How to See New England in a Blur

How To See New England In A Blur.

This is part of a longer story about my early cars. This particular car was my 1949 Mercury, my second car I bought it in 1954. Id does not fit into the lemon series, as it was a better car than some. The rest of the 49 Mercury story fits into a section I have nearly completed. I’m not sure of the title yet, however, it has to do with early car racing and playing chicken and other smart things.

I had my ’49 Mercury for about 4 months at this time. It was only my second car. I had bought in early 1954. It was a pretty good car all around, the only thing wrong with the Merc. Was it would stall for no reason and there was nothing you could do but let it sit for an hour or two. It would do this 4or 5 times a week, I kind have gotten used to it. Ray, Pete and I often talked about New England; Ray’s family always took trips to Vermont sometimes to Maine, and even Canada. My two friends thought it would be a fun thing to take a trip to Vermont. I said I would not trust the car to go that far. However, that did not discourage them any. They insisted that we take the chance, and I was anxious to go as they were.

We took only 2 changes of cloths, we figured with what we were wearing that should be enough. Ray and I had sleeping bags made out of boat canvas that his Grandmother had made us for our camping times. Pete only had an extra blanket. We had never been out of the stat on our own, so we did not have the foggiest idea of traffic conditions and what most of the signs meant. The only thing we had etched in our heads is that we had to get out of N. Y. State as fast as possible. We had to find the Whitestone Bridge first; we were lucky to have found any bridge at all never mind the right bridge. Without a map we had no idea how to get to the Whitestone Bridge. Crossing the bridge was a thrill. It was almost as much of a thrill for all the other drivers who were trying to cross the bridge at the same time as we were. There seemed to be a lot of screeching tires all around us and to us that seemed unnecessary. We thought, also, there was an awful lot of horn blowing. We didn’t understand that either. It seemed to us that was also unnecessary. But came to the conclusion that all of these people were practicing to play in a band or something. We thought it was foolish to practice in all this traffic, we found out that blowing your horn and giving the finger must be a New York custom as just about everyone was using it.

We were a little confused by the toll booths the first one we came to we breezed through at about 50 MPH, I didn’t notice the 50 cent toll sign, I thought it was a speed limit sign and went on through. Later when we had the chance to talk about it we realized that guy jumping up and down in my rear view mirror might have bee upset.

Later we came to the conclusion as what the tolls were for. The tolls were like an admission ticket like you would buy if you went to a zoo. I figured that people in the city were not able to grown their own food, so all these entrance fees were probably a way to feed them.

It’s a good thing that we were all high school graduates or we would not have been able to figure all these complicated things out.

We had driven about 230 miles and we had used about 12 gallons of gas. Gas cost us about $5.76 @ $.48 a gallon. We had figured on traveling 400 miles a day and gas would cost us about $10.00 a day.

It started raining about noon, there seemed to be a lot of water on the road when we got to Massachusetts. It apparently had been raining there for a couple of days. We were not too happy with that. Besides the traffic was not moving more than 30 MPH by the time we got to Pittsfield, Mass. Traffic was at a standstill. We decided to take Rte 9 East so we turned back to Rte 7. We still went north, it had stopped raining and it was after 7 o’clock. We had stopped for lunch earlier and had hamburgers and root beers. That didn’t hold us long. We bought some snack type crap from a gas station, hopefully that would last us until morning.

We didn’t have enough money to eat out more than once a day. We figured $25.00 each would be enough money for 3 days. We had no plans about where to sleep; we could not afford a motel in Vermont or New Hampshire. They were about $6.00 a day at the time. We were in Massachusetts when it was getting dark. We had no idea what to do buy we knew we would not sleep in some parking lot. There were a lot of forests along Rte 7, but we had no tent so a park was out. “Who planned this trip anyway” Said Pete. “I though you guys had an idea where to stay.” This was no bid deal even though by now it was dark, and all the wooded areas looked ominous to us. “The next dirt road we see we are going to take no matter where it goes. “ said Ray. We did just that. It was a winding road but not to rough, it was strange though we passed a big brick chimney and several other foundations also brick but no more than 5 ft tall, we had no idea where we were but all those big white pine trees were cool. We came to a small bridge it was wide enough for a car. It was maybe 30 ft across. We could not tell how safe it would be, besides it being so dark and there was tall grass on both sides of the bridge we all got out. We really could not see much, under the bridge was too overgrown with brush. Ray said “Bill you drive over just keep the wheels in the center on those old boards” (Yes over those old rotten boards) Pete laughed. The bridge was made out of logs and there were two cut boards going over the logs about the width of you wheels, if you had a truck that is it. I tried it. The trouble was I could fit one wheel or the other on the boards. I only tried it for about 3 ft and my wheels were not wide enough either one side or the other would be on those boards. Ray put his hand up stopping me (I was not about to go any further anyway)

We were at least ¼ mile for the road so I thought we were pushing our luck anyway. There was a real nice stand of white pines bout 100 ft or so just left of the bridge, as long as we stayed near the road we wouldn’t get lost. We grabbed our sleeping bags, blankest, what snacks we brought and of course our flashlights. It was dark so even our flashlights did not give us much light. Once you turned off your light you became completely blind. “I wonder what kind of animals live up her?” Pet said. The only thing I knew was Massachusetts had a lot of bears. Maybe some wolves or foxes but I would not worry too much about the foxes, because the only time they will come near you is when they have rabies. I brought up some others like skunks and weasels. “Enough already.” Sad Ray “I may go back to the car if I hear much more.” It was real comfortable under the pines the needles made a good mattress.

We talked for a while, those guys ere falling asleep and I was wide-awake and bored. So I felt around and was lucky without moving very far, I found a pine branch about 10 ft long. It was pretty dried out and it was easy to move about. The three of us were lying in a row about 3 ft apart. Pete was next to me they Ray was about another 3 ft. It was easy for me to reach over Pete and run the stick down Ray's sleeping bag.

“What the hell is that?” Ray exclaimed.

“What the matter?” I said

“There’s something walking over my bag.”

“Oh it is probably a chipmunk, or maybe under these trees a weasel”
“Great!”
I ran the branch back and forth,
I’m getting out of here this thing is getting Bigger!” Said Ray
Pete said, “Let’s go back to the car and sleep”

Ray got up and started kicking his sleeping bag around. He became frantic and ran into a tree and fell over Pete in the process. I found the flashlight and showed him the weasel stick. It took some convincing to prove there were no creatures walking over him (he didn’t think it was funny then, but saw the humor in it later)

Well after realizing that we were pretty stupid we decided to get some sleep. But that wasn’t that easy. It was probably around midnight I began to hear a far off train whistle. It must have been at least 10 or 12 miles away. (The fact was I always liked trains and this one was a steam engine by 1955 90% of them were gone.)
Anyhow the train was getting closer and closer and louder and louder.
“What the hell is that?” exclaimed Pete.
“It sounds like a steam train to me.” I said

By that time Ray woke up, “What’s going on? There is a train coming and I think it’s going to come right thru these trees. I think you better feel around for tracks, I think we may be lying right on them.”
Everybody got up looking for the flashlights. They were actually kicking at the pine needles looking for the tracks. By this time the headlight of the engine was flickering through the trees and even I was beginning to think, could it be… Not but the sound especially this time of night carries so well, finally it came to a climax and the train passed about 300 ft from our camp. Here were 3 men of the world holding on to all our stuff, thinking we could actually be sleeping on the tracks.

I doubt if we got 3 or 4 hrs sleep. How could you sleep with all the bears, raid foxes, probably rabid raccoons? (I forgot to mention that one.) Between 6 and 7 o’clock I thought my feet were frozen, it must have been 45 at best, boy the car was looking good to me, but thinking what we were having for breakfast, cup cakes & crackers “ugh” I didn’t want to get up.

It was so foggy I couldn’t even make out anything beyond the edge of the pines where we camped. I finally was able to see a little. The cupcake wrappers, and pretzels papers, paper cups and who knows what else. Any clothes lying about were wet from the fog and dew. Half of our clothes were wet and took all day to dry. But what wasn’t there was the important thing.

Ray was still sleeping in a fetal position it looked real comfortable.

Pet was not there. It sure seemed like I would have heard him leave or something I said his name several times. I was not going to yell. I had no idea if there was a house nearby; I shook Ray 2 or 3 times.
“Where the hell is Pete?” I exclaimed
“I have no idea,” said Ray as he goes back to sleep. I waited a little longer. But the fog was unbelievable. I grabbed my flashlight; I had no idea what good that would do. The car was white so even though I knew were it was I swore it was gone. I was about 15 ft from it. Before I saw it. I looked in it, nobody there. I thought I would follow the road back a way, as long as I stayed on the road I couldn’t get lost. I stayed on the trail for about 200 ft until I came to the first brick foundation, I have been saying Pete’s name about every 15 or 20 ft. I eventually thought I heard something; it was more like the sound of a sheep or goat. I heard a muffled yell barely perceptible form somewhere on the other side of the foundation. I went around the bricks, they were 2 to 3 ft high, I said to myself, If I don’t leave the brick just keep my hands on them as I went around, Maybe find where he is.

I roamed out about 15 ft from the foundation as far as I dared. But I could not see any signs of him. I decided to go back and get Ray it I was going to get lost U was not keen on getting lost alone. Ray was still half asleep but he followed me to where I was last. The fog was still bad; Ray had no qualms about yelling Pete’s name. We could hear something but it was faint we crisscrossed the area behind another foundation. There was mostly brush and weeds. We could definitely hear him now ad it seemed right in front of us. We almost both took the fatal step at the same time. We couldn’t believe it there was a hole about 3 ft in diameter, and we cautiously looked over the edge and could see with the flashlight the hole was a good 3 ft deeper that Pete’s head.

“How the hell did you ever fall in there?” said Ray.

“Why---what the, well.” Said Pete “I had good company.”

He sure did, he had a nearly full grown doe in the hole with him.

Pete explained, “He went for a walk down the road and herd this weird cry of sorts and tried to find out what it was. Fell I n the hole with the deer.

Pete got his arms around the deer’s legs and pushed her as high as he could. It was quite a struggle but we got the deer out. It stood and shook herself then bounded off no worse for the wear. We all felt good about that and were glad we were in the right place at the right time. We didn’t go down in the hole, but it was a good 8 ft across. We had no idea what it was for. But we could imagine a hunter might fall in such a hole and never be found.

Everything we had on was wet, as were our sleeping bags. We didn’t waste any time getting out of there, we dept the heat on in the car all morning, we had to have dome dry clothes. We had breakfast in North Adams, Mass. It started to rain again and out front window must have gotten sap or something on it overnight. Everything seemed like a blur, we had to stop when the rain became too heavy. We went throgh Bennington VT and reached Rutland about 1
;00 and had lunch there.

It seemed to be raining wherever we were. It seemed to be following us; we decided to cut across to New Hampshire. We thought it might be dryer over there so we took Rte 25 looking for Rte2 that would cross Northern New Hampshire and maybe hit Maine somehow. It was now ½ way into our second day, and we hadn’t taken a picture yet. It was either raining or so much fog the only pictures I have of the whole trip is on Hogs Back Mt.. We took 2 pictures of the back of the car, one of a road sign, and one of some wood steps we rested on for a few minuets. We just drove. If we had one of those army trucks or came-a-long on our trip with some kind of PT boat or something it would have been more enjoyable.

I was glad Ray was doing 90% of the driving, I have no idea how he could see where he was going 7 or 8 hour starring at a blurry windshield. This actually was not fun anymore (was it ever). We barely slid our tires at a gas station about 5 miles into main, just enough to say (we went to Maine and the rain was a Pain.)

It really was not a fair trip to New England. We were amazed when we saw a sign on the post office. It said something like the flood of 1936 reached this level. Flood from What? From Where: We had no idea where the water would have come from, when we walked back to the parking spot we crossed a little bridge maybe 16 ft across We didn’t see any other source of water anywhere.

Be for we left Maine we sort of had a breakfast-lunch. We had only 2 decent meals so far on this trip. We had wanted to get some real Maple Syrup and pancakes. I wasn’t feeling so hot by this time and the pancakes didn’t sit well with me at all. We all agreed we should start back as the weather was terrible.

We drove until it was near dark. Again we were stuck looking for a place to stop and sleep. We drove until about 8:00 PM there were a group of motorcycles riders, about 10 of them. They had sleeping bags and tents on their bikes. We figured they must have a place to camp, somewhere. We stopped and asked them it there was any places to camp in the area. They only suggested a couple of logging roads near by. We took off on the first logging road we came to. The road was slippery and wet and more rock strewn that the 1st place we stopped. We got only about 6 or 7 hundred feet and the car stalled. The first time on this trip. It would not start again. We pushed it off the road as best we could. Water was coming down the road like it was a streambed. It was kind of cold that night about 40 I would guess. I fell asleep in the back seat, Ray slept in the front and Pete took one of our sleeping bags and an extra blanket and found a spot maybe a foot high than the water running down the road. I kind of felt sorry for him but there wasn’t much we could do. I stayed awake most of the night worrying about the Car.

By morning it had been raining off and on, everything was cold and wet. During the night about 10 groups of motorcyclists had passed our car. They didn’t come back. Were we had pushed the car off the road; we were now in the middle of a stream. There was water running down the hill about 50 ft wide on both sided of us. Pete had giving up trying to sleep outside and was in the trunk. It was a good ting the trunk was pretty big.

When I got up I said, “If this car starts were are getting out of this hell hole country.”

Luckily the Merc started first time. We couldn’t turn around so we had to back down. With the curvy road with the water making the car slide sideways and almost getting jammed between trees and bushes. When we got out to the main road. That was something else again.


There was water running off the bank. The bank was about 18-20 ft above the road and there was a waterfall on one lane. It sure was a strange way to put a road under a waterfall. We drove for 40 or 50 miles trying to get out of the flooded area. We didn’t know that New England was a rain forest and was subject to monsoons. We drove through some towns that looked like the streams were about ready to overflow their banks. We finally go something to eat about 1:00. It seemed like all we did was drive, drive. We had breezed through New England like we were jut propelled. It sure was a good thing Ray was driving because we wanted to see al of New England in 2 days even though most of it was under water. I fell asleep on the way home through both Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The first time I stuck my head over the front seat and saw the speedometer wavering from 70 to 75 MPH on rte 7. I said “Do you realize how fast your are going”

“Don’t worry about it” said Pete, “We have been going this speed for a couple hours.”

How wonderful I though Ray yelled
“We were just trying to keep ahead of the flood that’s been chasing us, we can’t slow down or it will catch us.”

“I hope the cops will believe that story…On the radio the next day, they announced that it was one of the worst floods in 40 years, and please those madmen in that white 49 Mercury please don’t come back our traffic patterns will never be the same. We’re still pulling some of the cars you cut off out of the ditches. If we had a choice of having the flood or you driving through our states we would chose the flood.