Free for June: War of 1812 Collection on Fold3

[Iterate]

8. Not much help on the faces,

but the car is a probably a 1920 Ford Model T touring car. Since it has the hardware store signage, it might have been the model where the area behind the front seats was replaced by a flatbed. Still, there are six of them there, so maybe not. Ford kept the lanterns to go with headlights until about 1925. I might be a slightly later model. The split windscreen is folded down in your photo.

This is one example of that model. I've probably given myself away, so I might as well admit that I was once the pesky kid who "helped" (bugged) the old neighbor guy who was restoring a 1912 Oldsmobile.



The clothing matches the early 1920's as well. The white dresses the two women are wearing is a slightly older style, so they may be a few years older.

She kept the photo so it must have meant something to her. Siblings? Visiting cousins on a summer outing? Classmates? They look a bit old for that, but then my father had a graduating high school classmate who could vote. They won the state baseball championship that year.

And the occasion, it might just be a summer reunion, but it might also be the day after a wedding. And that made me think of something. If a non-Malone cousin had the photo, maybe someone just borrowed the car for a day or two for a visit. And since it's an informal photo, who took it, and who kept it? That is one interesting puzzle you have there. Don't ever give up on it.

This made me think that maybe the forum needs a "problem child" puzzle of the month, something solvable that we could all collaborate on. Another month, another puzzle, then take turns. It's not like we would ever run out of puzzles.

I guess I have been at this for a while, but very much off and on. Maybe 20 or 30 years, depending upon how you count. At first I though it could be a gift for kids, but they don't care. It's for people who don't like being disconnected from the past.

I just happened to have a thought before closing that The Malone Farmer or another local paper would probably have had a society column where travel and/or a visit like this would be noted with a line of two. That might solve it. But then of course, that means rolling through five years worth of non-snowy month microfilm. And it might not have been newsworthy, even for Malone. On second thought, that doesn't sound like such a good plan 'B'.