Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Lyle was Driving

I don't know when the Austin Carringer family bought their first car, but it was probably by 1916. The picture below has Della (Smith) Carringer in the foreground, and Lyle L. Carringer at the wheel. I believe that it was taken in about 1916.



Which means that this automobile must have been manufactured before 1916. From limited studies, I believe that the automobile is a Ford Model T of vintage in the 1914 to 1916 time period, based on the fender design, the convertible covering, and the framing and wires between the body and the covering. I couldn't find any pictures that match the left-side spare tire, though.

Once the family had an automobile, the world of Southern California was their playground. Over to Point Loma or La Jolla for a day at the beach, to Balboa Park to visit the 1915 exposition buildings, out to Alpine for a day trip, up to Julian for apples, to Ramona to visit friends, and eventually to Orange County and Los Angeles County, especially to Whittier and Long Beach, to visit extended family.

In later years, after Lyle was married in 1918, he and Emily bought newer automobiles, which I don't have photographs of! However, I think that the auto repair shop and gasoline station at the corner of 30th and Ivy (on the northwest end of the block with their home) did a thriving business keeping Lyle fixed up with spare tires, tire patches, grease, oil, and gasoline.

In the 1930s, the family went further afield, driving all the way to Victoria, British Columbia in 1936 on a vacation that took several weeks. I have the rather mundane travelogue, complete with mileage and gasoline charges, in Lyle's account book of the time. Unfortunately, there are not too many pictures from this trip, so I can't display a true travelogue.

My earliest memory of my grandfather's automobile was probably a 1940's Hudson, with long running boards and a big-car feel. He was so proud of that car, and kept it for a number of years while I was a child. I may have taken my first trip to Disneyland in about 1955 in that car, but I cannot remember what it looked like. It was just a car - something to ride in, feel the wind blow in my hair (yes, I had hair then, short flattop, but hair!), and get us safely from home to wherever we went.

1 comment:

Joan said...

That wonderful internal combustion machine has left us with so many great pictures! Thanks for this one!