Car Talk

 

A bit of retrospection about changes in cars over the years

A writing prompt about car keys jumped out at me this week because the one thing notable about car keys is you don’t have them anymore.   You have this funny little fobby thing that never leaves your pocket but still unlocks the door then starts the engine while you push a button on the dash. You can never lose your keys again, but heaven help you if you lose your fob.

This got me thinking about how many changes in cars we have lived through or at least know about.  The earliest vehicles didn’t have keys either. I wonder if horseless carriage rustling was considered to be a problem back then.  Come to think of it, early autos didn’t have starters either. You had to turn the engine over with a crank. My grandfather also told me that cranks could be so cranky that they could snap back on you and break your arm. Thank God Mr. Ford or Mr. Olds or someone did invent an electric starter that got its turnover power from a battery.

It’s a wonder, given the nasty habits of cranks,  that when some bright engineer decided a bit later that an automobile could use some windows to  keep the  dust and the weather out that a crank was the proper method to open a window.  Cranks hung on a long time after that.  

The first family car I remember was a pre-war sedan my dad bought around 1946.  It had cranks on the windows and a manual transmission with the shift lever located on the steering column.  It also had a clutch on the floor.  Most kids today if asked about a clutch would think you are inquiring about a group of birds.  Happily our old friend the clutch has gone the way of keys and cranks.   Shift levers, of course,  have been around since the beginning. They started on the floor, then migrated to the steering column, and finally, when automatics came in, sort of settled down to the center console along-side the drink cups. Have you ever had the experience of trying to change to reverse only to find your hand in the Pepsi or hot coffee?  Not pleasant.

There is a final change to discuss that may be the most important of all. That first family car of ours did have a radio. It grabbed on to a few local stations and the sound came out of a tiny tinny little speaker in the dashboard. Later cars had radios that added the FM band, but soon there came the addition of an eight-track player. Eight-track lasted about sixty seconds before it was replaced by the cassette—which lasted a bit longer. When the CD player and stereo began to be installed in cars that little dashboard speaker became obsolete. Speakers began to multiply like rabbits. Suddenly there were speakers on both sides of the dash and speakers in each door, and speakers in the back seat, and something called a woofer (not a giant Doberman) pushing out heavy bass from somewhere in the trunk.  Most of us know these musical setups from the vehicle next to us at a stoplight that is emanating sounds so loud that they make our teeth vibrate. I have always wondered what it must be like in the interior of that car.

I have not forgotten that today our flivver has a GPS screen in the front seat that will answer your cell phone, find and direct you to any address in the country, and beam hundreds of channels of entertainment  to additional screens in the rear seats so the kids can watch a movie or play video games.  This has eliminated that age-old child’s whiny question “Are we there yet?”  Now what comes from the back seat is “Can’t Aunt Ida hold dinner until we find out if the SUPERLORDS have saved civilization as we know it once again.”    

I don’t mean to make too much fun of the changes in cars over the years at all. The mechanical improvements and computerization have been a boon.  I know that our old pre-war Ford needed a quart of oil at every fill-up. Dad always carried a case of motor oil in the trunk along with tools and an innertube repair kit since tubeless tires were still in the future. No older vehicle ever had air conditioning other than cranking down the windows. Nor did an older car have a moon roof on it so you could push a button and pretend you had a convertible. And finally, who could have imagined that one day we would have a car that could parallel park for us.   

Jim De Young   11/30/2021

  

 

We Get a Visit from Finland

 The national news has now covered the re-opening of Trans-Atlantic air routes. Pictures of reunions of friends and families who had not seen each other since the Covid lockdown began have now been on TV and in the newspapers.  None of these stories featured our son and his family. They deserve recognition now as they visited us from Finland a few weeks ago.  When we last saw them in the flesh our granddaughters were 4 and 7 and guess what! They have changed a lot in two years.

As at least some of you know, our son David married, Lotta, a lovely Finnish woman and they have brought two beautiful little girls into the  world and our lives. They are named Frida and Selma and will have the starring role in this post.  David works for the Kone elevator company in Helsinki and they all live in a suburb of Helsinki called Espoo. Here's to their visit and to the two main photographers--Lotta and Grandpa Jim. 

On both ends of the trip David and family ended up in downtown Chicago for a few days. They marveled at the wonders of the El. 

   

They enjoyed a marvelous Halloween Parade.

And along the way they made friends with Chicago's finest,--even getting a best costume prize on one excursion

That looked like fun, but for us the excitement began with the engine light of Amtrak's California Zephyr coming in sight as we waited on the platform in Galesburg, IL.    

The train pulls in.

There they are.

And here we all are.

Grandma gets to hold a little hand once more.

With the rental car collected, we headed to Monmouth for our first meal together.  It was a celebratory one  topped out by a special birthday cake as both of our granddaughters had just had their birthdays.

They are now 6 and 9

The girls loved the glorious ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  None of the Finn's had ever had or seen one before. 

There wasn't much left after we all tucked into it.  

After arriving in Monmouth, David began going through material that he had left in our attic when he left Minneapolis to take up residence in Finland. There were also plenty of books and records that he had to decide to preserve or leave behind for us to dispose of. 

The weather was so nice that we were able to enjoy a sit down on our lovely front porch.  

Our first sightseeing trip took us to Peoria to see the Dinosaur exhibit at the Riverfront Museum. 

On the way back we made a stop at the Wildlife Prairie Park where we saw the bison and   

 rode the train

All along the tracks there were blow up figures for Halloween.

Some decorations were too skinny to be blow ups.

It was a long day, but a nice snuggle under the covers in momma and poppa's bed was just the ticket for Selma.  

Monmouth was also "craft central" and all the tables in the house were stacked high with projects. 

Play dough was a popular choice.  

I'm not sure how Frida made this one but I think Van Gogh might be pleased. 

Much of the output ended up on our refrigerator. 

This happy ghost was my favorite.

Our next excursion took us to Camp's Orchard and pumpkin patch a few miles outside of Monmouth. Frida, Selma, and Amy wished everyone a Happy Halloween.

The orchard had a nice pumpkin patch.

 Selma, our little pumpkin, is always happy to put on a big smile and pose. 

We rode a wagon pulled by a tractor out into the apple orchard. 

The apples were everywhere and red and ripe.  

This young picker loved his job. 

 

Of course our little leapers preferred the Jump Pad.

Selma is still smiling.

Frida looks so grown up  in this photo. It is hard to believe that she made her first trip to the United States when she was literally a babe in arms.  

Trip number two, given our closeness to one of the great rivers in the world, was to the Gladstone Lock  and Dam #18 on the Mississippi.  It is less than thirty minutes from our house in Monmouth. Grandma and Selma loved to look at all the pelicans fishing around the dam. 

  

They are just little dots in this photo, but 

they are impressive when you see them closeup.

We were lucky to catch sight of a tow heading upriver and toward the lock.  

We all had a closeup view of the barges being pushed into the lock chamber by the tow boat.

  One of the lock keepers rode a little tricycle along the side as the barges were being squeezed in. 

 

The locks have been totally fenced in since the 9/11  attacks, so after the locking was finished, we walked downstream a bit so our Finns could tell everyone in Helsinki that they had dipped a toe in the "Big Muddy." 

All this running around made everyone hungry and that cried out for some vittles at our very favorite  restaurant in Galesburg-- The Landmark. There was plenty of time for snaps and selfies while we waited for our food. 

I like this one of David and Lotta

And here's our all grown up Frida again.

Selma is looking a bit more pensive than usual. 

The next day we all drove to Cedar Rapids, IA. Our daughter Amy lives there and Grandma and Grandpa have just moved there.  Their new digs are at the Grand Living senior community where they have a bright and and roomy 2BR apartment on the 4th floor.

 I am planning to give everyone a full tour of our new home at a later date.  Right now the emphasis will remain on the Finns with just a little tease on what is behind this door.   

Amy and the girls did think it was a "too cool." apartment though.

There was plenty to do in Cedar Rapids other than visiting our new abode. We had a yummy pizza party at Amy and Todd's house that even included roasting s'mores around a fire pit. The girls did a lot of swimming at the pool at the Hampton Inn where they stayed, but Halloween continued to call, so we struck out to visit another pumpkin farm. 

There was another hay wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch

This time Grandma and Grandpa stayed behind while the driver chatted Amy and the girls up. 

Luckily Grandpa had his big camera along and was able to snap a nice closeup of three of the sweetest human beings on this planet. 

I trust you noted that the wagon was pulled by a John Deere tractor.  These are the iconic machines in this part of the world. There was another more vintage John Deere on site that could be used for pictures. Frida jumped on and loved getting some early driving practice. 

We checked out a few other animals on display  

and then had the girls pose for a true American Gothic photo. Grant Wood was a Cedar Rapids resident and had his main painting studio there. 

Another big trip while in Cedar Rapids was to the Children's Museum in the big mall just outside of Iowa City.  Amy and the girls had a ball while David and Lotta shopped. 

 

They checked out all the teeth.

Then took over the bank. 

 

Plenty of sipping went on.  

Ice cream was on the menu as well.   

Hanging out was also a popular activity.  

Then a bummer. All too soon we were back at the Galesburg train station waiting for their return train to Chicago.

ALL ABOARD!

We waved a final good bye from the platform and this was how it looked from the train as it pulled out of the station.  Two days later Finn Air carried our visitors non-stop back to Helsinki and their home.   

We  love you so much Frida and Selma.  We can't wait until we can hug you again.