Dad’s Generation Was More Daring Than Mine By Ron Trella
My dad, John Martin Trella, was the consummate Ford guy. He worked for the Ford Motor Company, at the Rouge Plant and owned eight Fords in his life; all of them were daily drivers. He would have never thought of owning any other brand, he would not even allow anyone to park a “Brand X” in our John Martin Trella with his 1940 Ford. driveway. Dad grew up outside of Smithfield, Ohio, Sometime around the middle of the 1930s, his in the township of Bradley. It was a farming and coal intrepid group from Bradley decided they all wanted mining area, in southeast Ohio. Dad was always to go home for a weekend visit, to see their families. relating stories of growing up in this area. His father They would make the trip in Dad’s 1934 Ford Tudor. was a coal miner by night and had a small farm that he worked by day to feed his family. He related to me that the early Ford V-8s were known to use “a bit of oil.” I understand that 50 miles Dad did not relish working in the mines, or on the per quart was normal, until Ford made some farm. At the age of 18 in 1929, one of dad’s friends improvements to the engine as the V-8 progressed heard that the Ford Motor Company was hiring throughout the 1930s. He said the car used more oil workers at the Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. than gas on trips. Dad and three of his friends decided this was where they wanted to work. Shortly thereafter, the four of The group wanted to maximize their time with their them packed up and headed off for Dearborn in one families while they were home for the weekend. To of his friend’s Model-T. do this, they needed to do some planning ahead of Now I cannot imagine what a trip like that would have been like in 1929. Knowing that a Model-T had a cruising speed of about 25mph, the 250-mile trip would have been at best, a 12 hour plus trip, if you could drive straight through. We all know the ModelT’s had their own set of idiosyncrasies. Dad did admit the trip had a few unscheduled stops. This trip itself was very daring for the time. The group did eventually make it to Dearborn and all four men landed jobs with Ford. Other than vacations and odd weekend trips, Dad never moved back to Ohio. This was the start of his long 40-year career with Ford. Dad went on to own a 1930 Model A, a 1934 Tudor Sedan, and then a 1940, 1953, 1959, 1963 and eventually a Falcon and Mustang.
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time. The plan was the leave right after their shift was over, on Friday night and drive straight through, 250 miles, with as few stops as possible. They would then return Sunday night, to be back at work on Monday morning. Along with a change of clothes, the group also packed extra cans of gas and a case of oil. Dad was always a Pennsylvania crude guy, so Wolfs Head or Pennzoil would have been his oils of choice.
In preparation for the trip, Dad removed the hood and the oil filler cap from the ’34. Friday afternoon came and the group was off for southeast Ohio. Each man taking turns driving. About every 50-60 miles, the oil gauge would begin to drop and the guy driving at that time would signal the “pit crew” to spring into action. One of the back
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