They had to be tough and resourceful to survive.

Some pics appear to be "Okie" refugees.

Combined with the 120 degree heat, lack of water and danger of driving through the desert, the responsibility for the safety and care of a large family, the total lack of money, other mean and more desperate people heading west who want what little you have, driving an unreliable T on its’ last legs, not knowing where the next gas station was, or where the next meal was coming from with six or more mouths to feed, what will be the next life threatening crisis, and fear that what lies at the end of the journey is worse that what you left behind, the stress must have been incredibly overwhelming. Jim Patrick

Looks like the T in the 7th picture got hit by a train, hard enough to tear the engine and hogshead from the engine pan. Poor driver was probably so tired and stressed out, he was driving in a trance and didn’t hear the train’s whistle, or see the train through that dirty windshield. I hope nobody got hurt. I wish there was a picture of it from the side. The entire front end is most likely gone too. Jim Patrick

Torn from the pages of Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath". My heart cries for those folks, though they're now long gone. We have so much to be thankful for.

I do not think the T was hit by a train or any thing. Ts were often just left where they stopped running. Others would remove parts as needed. I have seen other photos of similar situations. The old story was that if you needed a part for your T, just walk down the road a ways.

There's still a front wheel under the driver's side front.

I think pic # 15 is the earliest documented use of an actual solar panel. This one was coal-fired.

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s you could see used up Model T’s in fields pretty often. Old wagons up close were really a T chassis with a platform or some type of trailer. A Tudor sedan that came across the scales at the local salvage yard was a used up chicken coop!

I should have bought the whole car but got the engine later from a local restorer who wound up with it from a concerned guy who saw it laying in the general junk pile at the salvage yard!

He didn’t want it so I got it for 25.00 and hauled it home in the trunk of my 68 Dodge Dart. I do remember having to tie the trunk down with a piece of bailing wire. Days gone by! That was in the early 70’s.

ModelT46 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 25, 2022 4:00 pm

I do not think the T was hit by a train or any thing. Ts were often just left where they stopped running. Others would remove parts as needed. I have seen other photos of similar situations. The old story was that if you needed a part for your T, just walk down the road a ways.

So true. My uncle who was born in 1918, told me his first car he put together from parts he found in the ditch along the road.