Friday, June 12, 2009

RIDING BACK INTO 1944 WITH ANTIQUE CAR EXPERTS

This, is an expert. (At so many things!)I won't get into Larry Mosteller's various skills and hobbies. Suffice it to say if the man wants a job done, he doesn't hire it out!

And that includes restoring old cars. Which he has done more than once. For himself and for others who do hire an expert.

I call on Larry when I want to mention some car related detail in one of my books. For example this line from BLUE.

He turned the key and pressed the starter button and said, "Who's going to help me shift this thing?"

Without Larry, I wouldn't know there was a starter button to press. And in the case of COMFORT, I wouldn't know that, although cars were not produced for civilians during the WWII years, Chevrolet began producing them again in October 1945. (Important info for an author who came dangerously close to flubbing up!)

1934 Chrysler restored by Larry Mosteller.
Larry is a member of Carolina Crossroads Antique Car Club which last Saturday took a tour of the Miracle of Hickory emergency polio hospital exhibit provided by our local history museum. Hubby and I got an invitation to ride along!
We're off on a trip into the past.
Starting with a little bit of March of Dimes history.
A 1940s poster advertising a public showing of a film taken at our 1944 polio hospital. The man who took the film had a nine year-old son in the hospital. That son now shows the film and speaks from time to time just as his father did.
A local middle school math class made this scale model of the hospital.
I'm glad the curator provided a notebook for visitors to share their polio experiences.
There's more to the polio exhibit, of course but back to old cars. My hubby liked this one!
I was fascinated with this 1929 Dodge
After the museum tour we enjoyed a real deal BBQ lunch at the home of David Puett. On this photo, David has just presented club member Jack Williams with a copy of Life magazine (July 31, 1944) which had an article about the Miracle of Hickory. Jack, you see, was a patient at the Miracle of Hickory. You can click here to see the Hickory emergency hospital photos from this issue.

4 comments:

  1. Great blog. Thanks for the link to the Life magazine images. Enjoying COMFORT. Actually have my first day at home in a long while. Hope to get caught up on the blog world again.

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  2. Thanks, Carol. I'll be watching for you to blog.

    Glad you're enjoying Comfort.

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  3. Joyce,
    Wow, didn't know our friend - Larry Mosteller was your car expert!! We love Larry & Kay, also our friend - David Puett....small world !

    Cheryl

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  4. Yes, Cheryl - it's a small world. Maybe we'll bump into each other one day!

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