Presidential Tuesday 11/08/16

Print of A French Garden by Dwight D. Eisenhower

Original in oil owned by Susan Elaine Eisenhower (grand-daughter), 6" x 4" Copyright 1968, Eisenhower College

On The Nightstand

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Love and Longing by Anya von Bremzen

Fearless Friday 10/28/16

Fred O. "Fearless" Gregg, Showman.

Yesterday Jesse over at justacarguy put this 1935 photo of "Fearless" Gregg's "Autos That Pass In The Air" stunt being set up, having found a post from August by Speedboys, who found it on Bill Greene's Flickr page, where he posted it back in 2007.  In all the time that it's been up, only the Speedboys and Jesse have reposted it that I can find.


By 1935 Gregg had been performing this particular stunt for some time.

From the July 27, 1914 issue of The Lincoln Daily Star (Nebraska).
Jesse actually had a complete post about the stunt back a couple of years ago. Bill's page has a nice discussion with relatives of Fred and his wife Bette.

On The Nightstand

Car Wars: The Rise, the Fall, and the Resurgence of the Electric Car by John J. Fialka

Whatzit Wednesday 10/26/16

More June and Her Motorcycle Monday 10/24/16

Followup to last Monday's post about June Antonoff (née Parker).


Photos courtesy of June's daughter Lesley Mitchell. More to come.

Sidecar Sunday 10/23/16 (HBTM)

1930 Harley-Davidson Package Truck.

Photo from Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Archives, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
This from the Coca-Colawebsite (which includes the origin of the term "Hog" as it relates to motorcycles):

An oft-forgotten vehicle is the noble Package Truck. Think of a motorcycle with a sidecar chassis. But instead of a passenger cockpit, the chassis carried a cargo trunk. Package Trucks hold an honored place in the heritage of Harley-Davidson, having been used by postal carriers, florists, dry cleaners and just about every other type of business with a serious need to pick up or deliver their wares. In the spirit of H-D owners loving to customize their rides, cargo trunks often took on totally unique shapes and sizes. Among the one-of-a-kind custom carriers created in exotic shapes and varieties was a cow-shaped carrier used by a dairy. Others were more utilitarian than artistic. Package Truck buyers included Coca-Cola bottlers, but the extent of their use is undocumented.

Shown in the photo is a Package Truck proudly serving Coke bottles for a Milwaukee, Wisconsin Coca-Cola bottler in 1930. Package Trucks are among the longest tenured vehicles in H-D history, having spanned 1915 – the same year of the Coke bottle’s birth, incidentally – to 1957.

It is not known how much the bumpy roads shook up the bottles of Coke.