The car: answers

Dad spoke with Matilda, and has now provided the final answer on the Model A sedan first pictured here and the Model A coupe mentioned here. We probably should not be surprised that the answer is not what we expected.

In fact, Matilda and Esther shared use of the Model A coupe when they both taught school. I am told that Esther would drive Matilda to the school at which Matilda taught a mile west of Lushton (the left arrow in the plat map below), drop Matilda off, then drive on to the school where she (Esther) taught (upper right arrow). After school the route was reversed. The main point of all this is that Matilda and Esther shared the coupe.

So who used the sedan that was still on the farm at the time of the 1961 sale? It turns out that that vehicle was also a school car—used by the younger children. To be specific, Daniel drove and the younger children rode in the sedan back and forth to school in Lushton.

All this took place around 1946, the year Daniel turned sixteen (although farm kids did not have to wait until they turned sixteen to get a driver’s license). His passengers presumably included Darlene (fourteen), Carl (thirteen), Wayne (ten), Ruth (nine), and Alma (eight). Now that that minor mystery has been solved, we will quickly revisit Johann Buller, before returning to the U.S. farm economics series.