Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Dirt Roads

In the not too distant past, there were a lot of dirt roads. I am reminded that Don & Evelyn’s road is now being paved. Some on here can remember when some roads were two ruts.  I ran into some real tough ones in  rural Missouri in the 1960’s.Iowa muddy road

(This is Iowa a little earlier than that!)

Down east NC there are a lot of sand roads, same in Florida and SC. I don’t think they were quite as messy as the Muddy roads of the upper country. a lot of times there was no big problem until you  met some one fighting the road coming at you.

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Washington State

So there was a time that getting to work or shopping dirty was no big deal, you just got out and pushed.  Sometimes if you were on the rear you got the mud from the spinning tires (from head to toe).

vermont mud road

Vermont ruts!

I think I was most amazed with dirt roads in New York. I did not know they existed up north. But when we walked thru New York we found some doozy’s.  So I learned something not all of NY is paved or covered with sky scrapers.

 

I remember as a kid going to Florida and wondering where the little hills were for parking your car so you could roll it off, to start it in the mornings?  I was used to knowing about bad batteries.

freshly oiled road

We did at one time ‘oil’ the dirt roads (using used motor oil), but then that was determined to be bad on our health. RE Roach a good friend, used to have a part time job oiling the roads in Tennessee using a home-made distributer and a 50 gal drum in his pickup. In 1985 the practice was banned. A small town in Missouri had 62 horses to die because of the roads, the level of dioxin (?) was too high.

Mud in Afghanistan!

stuck4stuck or what1

how deep the mud

Wow, have you seen the film clips of the dirt roads in  Afghanistan? They make some of our dirt roads look like interstates.

Just rambling, thinking of the past. Funny how my mind wanders, sometime I wonder if it will come back.

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Hollywood Squares, very funny moments:


Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?

A.. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

7 comments:

Paula said...

What about the wash board roads? We still have some of those out here. When I was in second grade we lived on a road where when it rained the school bus couldn't get up the hill so we prayed for rain and that was a differnt reason then why we are praying for it now.

Fred Alton said...

YEP! Very familiar with muddy roads ... especially in rural Africa. However, we still have a few here in East Tennessee. Nothing like it used to be, for sure, but still (especially for Paula's benefit) I turn on "Finger Board" road to go to my house in the mountains! After you drive down it and your false teeth crack from bouncing so hard - you know why it has that name! As a boy growing up in rural areas of the S.E. USA we called those places "wash-board roads". Thanks for the memories.

betty said...

it is interesting, Jack, how your mind works. I find myself not enjoying driving or riding on anything that is not paved when it comes to roads. More comfortable, less ruts, and you don't have to worry about dust being stirred up so you can keep windows down, especially if you are taking the dog for a ride :)

hope it is a good day for you and Sherry!

betty

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

I really don't know what is worse, the dirt road ruts or the big pot holes we have here in Ohio. Some of them were filled in but not all of them for sure. It's hard to dodge a pothole when the traffic is coming and going on both sides of you. I don't know of many that are left anymore except in our campground and boy it does get dusty when we've not had any rain. Lately we've had so much rain we just have to worry about the washed out ruts in the road. Glad you made it home again - hopefully you don't have lots of work to do this time. Take good care!

Dar said...

LOL, and now the 4-wheeling clubs MAKE rutted, muddy roads for races...I remember Dad telling us the truth about our Grandma O raising chickens for the eggs that she'd sell in town. The roads were like your first 3 pictures. Anywho, once he was along, the road torn up, raining and those eggs HAD to be delivered. They started out with a mess of them in the back seat, flying everywhere for the bumps, and ended up with a real MESS of them on the ceiling and the floor of the old truck, it had to have been a chevy. Nuff said bout Ruff roads. Been on quite a few lately. Loved the tribute to your Daddy. Sorry to have missed a few entries, my friend. LoveYouTwo
BlessYourHearts

Amelia said...

I wouldn't like driving on those!

Missy

shirl72 said...

Dirt roads are not my thing because of washing
the car. I did drive down Evelyn & Don's dirt road. Not many around anymore.

Maybe you need a T Shirt like mine. "MY MIND WONDERERS SOMETIME IT LEAVES COMPETELY".

Shirl