What Automobiles Did Your Ancestors Own?
Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It’s Saturday Night again —
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):
1) What automobile models did your ancestors have? Pick an ancestor and share something about their cars.
When I was young, I didn’t pay much attention to the cars my family owned. I simply knew that my parents had a car—usually a station wagon—and that my Crawford grandparents had a car that my grandmother drove while my grandfather rode along. My Briles grandmother was widowed, did not drive, and thus did not own a car.
As a young adult, however, I started paying closer attention to automobiles—mainly because I occasionally got to drive one of them!
Since I rode the school bus to and from high school, and later commuted to college with my father (who was also a teacher), I didn’t drive very often. Around my junior year of high school, my parents acquired a second car: a blue Ford Fairlane. On Sundays, I was allowed to drive my grandmother to church, which made that car feel especially memorable.
The Fairlane may have been the second car, but my parents’ primary family vehicle was a Ford Galaxie, chosen in part because its spacious back seat could accommodate three teenagers.
That Ford Galaxie did far more than ferry our family around town. It also carried my dad, my brother and his wife, me, and my husband to several regional meetings of the National Science Teachers Association. While my brother and sister-in-law didn’t always join us, that dependable car took us on road trips to Denver, St. Louis, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Looking back, I realize that family cars were more than transportation—they were part of our family story, carrying us to church, school, conferences, and shared adventures.