Looking Back
Category: Local...
Posted Friday, December 15, 2006 at 10:22 PM [GMT-6]

Even though we haven't lived there for thirty years or so, we still subscribe to the Fort Stockton Pioneer, so that we can sound knowledgeable about local news items when we visit our families.

One of the more interesting features of the paper is the long-running "Years Ago" column which highlights items from earlier editions, going back a decade at a time. Many of the names are familiar to us (occasionally, they're even our names), but the oldest of the stories are also quite entertaining and give insights into simpler times. Here's one that appeared in this week's edition, in the category of "90 Years Ago."

This one sent me running to Wikipedia, where I discovered that the Saxon Motor Car Company built cars in Detroit between 1914 and 1922. Their six-cylinder model was introduced in 1915, which meant that the car carrying the Hays couple was relatively new. I suspect that having your new car undergo external combustion would be cause for great chagrin, but Mr. Hays apparently handled it with west Texas aplomb, simply buying a replacement and continuing eastward for seventy miles or so to his ranch.

We're not told what model of "Ford car" Mr. Hays bought, but it likely was a Model T Touring edition, a hand-crank starter model which, according to this website, sold for $360. As with most Model Ts, you could get it in any color you wanted as long as it was black.

The "70 Years Ago" paragraph included this report: The jury also found against the operation of any mechanical device 'that pays one man more than it does another, in money or other thing of value, for the same money.' Can you guess to what this refers?