My First Remembered Auto Trip (Hupp)
(Hupp)
He was a 1926 Huppmobile we called Hupp. Hupp had a 4-cylinder engine in a big engine compartment. You could drop a full sized cinder block (1) to the ground between engine and fenders without hitting anything. Dad could do all the repairs with an adjustable wrench, adjustable pliers and a wood handle screwdriver that came with the car.
Hupp had 4 doors, tall skinny wood spoked wheels, a fixed fabric top with isinglass curtain windows that were fogged yellow with age, a swing-out windshield with hand operated wipers, running boards with a spare tire in a well just behind the front wheel on each side, a big radiator, two large headlights that were high off the road and not very bright. A steamer trunk strapped onto the back between the body and the bumper. Hupp was black.
The workweek was a full 6 days and every business and shop was closed on Sunday with the exception of a few drug stores and gas stations. Sunday was for church and the Sunday drive. The Sunday drive was an institution not to be missed. About once a month we went to the farm of Mother's Uncle Webb and Aunt Polly Burns in Woodfield, Maryland to get food. The depression was going strong, so we joined them for Sunday 2:00 P.M. dinner. Dad always paid them for the food we took home. Years later Dad said that they could use the cash money and we got good quality meat and vegetables in return.
The first trip that I remember was a cold winter Sunday some time in the 1930's. Brother Bud and I were stuffed in Hupp with blankets and hot bricks. Only our noses and eyes showed. I am sure we had on our Lindbergh aviator helmets with goggles. The isinglass curtain windows iced over in a short time from our condensing breath. At this time heaters for cars hadn’t been invented. Snow started falling when we got near Rockville, Maryland.
We arrived in time for dinner. It was snowing harder. I remember Aunt Polly putting the cold bricks in the oven, warming the blankets, and packing the food-chickens, eggs, beef, pork, ham, and some home canned vegetables. We got back into Hupp in a blinding snowstorm. Aunt Polly thought we should stay the night. Bud and I were covered and bricked. Off we went.
Dad had to stop and scrape off the windshield several times every mile, or so it seemed. Mother was sure we would die. The further we went it snowed harder and harder. Dad said he would stop at the first gas station open in Rockville and check on the road ahead. We found none open. We saw no other cars on the road until we got close to Bethesda, Md. near Washington DC. Some travelers were stuck. Dad would always stop and help. I was so cold I could not sleep.
Somehow we got home and Dad carried us in the house and sat us at the table, and Mother stopped crying long enough to make hot milk and soup. It took a hot bath to get feeling back in our toes and fingers. I remember Bud asked if we could keep the windows closed that night. They said sure. In the morning when we awakened, the windows were open and our bed was covered with snow. Open windows kept us from getting TB. A kid could have frozen to death, but he would not have TB.
Shortly after that trip, Hupp threw a rod and it put a hole in the side of the engine. Dad called the junk people to take him away. The day they arrived with a team of horses to hitch Hupp up and take him away, I cried with a broken heart never to see him again. The next car was a secondhand 1932 or 34 Dodge 4 door sedan, black with very skinny running boards that you had to open the doors to see, a split two-window windshield, roll down windows, vacuum wipers, and a heater which worked when it wasn't cold. I hated that car even if it did have a very nice ram on the hood.
I loved Hupp. We had always greeted Hupp and dad when they arrived home by riding down the driveway on the running boards. Our lives were changed forever.
1 Cinder blocks were made from coal cinder ash before the invention of cement block. God bless Hupp in Huppmobile heaven.
He was a 1926 Huppmobile we called Hupp. Hupp had a 4-cylinder engine in a big engine compartment. You could drop a full sized cinder block (1) to the ground between engine and fenders without hitting anything. Dad could do all the repairs with an adjustable wrench, adjustable pliers and a wood handle screwdriver that came with the car.
Hupp had 4 doors, tall skinny wood spoked wheels, a fixed fabric top with isinglass curtain windows that were fogged yellow with age, a swing-out windshield with hand operated wipers, running boards with a spare tire in a well just behind the front wheel on each side, a big radiator, two large headlights that were high off the road and not very bright. A steamer trunk strapped onto the back between the body and the bumper. Hupp was black.
The workweek was a full 6 days and every business and shop was closed on Sunday with the exception of a few drug stores and gas stations. Sunday was for church and the Sunday drive. The Sunday drive was an institution not to be missed. About once a month we went to the farm of Mother's Uncle Webb and Aunt Polly Burns in Woodfield, Maryland to get food. The depression was going strong, so we joined them for Sunday 2:00 P.M. dinner. Dad always paid them for the food we took home. Years later Dad said that they could use the cash money and we got good quality meat and vegetables in return.
The first trip that I remember was a cold winter Sunday some time in the 1930's. Brother Bud and I were stuffed in Hupp with blankets and hot bricks. Only our noses and eyes showed. I am sure we had on our Lindbergh aviator helmets with goggles. The isinglass curtain windows iced over in a short time from our condensing breath. At this time heaters for cars hadn’t been invented. Snow started falling when we got near Rockville, Maryland.
We arrived in time for dinner. It was snowing harder. I remember Aunt Polly putting the cold bricks in the oven, warming the blankets, and packing the food-chickens, eggs, beef, pork, ham, and some home canned vegetables. We got back into Hupp in a blinding snowstorm. Aunt Polly thought we should stay the night. Bud and I were covered and bricked. Off we went.
Dad had to stop and scrape off the windshield several times every mile, or so it seemed. Mother was sure we would die. The further we went it snowed harder and harder. Dad said he would stop at the first gas station open in Rockville and check on the road ahead. We found none open. We saw no other cars on the road until we got close to Bethesda, Md. near Washington DC. Some travelers were stuck. Dad would always stop and help. I was so cold I could not sleep.
Somehow we got home and Dad carried us in the house and sat us at the table, and Mother stopped crying long enough to make hot milk and soup. It took a hot bath to get feeling back in our toes and fingers. I remember Bud asked if we could keep the windows closed that night. They said sure. In the morning when we awakened, the windows were open and our bed was covered with snow. Open windows kept us from getting TB. A kid could have frozen to death, but he would not have TB.
Shortly after that trip, Hupp threw a rod and it put a hole in the side of the engine. Dad called the junk people to take him away. The day they arrived with a team of horses to hitch Hupp up and take him away, I cried with a broken heart never to see him again. The next car was a secondhand 1932 or 34 Dodge 4 door sedan, black with very skinny running boards that you had to open the doors to see, a split two-window windshield, roll down windows, vacuum wipers, and a heater which worked when it wasn't cold. I hated that car even if it did have a very nice ram on the hood.
I loved Hupp. We had always greeted Hupp and dad when they arrived home by riding down the driveway on the running boards. Our lives were changed forever.
1 Cinder blocks were made from coal cinder ash before the invention of cement block. God bless Hupp in Huppmobile heaven.
posted by JackSML | 9:22 PM
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