Thanks Dennis!
His grandfather was an official tire repair man for the OPA in WWII.
(On August 28, 1941, President Roosevelt's Executive Order 8875 created the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA's main responsibility was to place a ceiling on prices of most goods, and to limit consumption by rationing.)
He kept all his vulcanizing equipment when he retired and made those rear tires (on the pumper above) by cutting the tread off tractor tires and vulcanizing them around the stock tires on the old car. They worked well enough for low speeds.
He placed ads in the local paper during the war. He would get one or two tires from the OPA that he could sell without needing a rare tire coupon. He would advertise each tire individually.
You could not go down to his store and buy a tire, there were none. The ones he could sell without a coupon were seconds that were certified as such. Otherwise the buyer could get arrested for illegally obtaining a tire.
The only people who could get new tires were doctors, firemen, etc. Gramps kept many tires going by repairing them over and over.
He was a retired tool repairman for Ridge Tool (known far and wide as Ridgid, you've seen the Petty pin up art, or the Raquel Welch I posted) in Elyria, Ohio.
He could take a broken 48" wrench from the oil fields and do a brazed repair. He even got such wrenches back again that had broken in another place - his brazing held! He taught me how to braze and I can still recall the soft hiss from the slow, lazy flame he used as it played around the iron wrench.
and bonus, here is a little cart his grand father was photographed in!
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