The road trip from Uncle Bob's perspective

Photo by Patrick Jones. Santa Monica. 1 May 2010.

Yesterday I shared a photo and sketch from my Gumpy's 1937 California road trip with his brother Bob and cousins Guy Hankins and Tom Hendrickson. Gumpy wrote about the journey in his self-published book of short stories in July 2000. Bob wrote about this same trip in his own memoir, titled The Things I Remember, published in 1994. I don't know why I didn't compare the two accounts previously. I have extracted out Bob's retelling of the road trip from his chapter on 1937, below. Bob's account provides an interesting and deeper telling of their road trip.

"When the 1937 cars came out, I was awaiting in great anticipation for that was the year I was planning to buy a new car. I remember that Dad and I went to the Murat theater to view the new Dodge and Plymouth cars which were being shown in advance to the dealers. The 1937 Dodge was redesigned considerably. All of the controls on the instrument panel fitted flush with the dashboard. The sales pitch was that there were no protrusions in the interior of the car which would injure the passengers in case of an accident. The crank on the windshield folded up so it would not stick out. Yes, the windshield opened up at the bottom to a total extension of probably four to six inch and there was a cowl ventilator. That was the air conditioning system.

I ordered a new four door Dodge sedan which was powered by a six cylinder L head engine. It had a dark blue metallic paint job, and an imitation walnut dashboard. I ordered as extras, a heater, radio, electric clock and banjo steering wheel. It sold for $990. I had enough money for a down payment and paid about $35 per month for eighteen months. Dad had to sign the note for me, because I was not twenty-one years of age. I was somewhat perturbed by this because I was paying for it with my own money. I could hardly wait until I was twenty-one! I received delivery of my car in March 1937.

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For a year prior to getting my new car, Keith and Toad and Guy Hankins (third cousin) and I had talked about taking a trip to California. We wrote to a number of Chambers of Commerce and obtained maps and free 'trip ticks' from Texaco. During the winter of 1936 and 1937 we planned our trip. After I got my new car in March, we really got down to serious business about our trip. We planned to go in the month of August when I would be getting two weeks of vacation from the business college. All of our parents were very supportive of our trip. Shortly before our planned departure, grandmother Jones became quite ill, and she told Mom that she did not think it was too good an idea for the boys to go to California. Mom told Keith and me, what she had said, and she stated emphatically, "You go right ahead!"

Toad and Hank got someone to paint a blue lettered sign on a piece of white oilcloth, which said "California or Bust". We tied it across the trunk lid of the car. A lot of the fun was in the preparation for the trip. Our luggage consisted of my Gladstone bag which was equipped with straps and buckles, and smaller suitcases of the other three boys. We also had some nonperishable food supplies and sandwiches and fried chicken for the evening and noon meals of the first day of the trip.

On the night of our departure, in the month of August, we all assembled at our apartment in Indianapolis, located on West 20th Street. We went to bed quite early, around 7:00 P.M. and set the alarm clock to awaken us around 11:00 to 11:30 P.M. We got into the car and turned on the radio, and with Mom and Dad watching us, we left home on the stroke of midnight. I had $150 in my pocket, Toad had $100 and Keith and Hank each had less than fifty dollars. We took US 40 (the Old National Road) through every little town and hamlet on the way to St. Louis. Some of the US 40 in Illinois was paved with brick. We arrived in St. Louis at 6:00 A.M. and after about a two or three block backtrack, got on US 66. We ate our lunch in Joplin, Missouri in a public park. We had moved right along and had driven almost five hundred miles since midnight without any interstate highways. We stopped driving at the end of the first day of the trip at Sapulpa, Oklahoma, located a short distance southwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The next morning we reached Oklahoma City and saw operating oil pumping rigs on the lawn of the Oklahoma statehouse grounds. I think we got to Santa Fe, New Mexico the second night where we saw quite a few Indians. It was kinda scary! I should mention that Toad would drive one hundred to one hundred fifty miles each day, and I drove the rest of the time. Keith and Guy Hankins were too young to drive.

The next day we drove to Flagstaff, Arizona. We were thrilled with the cooler weather at the higher altitude and the forests of pine and fir trees. Enroute to Flagstaff we drove through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. When we arrived in Flagstaff, we looked up an acquaintance of our family. Their name was either Gaddes or LaRue, I think it was the latter. These people lived in a small house which was located on the campus of the Arizona State Teacher's College, and the man with whom we were visiting was in charge of the maintenance department. He and his wife invited us to stay all night with them. Since Toad and I were the drivers, we took the bed in their only extra bedroom. Keith and Hank slept on the floor of the college garage. Keith said that sometime during the night a night watchman came around and flashed a light on them!

The next morning of our trip, we headed for the Grand Canyon. Soon after leaving Flagstaff, I started to pass an old car. I would guess I was going about sixty to sixty-five miles per hour. Just as I got alongside the other car, the driver started pulling into me, because apparently he wanted to turn left into a small country filling station. The horn would not stop him, and he just kept coming on over toward me. By that time, I was off the road on the left and on a gravel entrance to the station. When I hit that gravel, the car started skidding, and by the time I got it stopped, we were heading back east. The old fellow in the other car acted as if he did not know what happened. Fortunately, we had no damage and proceeded on to the Grand Canyon. Several minutes after the excitement of our escape from a wreck, the calves of my legs quivered for some time. We enjoyed the Canyon, but did not stay very many hours. We thought we had seen it!

We went back down to US 66 and proceeded west and then turned and went north from Kingman, Arizona to Boulder Dam. It was called Hoover Dam at that time after Herbert Hoover who was president of the United States from 1928 to 1932. We were taken on a tour down into the bowels of the generating plant. At that time, there were only one or two generators which had been installed, and they were awaiting delivery of the others, which were to be placed in the vacant areas of the generating plant. It was very interesting.

We drove on into Las Vegas, Nevada and had the car serviced and the oil changed at about 8:30 or 9 o'clock in the evening. I stayed with the car and the other guys checked out downtown Las Vegas. They came back all excited about the bright lights, gambling places, etc. We were not in Las Vegas very many hours, because we wanted to cross the Death Valley desert at night when it would be cooler. We were stopped at the California state line around midnight for inspection. This was done for the protection of California crops from diseases and insects which might have been brought in with contraband fruit and vegetables, etc. So we drove to California in almost three days!

Toad began driving and I went to sleep on the back seat of the car. When I awakened about daybreak, Toad was driving very slowly through the fog shrouded San Bernardino mountains. We drove to Long Beach, California and stayed at a night court (motel). We went swimming in the Pacific Ocean which was clean and the water was nice and warm. The place where we stayed had a kitchenette where we cooked our breakfast. We had bought some bacon and eggs and bread. Bacon at that time in California was not too plentiful and was expensive, for all pork products were shipped from the Midwest. At least we thought the bacon was expensive.

The next morning, we drove south along the coast down to San Diego. We saw the famous Coronado Hotel, then crossed the Mexican border and went into Tijuana, Mexico. We stayed most of the morning and looked around. I remember that we bought a serape for Mom, which she occasionally used as a library table cover. I suppose she used it just to keep us thinking that she liked it.

We drove back north to Los Angeles, and of course, we wanted to see Hollywood. We got a tour guide, and he took us around and showed us the homes of the stars. We believed him explicitly, but I wonder now, if we really did see the homes of the stars. They were quite ostentatious houses. We took nine rolls of pictures on our trip with a little Brownie Kodak camera which belonged to Dad. He had purchased it as a teenager with a five dollar gold piece which had been given to him by his mother's mother, my great grandmother, Easter Armstrong. I remember her and also remember when she died in 1923. Incidentally, we did not have any problems at all with the traffic and with finding our way around Los Angeles.

The next stop was in a very nice court (motel) at Carpinteria, California, which was located near the beach. Here we had cooking facilities and fixed ourselves hot dogs and warmed up a can or two of pork and beans, then bacon and eggs for breakfast. I did not go swimming, but the other guys did.

We then proceeded up to northern California. I think we went up through Bakersfield and Fresno. I just remember that it was hot in August, and it took all day to drive up to San Francisco. We knew a girl by the name of Roberta Elliott who was from Thorntown and had married and moved to California. Roberta was reared in a Quaker family, and was in the eighth grade when I was in the fifth grade at the two room schoolhouse at Sugar Plain. 

Roberta was probably about twenty-four years of age. We looked her and her husband up, and I have no recollection of how we found the streets and where they lived. We just did it! She and her husband were very hospitable and seemed to be genuinely happy to see us, for we were somebody from home! They invited us to stay all night with them. They lived in a typical San Francisco duplex with a flight of seven or eight steps leading up to the front entrance. I presume they were renting an apartment. I think some or perhaps all of us slept on the floor. 

They told us how to get around in San Francisco and suggested what we should see. One day, Roberta's husband took us and Roberta in my car and gave us a nice tour of the city. Imagine all six of us packed in the car. I guess we must have stayed with them at least two nights. We went to Telegraph Hill, the Presidio and Fisherman's Wharf. We learned that the fleet was in, and that the battleships Oklahoma and Tennessee were conducting tours for the public. One afternoon we went down to the embarking point and boarded a motor launch which took us out to one of the two battleships. We had to climb up a rope ladder to get to the ship, and were given a most interesting and educational tour. I remember the smell of fresh baked bread on board the ship. We were awestruck with the cable cars, steep hills and cobblestone and brick streets, some of which were so steep they were used very little and had grass growing up around the bricks. We walked halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge which had been opened only about one month prior to our arrival. We also saw Alcatraz Prison in the bay, which at that time was where the worst of the worst convicted criminals were incarcerated. At that time, we boys had no interest at all in going to the big hotels like the Mark Hopkins or Fairmount, of course, we could not afford it either. One night we went to Chinatown, which was very interesting. I bought a white bathrobe for Frances [Frances Cornelius, later Bob's first wife], with Chinese embroidery on it, she probably considered it grotesque.

We left San Francisco via the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge which we thought was awesome! We proceeded to Lake Tahoe, Carson City, Nevada and on to Salt Lake City. After over a five hundred mile day of driving, we located the Great Salt Lake and parked the car. All four of us went to sleep in the car. The lake had a rather unpleasant odor. We saw the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, and were favorably impressed with the cleanliness of the streets. I think our next stop for the night was at Vernal, Utah.

We continued on old US 40 (the Old National Road) through the Rocky Mountain National Park and on to Denver, Colorado. We saw snow up in the mountains and took pictures of some of us throwing snowballs on the tenth of August. I think that we drove up Pikes Peak.

We proceeded homeward, and stayed in Manhattan, Kansas. The next morning we left bright and early, and went through Topeka, then somehow got on US 36 which goes direct to Indianapolis. I know that we crossed the Mississippi River at Hannibal, Missouri. By the time we reached Springfield, Illinois, we began to realize that we were running low on money, and that we had better keep driving straight for home. Outside of Springfield, Illinois, we had to change a tire which had a puncture. We got to Decatur, Illinois, at about dusk and kept right on 'pedaling' homeward, and dropped Toad and Hank off in Thorntown, with Keith and I going on back home to Indianapolis. When we got home we figured up our miles traveled which was 6,133 in thirteen days.

Admittedly, we only hit the high spots of our trip, but we saw a lot of country, and have had a lifetime of pleasant memories. We were so glad to get back to the Midwest and see green grass and green leaves on the trees. I had five dollars and some change out of my original $150. I think everyone else was just about broke! The outside cost of the trip for the four of us was $350, plus some pretty good wear and tear on the car. I never told Mom and Dad about the near accident in Arizona, nor that I let the Dodge out on the straight highway somewhere out west on our return; and got up to ninety-seven miles per hour. Crazy! What youth won't do! Keith has all of the pictures which were taken on the trip."

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This is really great we have Bob's account of the road trip and can compare it with Gumpy's point of view. Their trip is amazing to think about what they saw. I didn't realize from Gumpy's story that he could not drive, and that Bob and Tom did all the driving during the two week trip. I also really love how this is another cool link in our family story to the state of California. So many in our family on all sides of the tree have had a connection to the state.

I need to do some digging in our old photos handed down from Gumpy to my Dad, and I probably have more of these in our house to add to the other set I shared in December 2016.

I did a quick search on Roberta Elliott mentioned in Bob and Gumpy's stories, and located records on her on Ancestry. I'll share these in an upcoming post.

I also located some photos of Gumpy with his cousin Guy, and I'll share those in an upcoming post as well.