Lynn listened to Corduroy Mansions and told me more than once I would like it. I did and immediately got the 2nd volume and liked it, too. For her book club, she has been reading "One Summer, America, 1927" by Bill Bryson. She tried to get me to read it as part of our program of my reading aloud while she does jigsaw puzzles but I wasn't in the mood. However, just like with Corduroy, bits of Bryson she has been sharing have changed my mood. This morning, she said she really wanted me to sit down and listen as she read about Henry Ford.
Ford was not a highly educated man and he had a slew of prejudices. Bryson says that Ford never traveled much but stayed within a dozen miles of his birthplace. Ford did not like lots of things:
He did not like bankers, doctors, liquor, tobacco, idleness of any sort, pasteurized milk, Wall Street , overweight people, war, books or reading, J. P. Morgan and Co., capital punishment, tall buildings , college graduates, Roman Catholics, or Jews.
Bryson, Bill (2013-10-01). One Summer: America, 1927 (Kindle Locations 3551-3552). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
He was famously and "defiantly" narrow-minded and ignorant, so much so that the Chicago Tribune called him an "ignorant idealist". Ford sued the paper and an 8 day trial ensued. The resultant testimony and questioning by the papers' lawyers was very popular reading. One man sold pamphlets of the testimony and Ford's statements and they were such popular reading that the sales furnished him sufficient funds to buy a house. The jury found in Ford's favor but awarded him damages of 6 cents. The newspaper never paid up.
But he and his car changed the world:
For all its faults, the Model T was practically indestructible, easily repaired, strong enough to pull itself through mud and snow, and built high enough to clear ruts at a time when most rural roads were unpaved. It was also admirably adaptable. Many farmers modified their Model T's to plow fields, saw lumber, pump water, bore holes, or otherwise perform useful tasks.
Bryson, Bill (2013-10-01). One Summer: America, 1927 (Kindle Locations 3605-3607). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Maybe you can see why the summer of 1927 is worth reading about, especially from a writer like Bill Bryson.
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Bill
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