The Automobile and Indians

Images from Library of Congress

A 1905 Toledo and six fully dressed indians

ca.1916

Wildshoe Family members identified by Bob Bostwick (Coeur d'Alene tribe press secretary) and Bertha Swan (grandaughter of Phillip Wildshoe) as: front seat: Phillip Wildshoe, his wife Eugenia and baby Eugenia; middle seat: sons David (warbonnet) and Vincent: back seat: daughters Rosie and Anne (child) and unidentified woman, probably from the Kootenai-Salish tribe

[Eskimos, five adults and one infant, sitting in an automobile 1916

A Road Song and Video I missed -- the Breeders, 'Driving on 9"

Thanks to Rob Barnes for calling this to my attention!  You have to see this video -- the very best!

John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLKUfBLJVqE

Some Road Songs, D-F

John Denver: "Back Home Again"

There's a storm across the valley, clouds are rollin' in
The afternoon is heavy on your shoulders
There's a truck out on the four lane a mile or more away
The whinin' of his wheels just makes it colder
He's an hour away from ridin' on your prayers up in the sky
And ten days on the road are barely gone
There's a fire softly burnin', supper's on the stove
But it's the light in your eyes that makes him warm.]

John Denver: "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads.

Clayton Denwood: "Down the Road and Gone"

She's the light that leads him on
Well he tried to tell her late that night
But she was down the road and gone.

Clayton Denwood: "Only Just Begun"

End of the road
End of the line
End of everything I thought was mine
End of the story of sadness and laughter
Time to get down to the happy ever after
Been looking down the road where all my dreams have come undone
Feels like the end of something but it's only just begun.

Neil Diamond: "Blue Highway"

Gonna take that blue highway
And leave this sorry town
Stayed too long, but now I'm gone
And I know where I'm bound
I don't wanna take the interstate
It represents all the things I hate
I'm rolling down that blue highway.

Dire Straits: "Telegraph Road"

A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sac on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
And he made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travellers came riding down the track
And they never went further and they never went back
Then came the churches then came the schools
Then came the lawyers then came the rules
Then came the trains and trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Doobie Brothers: "Don't Stop to Watch the Wheels"

I was trashed, ridin' on my 74
Goin' out to even the score
She pulled the top down on her convertible
I've got a lot of miles to cover
But if you think you need a lover
All right
Climb on, hold tight, I got a long ride tonight.

Walter Egan: "Blonde in the Blue T-Bird"

The moonlight night, the highway shines.
A pair of beams approaches mine
And as she pulls up close we share a glance
My heart awoke
The blonde in the blue T-Bird

Walter Egan: "Surfin' & Drivin'"

500 miles to L.A.
500 Miles to my home
When I get back to L.A.
Never again will I roam
Surfin' and drivin' are the only things I know.

Walter Egan: "When I Get My Wheels"

When I get my wheels
Won't see me around
When I get my wheel
Gonna be freeway bound.

England Dan and John Ford Coley: "New Jersey"

Black skies above me
And the concrete down below my feet
At night I'm blinded by the headlights
And the mountain roads are steep.
Two thousand more miles to bear
And I'll be there.

Flying Burrito Brothers: "Wheels"

We've all got wheels to take ourselves away
We've got telephones to say what we can't say
We've all got higher and higher every day
Come on wheels take this boy away
We're not afraid to ride
We're not afraid to die
So come on wheels take me home today.

John Fogerty: "The Old Man Down the Road"

He got the voices speak in riddles, he got the eye as black as coal,
He got a suitcase covered with rattlesnake hide, and he stands right in the road.
You got to hidey-hide, you got to jump up run away;
You got to hidey-hidey-hide, the old man is down the road.

Fountains of Wayne: "Little Red Light"

Sitting in traffic on the Tappan Zee
Fifty million people out in front of me
Trying to cross the water but it just might be a while
Rain's coming down I can't see a thing
Radio's broken so I'm whistling
New York to Nyack feels like a hundred miles.

Fountains of Wayne: "Valley Winter Song"

Hey Sweet Annie
Don't take it so bad
You know the summer's coming soon
Though the interstate is choking under salt and dirty sand
And it seems the sun is hiding from the moon.

Aretha Franklin: "Freeway of Love"

Goin' ridin' on the freeway of love
Wind's against our back
Goin' ridin' on the freeway of love
In my pink Cadillac.

Free: "The Highway Song"

It was a long was for this high road
It was a far way from here
So we walked along the road
Just telling stories as we go.

Some Interesting Cars at the Beavercreek, Ohio Cruise-In, June 14, 2013:

I picked these three vehicles because they stood out as I walked the lot yesterday at the cruise-in. The truck and rod are really different, but I would not want to own them.  the 1954 Pontiac is overdone in my opinion for a Pontiac of that era. But to each his or her own!

Before there were stolen cars there were stolen horses and buggies: Use of post cards to disseminate information.

As some of you know, I am working on a book on stolen cars.  Very early on, insurance companies distributed information on stolen cars using the U.S. postal system. Note that in the above example specifics on a stolen team of horses and buggy is being sent out to police using the mail. Another example of continuity in history!

African American Auto Mechanics -- 1950s

Hi folks -- Kevin Borg has written the book on the history of  auto mechanics, but I can't remember what he said if anything, on black mechanics. Here is a photo of three mechanics, a late 1940s Oldsmobile, and late 1940s or early 1950s Ford.

Studebaker and Nash Automobiles in the Belgian Congo, 1953

Hi folks -- note the above image. The topic of the importation of Automobiles into Africa,perhaps outside of South Africa, remains a wide-open research topic.