Family History Month: Wheels on the Truck

Victor Cleansing Co. Truck, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Wheels: Family History Month

 Please bear with me this week and I plan to think in circles for a few days. As I go around and around, working on family history stories sometimes a theme begins to take form.

I have just sold my car and so I am "wheel-ess" for the time being. I have not driven it in two years so although it is a little bit of a shock, I think it will pass. I really dislike driving and cars in general.

This tiny, damaged photo was found in the envelopes of my family photos. I may have blogged about it before when I was telling you about my family laundry and dry-cleaning business.

The address on this early Victor Cleaning Co. truck is of Weybossett St. in Downtown Providence, RI. This photo was taken long before I was born. I don't know who took it or where it was taken. The house behind it doesn't look familiar.

Friends who love cars tell me that they would need to see the front of the truck to be able to give this a year. But, my family records tell me that it must be after 1907. This printed pamphlet that is part of my family collection shows drawings of the company vehicles and a short history. I am sure my mother drew the trucks. She was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.

Here's the thing. She hated driving too.

My theme of wheels is appropriate as it keeps appearing in my family photos. Check out this one of the huge oil tank in later years. My grandfather is standing next to the big circle.