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32

I think my father bought his first automobile about 1909 or 10. It was a bright—red Maxwell two-passenger roadster which has become quite a collectors item because I have seen pictures of this model frequently over the years in connection with antique car activity. Maybe I can bum a photo of it from Dick Lamborn who's active in antique car affairs. Evidently it merely whetted my father's appetite for a more spacious and comfortable car because by 1911, he had traded it in for a four—passenger Maxwell touring car that even had four doors as I recall it. This also proved to be a collectors item. Having no garage, the car was kept in the Houses' garage across the vacant lot. However, my father had acquired a rectangular-shaped gasoline tank of maybe a hundred gallons capacity which he had located in the back of our backyard although I have no recollection of his ever using it —- in fact, I still don't understand just why he bought the tank in the first place; perhaps it was to have gasoline readily available in case of some sort of emergency, because gas stations were few and far between; in fact, I can't remember a single gas station as we know them today, anywhere in our part of town. When he needed gas, my father would drive over to Bissell's Garage on downtown State Street where the front seat cushion would be removed, exposing the gas tank, and then it would be filled by carrying 5-gallon cans out to the car and emptying them into a funnel which had been placed in the fill-opening; I believe the funnel was equipped with a Chamois filter which screened out any dirt. Having a car, was a great help to my father in making his many calls, in fact, I don't see how he got along without one, just getting around town either by streetcar or walking. The nearest thing to a taxi in those days, was a horse-drawn carriage you could order from a livery stable, certainly a very slow way of getting around, at best. After we got the 1911 Maxwell, we began taking some short trips here and there in the vicinity of Syracuse. We’d drive to Auburn on a Sunday, round trip around 50 miles and have dinner at the Osborne House, a hotel famed for excellent food. This Auburn trip consumed practically the whole day although the roads were fairly good for that time. Once a year or there-abouts, we'd drive to Utica, which was 50 miles away, and have dinner at the Hotel Utica, then return to Syracuse the same day but this was a real adventure in motoring, requiring an early start in order to get home before dark. A more modest trip was out to Chittenango Falls, maybe 10 miles east of Syracuse, where we'd have picnic lunches at a lovely little spot where we could enjoy looking at the falls. Trips north from Syracuse involved traversing the "Plank Road" which was literally surfaced with planks and was a toll road with several toll gates; this was always a welcome trip to me because my father would let me pay the toll and usually keep the change at each toll gate, providing a welcome supplement to my allowance. The plank road was located over some rather swampy land where it was difficult to maintain a regular road; farther north, some of the roads were sandy and were really tough going. One testing run for cars was James Street