wow, found in a newspaper. That famous baseball catcher went to my hometown to hunt deer in 1911

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19110123.2.84&srpos=4&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-sidnaw-------

my uncle just found another photo of my grand fathers 1965 Shelby GT 350 Mustang! (SFM5S294) With my cousin Julie

 Darn right this will be a banner photo one day soon!  

Fwiw, the other reasons that I think it's incredible that my paternal grandfather bought this, and was a hell raiser in a little town in Michigan, is that you aren't even aware how middle of damn nowhere Sidnaw is... and to realize a guy THERE!!?? bought this, and was running around, inspiring a new generation of wild young men heading to Vietnam, with this sports car? 

See what I mean about middle of nowhere, now? Take and look at how far it is from ANY interstate. 

So, another reason I think that it's incredible, is that I didn't hear a hint about that GT 350 until 2009. I was around 38, and a cousin mentioned it, and no one had a photo, and I called a meeting (as it were) of the cousins and made sure they realized how dang interested I was in seeing just ONE photo of it. 

Seriously, how does a car nut on the level I am, never hear that his dad's dad bought and drove a GT 350?

Eventually, one was found, by accident. Then about a year ago, my uncle was helping clean out his sister in laws place (in the background of this photo) my Aunt Yvonne's place, and found a box of negatives, looked through them to see if there was anything of interest for everyone else in the family, and found 

so, in addition to the first found photo of it, there are now two more. 

I just spotted this on my uncles Facebook post, the GT 350 jacket grandpa was given when he bought his 65 Cobra Mustang (SFM5S294)

 

I'd posted the car when I first learned in 2009, that my dad's father had bought this, as somehow, no one though I'd find it interesting to know that there had once been this very cool car in the family. 

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-recently-learned-that-my-granddad-had.html

Only 2 photos of the car even exist, and the above, was a negative that was found by accident recently when emptying a house that an aunt had moved out of due to old age and health reasons. She's lived there about 60 years. 

My uncle had never mentioned the jacket until now, but really, he probably had forgotten all about it. I don't remember most of the jackets I've ever had. 

derailed in 1974, but was put back to working order, and recently, was restored

this bottom unit, #117C became #106 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10224418296397419&set=pcb.1431385664396286

there are, or have been, a lot of magazines. Some railroad companies have even had their own. I found one that had a deep dive into the history of the ghost town a mile from where I grew up

these images are from the Fall 1997 "Soo Line Historical and Technical Society" magazine which was last published in the Spring of 2023 https://www.sooline.org/WP/

I just learned that 100 years ago there was a Ford dealer in the little town where I grew up... which make a little bit of sense, Henry Ford had a farm, a logging camp, and an airfield there

 

I know this means nothing to anyone else, as I know there aren't any people from Sidnaw anywhere else, especially not reading my blog, but, just 60 years after this postcard, no one knew or remembered that there had ever been a Ford dealership there. 

No one knew (I went to 4th through 8th grade school there) or taught local history, and the fact that Tom Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone had once been in town was never mentioned, and no one probably was aware of it  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/07/book-review-vagabonds-by-jeff-guinn.html

autumn colors in the Yoop

I finally got some details on my paternal grand dad, he was a navigator on a C47 toward the end of WW2, dropping paratroopers into France and 2 weeks after D Day his C47 was shot down near Sainte-Mère-Église, France.

 he'd been in the CCCs since 1937 

then enlisted in the Army in 1940, was a radio mechanic, was stationed at Scott Filed Ill, then Wisconsin

but went officer and became a navigator..

Jul 1943 Ironwood Daily Globe

Bob was selected for Officer Training school and became a 2ndLt and went to Navigator school after that. 

He navigated a A-20 aircraft from the US to England in April 1944. They had been doing submarine patrols over the Atlantic for several month then.

He went to Europe April 1944 where he flew in combat missions until being shot down in late June or early July 44 near St Marie Glis, France. Resulting in 8 months in the hospital after British soldiers pulled him from the crashed C-47 

When his plane was shot down, he was injured pretty bad, and had a glass eye the rest of his life. When he got out of the hospital, he taught navigation and math to the new guys who we're going to be doing that job in the Army. 

image from https://www.historynet.com/aviation-history-interview-with-world-war-ii-c-47-pilot-russell-chandler.htm where you can read a C 47 pilot tell how he was flying the 82nd airborne into France

His plane crashed near Saint Mere Eglise after D Day, and that means he was likely in the 313th Troop Carrier Group carrying troops of the 82nd Airborne Division, as he was on a C-47.

The 313th moved to North Africa, in Apr-May 1943, and was assigned to Twelfth AF. 

They trained for the invasion of Sicily and entered combat on the night of 9 Jul 1943 by dropping paratroops near Gela. Although attacked by ground and naval forces while carrying reinforcements to Sicily on the night of 11 Jul, the group completed the mission and received a DUC for the performance.

 Transported supplies and evacuated wounded in the Mediterranean area until late in Aug when the group moved to Sicily for the invasion of Italy. Dropped paratroops of 82d Airborne Division south of Salerno on the night of 13 Sep 1943 and flew a reinforcement mission the following night.

Resumed transport activities in the theater until Feb 1944, and then joined Ninth AF in England. Prepared for the invasion of France and on D-Day 1944, released paratroops near Picauville; dropped reinforcements over the same area on 7 Jun.  http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/261

Picauville is next to Sainte-Mère-Église

I had forgotten until this week that my Grandpa had this Scout back in the 80s.

He also had a 60s VW bug, a GMC truck with 3 on the tree, and that's all pretty cool. But I had forgotten completely about this Scout. I don't think I ever had a ride in it, like I did the other vehicles he had, a truck, tractor, and VW bug

Only people from Sidnaw will know what this is

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3654823664538392&set=a.358642417489883&type=3

meanwhile, back in Michigan it's getting really beautiful

Book review, The Vagabonds by Jeff Guinn. Finally, a book about a topic I know something about, and with so much I want to learn!

By the numbers:
253 pages, and about 40 more of notes that are also worth perusing, and bibliography
26 photos and or images. These are in the middle of the book, as is usual in hardcover non fiction books

1st impression, this is the most researched book I've ever come across. Its also one of the easier ones to read because the author is good at making the story flow.

To say that this book is about the most famous Americans in the past 100 years is probably accurate. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison are probably the most pivotal men in the modern industrial era. Lighting and transportation... if these two men didn't pioneer and provide the path the rest of us followed on, in those categories, tell me who did more?

My complaints, are few, but here it is, once again a non car nut who wrote a book about Ford ascribes the modern assembly line method to Henry Ford, when it was the Curved Dash Oldsmobile that created the assembly line method.

However, this author is specific in pointing out that Edison was working from where others had invented, and he worked out how to make better light bulbs, useful ones, and make them commercially available.

Also, it just happens that I am one of the very few people to have been born in L'Anse, and raised in Sidnaw, and those are two of Ford's visits on the 1923 trip the Vagabonds took, so, I'm personally aware of a few things that I was looking for in the book that aren't there, and it's a bit annoying, as I was hoping that this book would mention a few things about Sidnaw, Camp 1, and where things were. But the author is mostly relying on newspaper reports for the trip's facts.

You probably remember my posts about the Vagabonds, I just recently posted some photos about their trip to Sidnaw and L'Anse. I very much recommend you look at them while reading the book for they are better than what's in the book https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=vagabonds and will help you with a mental image of what's going on when you read about the men, and where they were

So, back to the review.
Not only has this author done a herculean task of reading newspapers, books, notes from Ford, Edison, and Firestone, but he also makes SENSE of it, and doesn't just regurgitate the stats, facts, and dates. THAT is a very nice way to write this, and it makes it a pleasure to learn from while reading.

Harvey Firestone. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Edward Kingsford 1923

The personalities of the men on the trips, and even their wives, comes through, and what made them that way, what was going on at the time in not only their lives, but their businesses, and the world at large, and how it affected them, puts so much of the information in context! It's so damn helpful in understanding why these titans of manufacturing were on trips with each other, what caused them to select each other, and not more, and who had what role and why in those decisions, and also... why they stopped going on these trips. That's a really smart way to wrap up this book, and the author uses such insights to fill in the reader on some thing essential to the story, but something I've never come across before in a book about car related things. Motivations.

Something I hadn't expected, is that the author keeps bringing the story into context, which is important for understanding the motivation of Edison, Firestone, Ford, and Burroughs.

The complex personality of Henry Ford is probably the dominant and most explored, and that is remarkable, in that he was already so jaded to people asking him for charity, and taking steps to avoid those confrontations - as his farm work upbringing was simply work = results, and he often shunned helping people. However, I was surprised at how many times he gave away cars, and tractors! Also, it's mentioned in passing that he kept a large supply of pocket watches, and gave them to kids that had caught his attention.

Not only that, he was ready willing and able to do farmwork, mechanics work, and improvise on the fly to keep cars on the road and on schedule. Try and find a corporate CEO today that can do anything in his company maunfacturing.

SO, I'm impressed all the way around with this book, and simply out of time to go through all the things I learned from it, as I usually do with book reviews. I will get back to that after Comic Con which starts in 12 hours.

I was also impressed that the author realized that to select 9 years to focus on, didn't preclude doing some history on the men in the story, and he brought up that Henry Ford started by driving a race car to a world speed record, and that Thomas Edison started with riding trains and selling newspapers to the riders.

Things I learned:

Henry Ford was generous to his friends, as he knew them well enough to know they weren't after his money, and he often showed how little he cared how much money he lost due to his generosity. Burroughs mentioned that his family farm near Roxbury NY was near bankruptcy, as his family couldn't afford the mortgages, so Ford paid it off.

Thomas Edison was given a new car annually... not a cheap Model T either.

When Edison's New Jersey lab and factory burned down, Ford handed him a check for $750,000 and mentioned in passing to let him know if Edison needed more.

The 1915 Panama American Expo that was held in San Diego was competing with a similar World expo in San Fran. Ford, Edison and Firestone went to San Fran first, then San Diego

The dinner that was held in their honor? Slightly crazy amount of telegraphers felt they had to cover it... it was food for pete's sake, and 400 newspaper reporters were present. That's how much of a celebrity Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were, and they were such incredible celebs due to the miracles that they'd performed for the people... no Kardashian, no Hollywood A lister, no country president has ever invented the light bulb, city electricity, set a worlds land speed record, mass produced the Model T so cheaply that it kick started the American automotive industry, invented the record player, perfected the motion picture, etc etc. So, do you see just how unbelievably famous the Vagabonds were?

Thomas Edison was the guest of honor at the San Francisco expo, and just a reminder, Edison had been a telegraph operator and newspaperman... so, the menu was printed in Morse code. The speeches were tapped out on telegraphs. After the dinner and the speeches, everyone went outside to see that all the lights in town were on in honor of the inventor of the modern mass produced light bulb, and flashing lights on the downtown building roofs were spelling out a Morse code message for Edison.

A quote from Ford "If I ever wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. No one ever considers himself to be an expert if he really knows his job"

Ford didn't invent the 5 dollar workday, that was the brainchild of his general manager James Couzens. Ford simply took credit for it, as he realized early, the power of publicity. Turnover was 300% annually, and with people either training or being replaced, the assembly line process was affected dramatically, and the 5 dollar wage was a remedy method, nothing more, to get productivity up. Ford was paying $2.34 on average, and balked at the idea of $5... he was only willing to entertain $3 a day, but Couzens got his way based on the chronic absenteeism and training costs, plus, it pissed off all of Fords competitors, and was such incredible good publicity from all newspapers, that aggravating the competition was just bonus.

Couzens was the only man in the company allowed to disagree with Henry Ford, he'd been with Ford since the inception, and earned all the respect he was given, the hard way.

The end of their working relationship was when WW1 put Ford's philosophy anti war philsophy into every interview, and Couzens realized what a publicity nightmare was happening and tried to get Ford to be circumspect. Well, Ford had last word over everything his company did of course, including the Ford Times which had been Couzens' baby, and when it ran two articles Couzens had ruled out, which Henry had put back in? Couzens had enough with Fords personal politics being in the business publication. Couzens quit, went on to be Detroit's mayor, and Michigan's senator

the Ford lumbermill in Sidnaw Michigan, 1926

What's the reason for posting mediocre photos, about a place no one's ever heard of? I was brought there from the L'Anse hospital after I was born, and lived there until I graduated high school.

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/search-results#advancedSearch=1&tab=artifact-results&s.0.in=keywords&s.0.for=United%20States,%20Michigan,%20Sidnaw&years=0-0&perPage=10&pageNum=1&sortBy=relevance

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs, embarked on a series of camping trips, they called themselves the Vagabonds and in 1923, the group visited Northern Michigan lumber camps at Sidnaw and Iron Mountain.

The above photo is taken near L'Anse at the Keating Spur, probably 1923 or 1926

Here they are talking with Kingsford, of the charcoal briquets fame, who started the process with scraps of wood left over and thrown away from the wood and lumber used in making Ford cars. It was a free supply, and resulted in a substitute for coal, and burned cleaner.

The above photo is taken near L'Anse, at the Keating Spur, probably 1923 or 1926

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/albums/72157628233721391/with/6437342101/