A well used Model T in 1938.

[John kuehn]

Here’s a pic from the Traces of Texas website. It was taken in 1939 but may have been in 1938 because of the date on the rear plate.
The T Roadster looks like it’s a 1920 or close to it. By this time it was an 18 year old car used car that was really being used. It looks like it has a lowered top bow bracket of some sort or?

[5 WoodenWheels]

Very nice, authentic photo. Lots of detail, looks like the owner is ready for just about anything the road may throw at him. Both "survivors," the car and its owner.

[Rich Eagle]

That is a marvelous photo! the delightful replacement top covering and the deck without turtle add to the charm. the jaunty angle of the spare is nice too.
Thanks for letting us see that.
Rich

[TWrenn]

Poor car! Makes ya wonder if they abused and neglected their horses and buggies in the same manner. We see so many pics of Model T's just beat to crap, yet they apparently kept on ticking!

[perry kete]

I have seen this picture before BUT it is the first time I have noticed 3 people in the photo. 1 standing at the back of the car, 1 standing near the front, and 1 bent over the motor perhaps adding oil.
Great history photo.

[John kuehn]

I thought it was a neat photo too and that why I posted it. Lots of everyday real life use for this T! It makes you wonder how much longer it was going to keep going. I’m thinking that by the late 40’s this T was about done in and left to sit out its days on the back 40! Looks like it’s got front and rear fender brackets too for added durability!

And now I see the guy checking out the engine! Thanks for pointing that out.

[Norman Kling]

Those were tough times. Our family lost the house they rented when the landlord died and had to find a different place to live. We lived for a few months in a cabin in the woods where we had to walk about one mile from the nearest road to the cabin. Got our water from a stream in a bucket and cooked on a wood stove. Used the potty up a hill in back. Dad worked with his father and uncle and hiked up the trail to the road and drove to town to work. He came home and yodeled from the trail and mom knew when to start dinner. On Sunday we went to my grandparents and took baths. During the week just got washed down with a wet rag. During the few months we lived there, dad was able to take out a loan on our 1936 Ford and scrape up enough to buy a lot with a small house for $4,000.00. Had to make mortgage payments for a few years to pay it off.
After we moved to the house, in 1939, I would see at least 2 Model T tourings go down the street every day. One had good paint and top and the other had a top all ragged. We would see Model T's in all conditions. Also saw other kinds of old cars, particularly Chevrolets and Dodges. There were also centerdoors and coupes around. even when I was in high school some of the kids were still driving T's to school. I drove a Model A to school. About a mile from me lived Walt Rosenthal and he kind of got me interested in Model T's.
Norm

[5 WoodenWheels]

Those were tough times. Our family lost the house they rented when the landlord died and had to find a different place to live. We lived for a few months in a cabin in the woods where we had to walk about one mile from the nearest road to the cabin. Got our water from a stream in a bucket and cooked on a wood stove. Used the potty up a hill in back. Dad worked with his father and uncle and hiked up the trail to the road and drove to town to work. He came home and yodeled from the trail and mom knew when to start dinner. On Sunday we went to my grandparents and took baths. During the week just got washed down with a wet rag. During the few months we lived there, dad was able to take out a loan on our 1936 Ford and scrape up enough to buy a lot with a small house for $4,000.00. Had to make mortgage payments for a few years to pay it off.
After we moved to the house, in 1939, I would see at least 2 Model T tourings go down the street every day. One had good paint and top and the other had a top all ragged. We would see Model T's in all conditions. Also saw other kinds of old cars, particularly Chevrolets and Dodges. There were also centerdoors and coupes around. even when I was in high school some of the kids were still driving T's to school. I drove a Model A to school. About a mile from me lived Walt Rosenthal and he kind of got me interested in Model T's.
Norm

I'm impressed with how vivid your memories are. You must be inching towards a century of living and I always enjoy hearing how people got by back in the day. It helps keep things in perspective. A friend of my mother's, now deceased, was born in the early 1920s. She did a great job of documenting her early days with photos of their one-room schoolhouse, the Model T the family owned, and other images of regular life from those days. I recall her telling me they'd have to run to the outhouse on cold winter mornings in Michigan and I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must have been. We seem to be extraordinarily adaptable as a species, however. Whatever's thrown our way, we make do. My first house was a little bungalow built in the mid-1920s and the previous owners had lived there for over fifty years. It was clear when I started fixing it up that they didn't have much money as their repairs relied on whatever materials happened to be on hand--whether they were suitable for the job or not. In the case of electrical "patches," it was downright dangerous.
Anyway, thanks for the interesting stories from your youth.
Gerrit

[ModelT46]

We were never poor. My fathwr eartned about $150 a month as an educator, first as a superintendent of school in Montgomery, MN and then as a principal in Minneapolis. With that about of money he bought new cars and a home. We did observe poverty. "Bums would walk up from a "Hoover Town" and ask for handouts, often doing a bit of work. In the late 30s, we would see a few Model Ts and more Model As./ Big old cars were used by plumbers and painters as work "trucks". Before WWII, the scrap yards were full of early autos. Scrap drives during WWII cleaned out a lot of them. The Buick dealer in downtown Minneapolis bought 30 or so eartly Buicks and stored them. He sold many of them in the late 40s. Farm yards, often back by the stone pile were the remains of early cars, lots of Model Ts.

[John kuehn]

Here in this area of Texas there were a lot of farm auctions and buy outs I went to with my Father in the 50’s -60’s. It seemed there were always remains of T’s that were used for this and that. Old farm T wagons and cut down T frames made into carts. T iron parts were put in a pile along other old iron were put in piles on pallets to be sold for a very few dollars to get them out of the way.
So it was with Model T’s and their bones!

[Luke]

Here's a little colour on the original image, with thanks to www.img2go.com:

For anyone interested in colourising old photographs you'd find that colorize.cc also does quite a good job on this image, but it comes at a cost (along with the terribly miss-spelt website name

And, to show what you can do at home, here's the original image cleaned up using GIMP on Linux, without colourisation:

And, finally, that cleaned up image colourised:

One thing the colouring shows is that there could possibly be another pump behind the body and rag top of the car...

Luke.

[SteveK]

Really great picture!!! I wonder how often he changed the oil

[John kuehn]

Thanks Luke for the colorizing! It brings out the detail better. It brings out how really beat this old T is.
The cash only sign can plainly be seen now and the guy bending over the engine must be the owner or dealer of the service station since he has on a cap with the Texaco star on it. Neat.

[5 WoodenWheels]

For anyone interested in colourising old photographs you'd find that colorize.cc also does quite a good job on this image, but it comes at a cost (along with the terribly miss-spelt website name

Really nice job cleaning up the photo and colorizing. With your skill level, seems like you could handily market your services. I remember the photo I tried to pass off as vintage--looked way more convincing after you'd gotten through with it--even added a distressed look to the photo "paper."
Very impressive.

Gerrit