Glimpse of the past.

Posted by Fish'n Jim On 2024/3/14 11:37:08

I'm reading an update bio of the founder of Cummins diesel. Synopsis snippet: In his early years circa turn of the 20th century, while working for Marmon, et al, he developed noted driving and machinist skills.
His family had ties to the local banker who owned a '07 Packard open touring car. Banker did not know how to drive it! He apparently bought it to have his wife and himself chauffeured around and she fired the driver for lighting up a cigarette while driving. Talk about "principled" Packard owners, open car, no smoking? Later, cars wouldn't sell without ash trays and lighters!! Vape cartridges ended that in lieu of cup and phone holders. The banker hires between jobs teenaged Cummins to drive for him. They had to take the Packard down off the blocks and remove all the coverings even for the tires. I guess that's where the perpetuated storage idea of putting them on blocks originates, for the old tubed gum rubber tires? They didn't drive in winter in southern IN both for the snow and poor road conditions. He loses his job at Marmon, etc. and eventually the banker puts him in business as a mechanic and machinist so long as he kept driving for him. A lot of the parts of the day were hand made one off, hence the need for machinist skill. OJT max. And we quibble about "parts"?
He ended up getting all the vehicle repair business for the whole county, as word spread of his prowess, which amounted to less the two dozen vehicles! Today, I'm sure there's more on my dead end street than that. No repair shop could survive on that volume today.
Being on call to drive the guy down the street in his Packard and not having uber, GPS, etc.? Those were the daze. All no more than 125 years ago. We call it progress, I'm not so sure about that. Some yes, some no.