Times have changed

[Brian French]

from the Virginia Department of Transporation

[WMWS]

Great pictures. I'll take the old days even with all the mud.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

I grew up on MUDDY Roads, like that!!!
YES, times have changed, NOW, we're off of Daylight Savin' Time & I'm an HOUR OLDER The Dog "sez" I'm YOUNGER I "think" he's SUCKERING me, for a TREAT

[pAAt]

Bill, I'll buy your left over tools "if" I get Buster T with them ! I think he could tell me some stories about you for a long while Pat

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

pAAt,
Either you're whistlin' DIXIE through your UGLY GATSBY Hat or FARTIN' a strange tune or DRUNK, I would NEVER NEVER sell Buster T.!!!!! Who???would I talk with???
Bill Appaledandtickedoffgreatley

[Jerry Kzoo]

No wonder they needed engine pans. Some used them as skid plates!! Yikes.

[2manycars]

The old house still looks good. My town still has a lot of unpaved roads. None were paved until 1937, when the state roads were first to be paved. That was the year the telephone came to town. a few years later the electric power used the telephone poles to bring electricity to much of the town. Great roads for a model A ride.

[Jeff/Illinois]

Bill those are the kind of roads we have around NW Illinois, it's called 'crooked politicians'!! They never have any money to fix or upgrade roads. So they say...........

When a car goes by huge clouds of dust come rolling in, and your car is always a mess. Not to mention all the flat tires people get. You don't dare open your windows in the summer time everything is a filthy mess. Give me a paved road anyday.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

2many,
I looked at your house & thought, "They must have been RICH"!!---OH! that's the STORE, dummy!
I NEVER want to go back "HOME"--them Old Places are GONE-GONE!!
Dad Streetperson

[Jeff/Illinois]

Neat picture thanks.

One thing I notice a lot, are in these pictures taken in the country, there is not much brush and scrub trees. Today you see a lot of just the opposite.

Did they go through and clean all that out back then?? For pasturing cattle and the like?? It always looks neater and trimmed up as compared to today.

[2manycars]

I dont know about other areas, but in the early 1800's Connecticut was almost entirely clear cut for lumber, farming, charcoal manufacturing, and expansion. It took a long time for the trees to come back.

[1931 Flamingo]

Bill: Are those your sap buckets??
Paul in CT

[2manycars]

No Paul, those are on Randall Road, about 3 miles from my house.

[pAAt]

Look like Soft Maple and would say sap buckets for sure ! 2manycars has to many other things to do Flamingo. pAAt

[Ray Horton]

Nice photos. Bill, if you converted those to b&w, they could pass for 80 years ago.

[Mitch]

Nice photos. Bill, if you converted those to b&w, they could pass for 80 years ago.

I Agree they would look good in B&W... nice shots

[Ray Horton]

Good job, Mitch. I have often remarked to my wife that for a vacation, I didn't want to go to a different place, I wanted to go to a different time. Photos like this feed the fantasy. Oregon has very little left of its old communities and architecture. It's hard to find places like those in the east.

[2manycars]

Nice job Mitch. My girlfriend converted some of these photos into water color pictures with photoshop.

[Sunnybrook Farm]

That first photo is Dumfries VA between DC and Fredericksburg and is actually US 1, there was another photo showing that by the 30s it was paved but this one was 1919.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

In Valliant, Oklahoma, only Highway 70 & the Wright City Road were PAVED, all other streets were GRAVEL.
I was standing beside Chiefs' Conoco Station as the Red Ball Express turned onto the gravel street, on his way to the bus "station". All I could hear was tire noise & Folks with heads out the windows, yellin', "THE WAR'S OVER"!!! The Old '39 Ford Bus must have had a RADIO!
I will NEVER forget that, seems it was only DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY!
Dad

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

We lived in an OOOOLD House, with Chiefs' Oak Tree Garage out front. House was HIGH off the ground, for Potato/Turnip/Etc storage. The wind would blow & you could see the LILOLEUM float, up & down, MAN, it wuz COLD!
FORTUNATELY, we had a HUGE Fireplace, with an arm & a cookin' pot attached & heat from the wood cook stove.
Mamma cooked a lot in that pot & also boiled our carbs in it, in Lye Soap & water. She'd rinse them & Chief & I blew them out with a pointy attachment for the tire pump. Guess who wuz the pump operator??? I can still hear Chief, "FASTER, FASTER"---Chief taught me how to keep the extra pumps in good working order. REMEMBER, we had NO ELECTRICITY & had to lurn to make do.
These accounts are NOT This is the way we lived---In my present state, I'm really quite "RICH"
Po' KDad

[Ted Duke]

Bill, I guess we were rich, we had electricity and a flush toilet, but damn your butt would still get cold. It was warm next to the big old kitchen wood range. I used to grab my clothes and run downstairs to get dressed while Mom cooked the bacon and eggs. Real homemade butter or home cooked biscuits and hot coffee half and half real cream from a big mug when I was just a wee boy. "The good old days!"

You know what? If things get bad again my wife and I and our kids will know how to fend for ourselves.

[Tom F]

Nice picture Brian. I really like those before and after pictures.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Ted,
Whut are you the "DUKE" of???
I lived in the Outhouse Era, you talk about "COLD" (BRRR!) I have SO many Outhouse stories & jokes, but NOT for here.--We put our Boots & Clothes behind the Wood Heater & everyone dressed there---"HEY, them are MY socks, yours' have a hole in the heel"!!!----"HEY, you STOLE my Shoestring, bastard"!! What FUN we had:rolling
PO' Dad

[Ted Duke]

Duke of Clinton (Maryland). Now Virginia.

[tbirdtbird]

Eastern CT still has a lot of nice unspoiled country. We had a biker group that would ride all around there on Sundays, it was a blast. We were all 50 and didn't have to prove anything to anyone so we could ride easy and enjoy everything. There was a super breakfast place not far from the Pomfret School where they used a gigantic deck of cards to ID your order.
There was a real nice truck museum in Canterbury.
There was a long running car show in September first at Norwalk at the King Bros business concern, which then moved to their estate in Redding, which is NW CT which is also unspoiled. This show has run longer than Hershey.
Also a steam-up every fall somewhere near Redding, can't quite recall just where now.

2manycars, ever take any of this in? It is all ideal for a Model A!

[H. L. Chauvin]

Brian,

Your posted pictures are so great for one's educational imagination to envision Model A operation and maintenance differences between back then & today.

Even though wet soft mud is indicated in the photo, let us try to imagine what happens after a few dry days.

This soft mud, mixed in with who-knows-what, turns into dust that is sucked up like a vacuum cleaner by a Model A carburetor without a filter. Silica sand dust particles begin rapidly eating away at cylinders, pistons & rings.

Same splashed muddy water that constantly entered moving undercarriage metal joints dries out and leaves dust & sand mixed in with a grease paste that begins attacking undercarriage king pins and other greased movable metal joints.

Later, these mud rut raised ridges become hard as rocks ..... front axles begin bending on hard bumps, original shocks get over-exercised to death ...... rear motor mounts are beating up the chassis with the downward weight of the engine falling at mid span of the chassis like a pile driver.

Many of these old cars in rural areas and small towns took an unimaginable beating that many Model A owners can easily begin to imagine after seeing such photos.

Finally in the later modern photo, one can begin to imagine how paved roads can prolong the life of today's Model A if we would only follow a few simple maintenance procedures.

Thanks for posting same.

[Ted Duke]

Amen to that.