Old Gray Green

We were a family of the great depression. Our family car was a Star, nicknamed the old gray green.

The Star Motor Car website shows shows this 1922 Star model, 11.9 saloon. Visit the website at The Star Motor Company. Our old gray green was a type 18/50, 6 cylinder Star built between 1926 and 1932. It was 1 of 1,000 model 18/50s made during that period.

I was born June 1, 1924 in the house we lived in at 132 Spring Street in Albany, NY. I was born in a room on the second floor called the alcove that was just off the living room. The alcove had a bay window in the front. I can remember in later years sitting at the bay window looking down on Spring Street and seeing our family car parked out front at the curb. Spring Street like most streets in this part of town was paved with cobble stones. Looking left towards the west I could see down to the corner of Quail Street or east, up to the corner of Courtland Place. Across the street were vacant lots. In later years as automobiles became increasingly popular garages were built on the lots. Our family car no longer had to be parked at the curb on the street as did the old gray green.

The car shown in the foreground at the front of the house in this photo was the family car. Us kids referred to it as "the old gray green." It was sort of a tradition in our family to nickname our cars based on it's color. The car previous to this was named the old black car and so on.

Motoring in the 1920s and 30s was quite an adventure. My sister Dominica and I were reminiscing a few days ago on the phone. We recalled driving to Thatcher Park in the Old Gray Green. The car had a cloth top and as we drove along the wind swirled through our hair. The car had attachable side curtains with synthetic glass (we called it isan glass) but even with the curtains it was a pretty drafty ride. We carried several blankets in the trunk because if it was a cool day or an early morning trip the passengers could get chilled to the bone. One of our more frequent trips was to a picnic at Thatcher Park. Not a very long trip by present standards, just 30 miles or so but a long trip back then. Add to that, the roads were poor and there were a couple long steep grades from the city to the park. Long steep grades for cars of the day were a challenge. I recall we had a folding luggage rack we clamped to the passenger side running board when we went on these trips. The luggage rack carried spare car parts and a jug of water and some times a spare battery. If I remember correctly the car didn't have a self starter but started by a hand crank. It wasn't unusual for the car to overheat climbing that long grade and we would have to pull off and park on the shoulder of the road and wait a while for the motor to cool and then we could add water. Our father would strap an additional spare tire to the mounted spare wheel in the back. Flat tires were a frequent occurrence.

(I remember a few years later we had an Oldsmobile that could climb all the way up that grade without the need to shift gears. My father thought that was so fantastic. He repeated that story many times).

Our home was in Albany, NY in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountain Region. There was a state park just a few miles from Albany named Thatcher Park. There was a trail in the park called "The Indian Ladder". The trail wound along the mountain. It was accessed by climbing down a rustic, shaky wooden ladder. Us kids were convinced that the ladder was really put there by American Indians. While the "big" folks prepared the picnic meal us older kids would run off and hike the trail around the escarpments and along the rock ledges that had wooden railings and eventually end at the starting elevation of the top of the ladder. It seemed the trial was several miles long but looking back now some 70 years later it was probably less than a mile. After hiking the trail we would then return to the picnic area and play ball or just mess around.

There was a favorite spot at the park we liked that had a sheltered picnic table. There was a lot of competition for that spot. It was "first come first served," as the saying went. There were usually four or five families in our group going to the picnics. They were great affairs. One of the families would be designated to leave very early to reserve the sheltered table. The remaining families would travel as a caravan and join up at the shelter. (safety in numbers).

The families had names like Zappala, Gambacorte, Genovese, Demercurio and Marino all ending in a vowel so you know what that meant. The first task was to scavenge around for firewood to build a fire in the fireplace. We had huge meals of spaghetti, meat balls, lasagna, pomegranate, bananas and other fruits and a large antipasto laced with rolled up Genoa salami, ham, provolone cheese, olives, anchovies and all the other goodies that go with it. There was always a keg of "adult" beverage and lot of soft drinks for us kids (and there were a lot of us). I used to enjoy sitting and listening to my father's friends talking Italian and playing Mori, Boss or Bocci ball.

Of course all my sisters and brother went to the picnic with us. Left to right, Eleanor, Bill, Alberta, Luigi and, Domenica. This photo was taken in a vacant lot across from the Spring St. house circa 1941. We had some great ball games at the picnics. My brother-in-law Herman, Dominica's husband was the star of our team. I held the record for the most strike outs."