Vintage pick-up trucks

Los Gatos, California

 

Augusta, Maine


Courtesy of The Old Motor.

 

Houlton, Maine.


Courtesy of The Old Motor.

 

No, this isn't from Australia. It's from Texas.

Back in the Model “T” Ford days, it was popular to display a product that was for sale on the back of a salesman’s car. A coupe or a roadster with the addition of an accessory pickup box or a platform and some signage made for the perfect way to display the goods and keep them in the view of potential prospects. This Ford coupe is either a 1926 or ’27 model.



The Syracuse Washing Machine Corporation located in Syracuse, New York was the producer of the Easy Washing Machine between 1877 to 1967. The early machines were hand-powered and as the years passed the Easy washer was powered by either a 1/6 h.p. electric motor or a small gasoline-powered engine at the time this photo was taken.
-Courtesy of The Old Motor

 

That's a well tailored suit, on the left. There seemed to be no such thing as dressing down, back then. It's no wonder that the first thing George Bush Jr. did on entering office was to overturn Bill Clinton's dress code, by immediately banning jean-wearing in the White House. I'd wear that suit, in a minute. Without the hat, though

 

There's an appliance repair place that has a few antiques in the windows, including a bup-bup gas engine-powered washer. Single-cylinder. I don't know what brand, but when Dad and I looked at it, he told me that many people died from monoxide poisoning because they ran them in the house or a shed, instead of outside, where it belonged.
Also, the Thirties' rural electrification programs killed the need for those bup-bup engines, with the electrically-driven machines.

 

You would think they would have opened a window, because of the smell. Especially, when the engine was 2-cycled

 

Well, if you're used to pig, chicken and cow excrement stench, I would think you'd not mind the smell of a 2-cycle engine, that it was no big deal. Unfortunately, Dad is no longer around for me to ask him about it

 

Back then, if you wanted to get a nagging wife out of your way and replace her with your secretary, all you'd have to do is to give her one of these on her birthday or Christmas. Which ever came first:

 

*THIS* is where the American terms "Maytag Messerschmitt" and "Washing Machine Charlie" came from.