Wednesday, December 09, 2015

the Gypsy Coeds and the Silver Streak, enjoying summer road trips from the mid 1930s until war rations on gas stopped cross country pleasure drives, in 1942


a 1926 Model T, the perseverance to road trip every summer from 1936 to 1942, and a gang of friends to share the trips with... very cool story just recently put into a book.

 Darlene organized summer vacations with girlfriends when her dad gave her this Model T instead of sending her to college, beginning with just a trip to a lake, but later through 44 states, Canada, and Mexico, even attending World’s Fairs in New York and San Francisco. The group changed and in total, 20 women were along and learning how to fix flats, or charm guys into doing minor repairs.










Don't bother trying to read them, get the book instead:

http://gypsycoeds.com/  has a ton of info, dozens of links to photo galleries, etc, surf it.

or you can listen to 1998 recordings of Regina talking about her experiences as a Gyspy Coed on the 1939 trip to the New York Worlds Fair.  http://gypsycoeds.com/home-2/listen-to-tails-from-the-1939-trip/




trips,
1935 - Devil's Lake Wisconsin,
1936 through Wisconsin and Michigan
1937 to Ontario
1938 to Detroit for Henry Ford's birthday
1939 New York Worlds Fair
1940 to San Diego California and Bonneville
1941 to New Orleans and up the East coast
1942 to Chicago

The car belonged to Darlene, who had wanted to go to college, but her father did not think that was necessary, didn’t want her to leave Bradford. Darlene worked as a hair dresser in the basement of the family home. It is believed that it was here that she and the girls would talk about and plan their trips. She organized the first camping trip and would become the ringleader for all the following seven the trips.



See the 5 minute video, at https://www.dropbox.com/s/nbtshuaov5gtho1/rc.v.2_GypsyCoeds.mov?dl=0  you don't have to download it, just move past the pop ups and press play. It's terrific, and tells the story really well


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post Jesse!

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  2. Very cool story! It's great that the Silver Streak stayed original over all these years, including the hand-painted messages.

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