WE’VE GOT WHEELS!
This photo shows Jack Cate at the steering wheel of the family automobile—with Glenn Hurst perched on the running board. They seem to be dressed to go to church. The year was about 1928. By this time, Harriett was a widow and she, Glenn and her parents had moved to this log house with several adjacent acres facing the Decatur Pike.
Della and Jack lived there with them off and on—and Harriett began working at the downtown Miller’s Department Store. The Model T Fords were reasonably priced—and Harriett and her father bought one. I vaguely remember her mentioning having a Model A—either that or the Model T. An automobile was so much more convenient than using the horse and buggy for transportation. Her father usually drove Harriett to work mornings and picked her up at the end of her day at the store. But she learned to drive, too.
Harriett’s mother Evalee surely never drove a car and neither did Della. Cousin Sarah Lee never drove a car. It wasn’t the norm for women in that generation—but those who did were usually more independent and worked outside the home.
Jack may have driven the family car some—but didn’t own his own car until he was about 50. Glenn had his own little pony and buggy as a youngster, rode horseback occasionally, and must have enjoyed having and later driving a family automobile. Since he went from high school into the military, he didn’t own his own car until several years after the war ended. When he and Katie married, they both were riding the city bus to their jobs at the hospitals downtown. Glenn’s cousin LeRoy offered to drive them in his car to Florida for a brief honeymoon!
The automobile made life in Athens a bit easier!
Seeing a story 