A Pair of ‘42s

A Pair of ‘42s In Their Natural Environment

By Wayne Rosenkrans

We use our 1942 Ford Tudor Sedan in our WWII living history work, setting the scene for the period (See V-8 Times, September/October, 2017).

One of the largest WWII events each year is the WWII Weekend, in Reading, Pennsylvania. It’s been called “a three-day graduate class in early ‘40s history,” with most of the active theaters of the war represented, plus the American home font.

Drawing close to 38,000 visitors over the three days this year, it’s hard to grasp the enormity of the venue with no modern vehicles in sight among the Jeeps, tanks, trucks, motorcycles, and of course, the aircraft (including such attention grabbers as a B-29 Superfortress, B-17 Flying Fortress, Mustangs, Corsairs, and many others).

All of the vehicles move throughout the weekend, including the aircraft - this isn’t a static display of “Look, but don’t touch.”

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Although many didn’t realize it, this year we had a real rarity at the Home Front. Not only was “Eleanor,” our ’42 Ford Sedan there, but also a ’42 Ford Station Wagon.

As most V-8ers know, seeing one ’42 at a show is very rare, seeing two in what amounts to their natural environment is very improbable.

To learn more about the WWII weekend, visit www.maam.org.

“Drive Your Ford V-8” Day was not forgotten by the Northern Illinois Regional Group #8 this year as three Early Ford V-8s came out for a drive from the Chicago suburbs out to the cornfields of Dekalb, Illinois. The group gathered in Wheaton, Illinois for the 40 mile drive to Dekalb. The group ate at “Fatty’s Pub,” a well known Dekalb eatery and continued on for a tour of a nearby distillery called “Whiskey Acers.” The Ford V-8s involved were John Emmering’s 1949 Ford Custom Fordor, John Judges’s 1951 Ford Victoria and Ron Steck’s 1949 Ford Pickup.

Well, we started out with a bit of trouble on “Drive Your V-8 Day” when I received a call that Jim Ellerbrock had battery problems when he went to get gas in is 1955 Ford. We waited at the starting location while Jim changed cars and joined the tour.

Being Fathers Day weekend (and quite hot!), we didn't have the turnout for the tour that I'd had hoped for, we had Scott and his son with his 1939 Ford Pickup, Rob with his 1955 Ford and a friend of Robs, with a nice 1968 Camaro. Then, Jim and his wife, along with Howard Brown, in Jim’s 1966 Ford Galaxy convertible, along with my 1948 Plymouth. We then proceeded to head out the 118Fwy towards the

old 118 Fwy off ramp. We continued out the old 118 towards the 126 Fwy and the Santa Paula Airport and Museum. We then met up with Jerry and Leslie Littner, in their Miata, along with their friends that had a pretty yellow and black Prowler, at the Airport. I had received a call just prior to departing that our contact had a case of food poisoning and would not be able to be there to open the museum herself and she had contacted the lady that ran the Flight school there to open the museum for us. Although it is a small museum, it was very interesting. After about 45 minutes we then went into the restaurant "Flight 126 Cafe" for a very nice lunch, with lots of conversation. We then gathered up and toured about 8 miles up the 126 Fwy into Fillmore, and stopped at "Ernies Auto Care," which is a converted 1950s gas station, for some photo ops. It was starting to get hot and after 2:00pm, so we decided to call the tour complete and all went their own way home!

Submitted by Ernie Baily, RG#40