Family albums ‘n four-speeds – Mike Eldred’s gone digging

Friend and frequent blog contributor Mike Eldred had actually started a little family album excavating of his own before my recent request for car-related family album photos, and actually in part inspired the request, so his findings so far are worth a post of their own. We’ll start with the above photo, of which Mike writes:

Me (age 5) and my parents in Cape Elizabeth, ME, 1968.  The occasion, I believe, was a visit from my grandparents.  The car is a 1954 MG TF that my father bought in 1965 from a guy who was moving to California.  He paid, get this, $400.  Back then, the TF was the least desirable of the “T” series thanks to a lot of bad press regarding its “old and tired” design when it was launched.  Only 9600 were built, including the MG TF 1500.  In the ’60s the old car guys all wanted TCs (the classic) or TDs (cheap, lots of parts) and the “racer guys” wanted MGAs to modify.

Digging deeper, he found a shot of his great-great-grandfather, John Chapin.

The quality is poor, unfortunately, but according to the back it shows John & Hattie Chapin along with “Muggins,” the family dog, in the back.  I can’t figure out what kind of car it is.  The one unique thing that I notice about it is the way the door is curved.  Few of the other cars of the era that I’ve seen have doors with that kind of compound geometry.  Usually they’re flat, rectangular doors.  Of course, I don’t know a thing about brass-era cars.

These two photos were taken c. 1930, probably in Bernardston, MA. The first one shows my great uncle Stanley Allen’s Indian (not sure what year), my great aunt Wanda (Eldred) Moody’s 1928 Model T.  I’m not sure who the Essex (?) belonged to.

The second photo is of Aunt Wanda in her Model T.  It was unusual at that time for a single woman to drive a car, let alone own her own car.  But Aunt Wanda was never “conventional;” she was and independent thinker who never let obstacles stand in her way.  I never knew her well, and that’s probably my loss.

Thanks, Mike!

Previous – Family albums ‘n four-speeds – the old car photo treasure hunt continues