Black Hills Gold and a Model T

Michael...Your Aunt Shirley almost didn’t get a present for her twelfth birthday.

Snowmelt and heavy rains in the month of April invariably turn our normally placid little creek into a raging muddy torrent. Here it is May 1 and the occasion is your Aunt Shirley's birthday. This is her first birthday without our dad. Our mother is determined to get out and get your Aunt Shirley a present, but the now raging creek has washed out part of the road and our little ’35 Ford Coupe will be unable to get past the washout. They put on raincoats and boots and off they go to town. The creek overflows it banks for several hundred yards, but they are able to trudge through and then it is clear sailing to town.

When they arrive in town they go straight to JP Thorpe and Company, the jeweler who originated “Black Hills Gold Jewelry.” JP Thorpe, himself, waits on them and your aunt picks out a sparkling gold ring. On the way back home they get a little bit smarter and climb up the hillside to avoid the still raging torrent.

In your Aunt Shirley’s own words here is what she told to me about that ring.
I have treasured it ever since. Once when I was hiking with my family I managed to get it caught on a stub of a branch by falling backwards while I was resting on a log. The band broke and bent badly. I took it to a jeweler to have it repaired, but he said that it would cost more than it was worth. It rested in my jewelry box for many years until I asked my husband to have it repaired for a birthday gift. I decided that since it was one of the original Black Hills gold rings it certainly was worth repairing! Now I am proudly wearing it again.

My sister was only seventeen when she married my brother-in-law.

My future brother-in-law cuts quite a figure in his starched khaki United States Air Force uniform. He has this big blue Chrysler that he drives all the way up to our house from his air base to see my sister. The Chrysler is impressive, but the sticker pasted on the bottom left hand corner of the windshield still sticks out in my mind to this day. There were two lightning bolts held together by an upraised fist and the words Strategic Air Command imprinted on the sticker.

He takes us on a tour of the air base and we leave convinced that the red menace cannot prevail against the mighty forces arrayed there. I remember that there is some discussion about the possibility of a communist being there on the air base. We hold this discussion in hushed tones.

A heavy snowfall begins on February 2, 1952, and by the evening of the wedding day of your Aunt Shirley and Uncle Gene the snow is piled high. The guests arrive at the Deadwood Episcopal Church for the ceremony clad in their heavy coats and boots.

Because of all the hubbub I spend a few moments lost in the back of the church. I am rescued just in the nick of time to see two beautiful people joined in Holy Matrimony. The snow is now at least two feet deep and getting out of the church and getting up the long road to our home, where the reception is to be held, is very difficult. Many cars get stuck in the wet snow on the way and the minister has to turn back. However, most make the journey and the young couple is off to a grand start.

Your Aunt Shirley and Uncle Gene have the coolest car ever built

My grandfather invests some money in stocks and when the stock is sold the money goes to your Aunt Shirley. She and your Uncle Gene use that money to buy a brand new 1953 Studebaker Champion. There are only 5000 Studebaker Champions built that year. It is sleek like an arrow, built low to the ground and painted crimson red. There is a powerful V8 engine under that long low hood that makes this automobile pulse with life. It also has door locks that will keep the doors from flying open in an accident. This is something the big three automakers have not begun to think about. I would have killed to have this automobile.

Seven of us pile into that little car one summer day. There is my mother, my stepfather, myself, your aunt and uncle, and my two nephews. There is not a lot of room to move or breathe.

We stop for gas on the way to Glacier National Park and your Aunt Shirley gets out to go to the bathroom. All those present pile back into the little Studebaker and off down the road we go. Several minutes pass and my nephew, Ron, starts whining about the fact his mother is not in the car. Your Uncle Gene whips the little Studebaker around and goes back for your Aunt Shirley who is now standing out by the gas pumps looking rather forlorn. She piles in and once again we are squashed, barely able to breathe or move a muscle.

It is significant that I am writing more paragraphs about your Aunt Shirley and Uncle Gene’s automobile than I am about them. What is wrong with this picture? Now, revealed for the first time the true story about the old Model T Ford that she and your Uncle Jim once owned.

My grandfather, upon his passing, left those two the grand sum of $50.00 to be divided evenly. They decide to pool that grand sum and purchase an old Model T Ford. Now this joint ownership arrangement causes a number of squabbles between those two. I can still remember, to this day, the arguments about whose day it is to drive, whose turn it is to drive and where it is going to be driven. One day your Aunt Shirley allows her boy friend to drive the old Model T and he promptly runs into another car and causes a lot of damage to that car.

The only damages to the Model T were a few scratches on the front bumper. There is a lot of hollering about who is going to pay for the damage to the other car. Your Aunt Shirley’s boyfriend didn’t have any money, so he can’t pay and your Aunt is bereft of funds, so that leaves only my mother to pay for the damages. Our mother finally has to come up with some money to pay for the damage to the other car.