You may remember this story from July 2021, but it is definitely worth reposting. I have since found the original correspondence between Erma and the Morse Museum and that it was Western People who published the story on July 3rd, 1986. I have also added pictures!
Tucked away, almost hidden, among other papers strewn about on a display case in the Morse Museum’s Town History room is an old article titled simply – The Silver Liz. Throughout my life, it seems Elizabeth is a name that marks important people and I always take special note when I’m introduced to another. I can now add a car to the list of friends and mentors! I’m not sure who published the article but it is written by Erma Rabourn and begins, “The time was 1939. The place was Morse, Saskatchewan. My teenaged brother Tom and two of his buddies decided that they were too grown-up for bicycles. They sold their wheels, pooled the money they received for them, and went looking for something more sophisticated.” What did the boys get? A very old, run down, Ford model T, or a ‘tin lizzie’. The crew of boys worked in the old red barn on the back of Erma’s family home. Eventually the car was up and running and met the boys’ approval. It did, however still require a push start and as the article explains, “(Morse citizens) …were bribed to put a shoulder to the back of the Ford by a promise of a ride all around the four-mile block. As they drove through town, more and more little boys joined the part. By the time the motor took hold, they were as thick as flies on sticky fly-paper.” It was when the car was painted with silver aluminum paint that it was christened The Silver Liz. In those days the boys paid 20 cents a gallon for gas (or about 5 cents a L) and had local businesses advertised on Lizzie for one dollar. With a tank full of gas and some spending money the boys would head out to Herbert to go courting and just below the windshield was written ‘HERBERT OR BUST’. Sometimes the gas ran out and the boys would walk the last mile or two home leaving Liz behind. On July 1st, they managed to make it all the way to the fair grounds and even took 1st prize in the parade. This spark of joy and boyish fun was between the decade of depression Tom saw previously and the war that would call him and his friends away. Erma shares what happened to the boys after the war, “Bob May returned to his hometown after the war…Irvin Bleich came back from overseas, but not to Morse…Tom didn’t come back.” And what became of the Silver Liz? Erma recalls, “…the Silver Liz met her demise in a blaze of glory against one of those lamp posts one late, late night when Tom was home on embarkation leave. Luckily no one was hurt” A special thank you to the author Erma Rabourn, Bob May and Darlene Nicholson who assisted Erma in re-telling the story of the Silver Liz and to Western People who saw fit to share this story. Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Morse Museum & Cultural Centre, its Board of Directors or sponsors.
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