Old men arrive in style for breakfast — in old, restored automobiles
— Photo from John R. Williams
Pete Whitbeck’s Model T is pictured behind his roadster. He gave some of the OFs at Hillbelly’s a ride in it. “To me, it is amazing that there are so many Model T’s running about,” says John R. Williams. “Some of those things are 100 years old. The T is not like those that are old, and rare, with only a few operating. The T has clubs all over the country and there are tons of them still chugging about.”
May 30, the last Tuesday in May, the Old Men of the Mountain traveled to Hillbelly’s in Westerlo for breakfast.
The days are finally getting warm, but the OMOTM say we do need some rain and a couple of OFs added, maybe more than some.
At the breakfast at the Chuck Wagon last week, it was noted that the fired cheap help was back in the good graces of the OF who supplies the chairs for the OFs frequenting his shop to sit in while they watch him work.
So the cheap help is back at full strength ready to chip in or give free advice to the working OF. The “stay tuned” was anti-climatic as nothing really happened.
This scribe is bummed because he showed up at the breakfast at Hillbelly’s (note Google does not like the word Hillbelly’s; even on the net, when searching Hillbelly’s, Google changes it to Hillbilly’s) and the scribe did not have his camera, and he drove to the restaurant in a regular car.
One OMOTM was there with his 1950 Hudson, and another, with his Model T. A ride was given to his entourage who had to bundle up because it was a little chilly at that time of the morning for riding around in an open Model T.
Note to self: Bring the camera to these OF breakfasts. The next thing you know, the OMOTM will be showing up in buggies pulled by horses, or maybe with Fordson tractors hauling wagons.
Remembering when gifts inspired gratitude
It was a beautiful late spring day and the OFs were talking about Christmas and what Christmas was like when the OFs were young. It was nothing like today.
It was the time when the country was just coming out of a depression and entering another war to end all wars. During this time, many of the OFs were from 4 or 5 to about 10 or 11 years old, when receiving one gift was a pleasure because some did not receive anything at all.
The OFs started talking about what they received and how happy they were to get it, or what they were able to get for others with less than a dollar to spend in order to get something for three or four people or maybe even more.
The OFs compared how their Christmases were to how they are today.
As one OF put it, “There is no comparison.”
Another OF said, with his grandkids, there are enough presents to fill the whole living room, while another one commented that, in his case, one of the presents was so large for his grandkid it had to be left in the garage.
One OG said that he would like to go back to one gift per child. He thinks, in his time, kids were much more appreciative of the one gift and it meant something to them. This OF said he remembers the one gift, his grandkids can’t remember any of theirs 10 days later.
“Not only that,” one OF muttered, “none of them even think about sending a thank-you.”
Is it them or us? This was brought up because we had so little.
Did we indulge our kids to the point that they think it is normal and now they try to outdo it by over-indulging their own children? Maybe we are looking at the culprit when we look in the mirror. Who knows?
One OF remembered getting 10 cents to purchase a gift (10 cents!). This was a time when smoking was not only OK, but thought to be a good thing.
The OF took his 10 cents and went out to find a gift. After searching for some time, he spotted a nice ashtray and it was four cents.
The OF said he purchased the ash tray for four cents and received his six cents in change, and the OF hung onto that six cents. He heard about not returning the six cents quite sternly, and what he remembers most about that Christmas is not returning the six cents.
Another OF said that, at Christmases in his house on the farm, items were scarce and no matter what was given to you, you took with genuine thanks. It was really a treat that anybody got anything at all because there were 13 kids in the family. Many of the gifts were handmade, and the giver might have worked on these gifts all year.
One OF said he remembered during the war years when everything was scarce getting a bicycle that his father had made from parts of bikes that his dad had scrounged from all over. At that time, the OF said, he thought it was the best looking bike in the world; not only that, but it worked great.
The OF said the gift was so great he was the only kid on his street that had a bike at an age when all his friends should have had one. The bike was the envy of the neighborhood and all the OF’s buddies wanted to ride it.
Today, an OF said, his grandkids think nothing of asking their parents for something at any time let alone Christmas, and the item will have a price tag of hundreds of dollars. This is almost normal because all their friends have one and it’s just a matter of keeping up.
No matter how the Old Men of the Mountain made it to the breakfast, either in a car 99 years old, or one that is so current it is electric, the OMOTM who had breakfast at Hillbelly’s Restaurant in Westerlo were: Frank Fuss, Frank Dees, Rick LaGrange, Miner Stevens, Doug Marshall, Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Pete Whitbeck, Bill Lichliter, Robie Osterman, George Washburn, Roland Tozer, Jake Herzog, Russ Pokorny, Gerry Chartier and driver Winnie Chartier, Elwood Vanderbilt and driver Alice Gable, John Dab, Lou Schenck, Jack Norray, Dick Dexter, and me.