The 30's

I was born in '32, so I do have some memories of the 30's, Brown Street, Dayton, Ohio.
I reember getting bread and milk delivered to house with a horse drawn wagon, White's Bakery and Bordens Milk.

I remember the streetcar, trolley, going down Brown Street, the 39 Ford coupe that Dad got for Mom, she tried, but gave up driving.

My Dad built a boat, in a garage in the alley, the Jessidean, I loved that boat. It ended up in Michigan on Mullett Lake, and eventually, Dad gave it to a friend, Dr. Ritter, who was retiring, and they took it to Florida. The way it was built, it could still be in use today. A Gray, Sea Scout engine powered her, she could be throttled way down, good for trolling.

In the 40's, around '43, we took a brief vacation to Burt Lake, and got the Jessidean out of storage. At the end of our stay, my brother and I were going to take her to Mullett Lake, where she was stored at Obie's, at the far end of the lake.

We went across Burt Lake, through the connecting was, Indian River, and as we entered Mullett, through a man made channel, which put us some 50 yards out into the lake, we realized we were in a severe storm, 3 and 4 foot swells. Because of their size, we could not turn back, the only thing we could do was to plow ahead, straight in to the wind, the length of the lake. A turn either way could capsize us.

Brother Bud at the wheel, I with a bucket, bailing the water, bailing for dear life. It was easy, after a while, the water was over the floorboards, so bailing was easy.

We made it, the old Jessidean got us through that storm.

We did not realize it at the time, the Coast Guard had been called, and several larger boats were at the ready, in case we did go over. There were even spectators lining the shore road, monitoring our progress. I was too young to worry, but my brother later admitted he was a bit concerned.

That was the last trip in her, Bud went in to the war, in '45 or '46 we went up to Michigan to check her out, she was still in storage, but that was our last look at her.

She had a magneto, and a large flywheel which was used to start her, she didn't always start right away, and it was not easy turning that flywheel, I think I learned some new "words" when Dad or Bud were trying to get her started, electric starters were not common in those days.