
Category: 1900s
You’re Motoring
Here’s a cool ad in my June 1919 Motor Age magazine. Note the stockings, the Mexican poncho splayed across the demure seated one’s lap, the backwards baseball cap (oh, that’s just a perspective issue), and the fact that Boko, although marketing to dealers, was reflecting women drivers nearly 100 years ago. Remember that women still couldn’t vote at that point…
Invitation To Repose
We passed this house on Saturday, in an older part of a nearby town. And while I realize its closets are probably small, and the bathrooms lack garden tubs, and the pantry could not fit a twin bed like ours can, and the hardwood floors probably squeak–I sure do covet that double-tiered wraparound porch. It almost demands that one saunter out to it, master of all you survey. What a joy to be headmistress of all you survey!
Sitting out there, sipping lemonade, thumbing through Southern Living magazines, waving to my neighbors–sounds peaceful. I would turn my ear to the melody of the ice cream truck, and it would stop just shy of my property, and children would race to catch it. They would pay $4 for a fudge bomb, and that would put me on edge. Perhaps I would rise from my rocker and raise my shaking cane at the man and his avarice. I would curse him and his dairy products. He would ignore me because I am old, and old people are invisible.
Wait, this isn’t turning out how I had hoped it would.
Vulcanizers In The Motor Age, Part II
This 1919 Motor Age magazine is chock full of great images, so make sure you checked out Part I.
Perfection Asbestos. Isn’t that redundant?
But it’s not just ads; Detroit was concerned with safety.
And they had plans for the car of the future.
One article discussed autogenous welding in automotive repairs.
And of course, there are the cars themselves, including this bullet-shaped Fiat.
Thanks for spending some time in the past, in a time before all of us were born.
Vulcanizers In The Motor Age, Part I
I spent last night, flipping through a 1919 Motor Age, browning and brittling as it nears the century mark. I wish I could post all 150 pages, as interesting as they are, but of course, you would fall asleep by page 20. As I am no Kerbey the Riveter, I know nothing about machines or cars in general, so most of these words my mouth had never spoken. Vulcanizers, carborundum valves, aloxite wheels?
I don’t know what a “jobber” is, but the magazine is filled with the term. And who’s this Dutch girl?
Between the Velie Six and the Cleveland Six, I hadn’t heard of half the automobile manufacturers. See how many of these you recognize.
Here’s the Cleveland Six. Ain’t she a beaut?
Check out this handy luggage carrier. So convenient!
With “The War” having ended only the year prior, life was getting better and better.
Stay tuned for Part II, as we discover more of the 95-yr-old Motor Age.






