Buick Coupe

This is a screen shot taken from a silent movie short, Saturday Afternoon, starring Harry Langdon. The date was 1926.

Last night I went to bed early so of course I was awake in the middle of the night when the Silent Sunday Night movies were showing on TCM. Some of them are almost too crazy during the 1916 era but by the middle '20's there is some plot and a lot of slapstick.

This photo was taken after I had seen this car driving for a few minutes. I grabbed my phone and naturally it was turned off! By the time it was operational, the car was stopped and Harry was out of the rumble seat.

The reason I wanted the photo is that this model car was the one my grandparents had when they moved in with my mom, dad and me in 1944. It's a Buick, with wooden spoke wheels and the rumble seat and the spare tire, barely visible here. I have remembered that car and always wished

I had taken a photo of it. I was starting to take pictures with a Brownie camera that my Granny Brown had given me. No color film then (that I could afford) but the car was a faded, dark green.

My friend, JoAnn, and I used to sit out in front of 100 West 12th in Hutchinson, KS, and wish we could drive! We were 14 and in Kansas at that time, you could get a full driver's license. I remember going to the office. It wasn't even called by any official name. Just the place where you went to get legal permission to drive.  Two questions:  Are you color blind and do you have epileptic seizures? No and no.  Here's your license. Not a learner's permit, a regular license.

Thanks, Harry, for using that particular car.