Transportation – Klaus and his Cars

My Pake, Klaus, loved his cars.  His family immigrated from the Netherlands in 1912 when he was only 4. He grew up in the era when automobiles were first introduced and where owning a car signified having succeeded in America. His cousin Grietson Oosterman was a successful businessman who owned Oosterman’s Rest Home and drove a Cadillac.  According to my cousin, David, Pake aspired to own a Cadillac but never had one. Therefore, he joked with his daughter Ann that if she ever bought a Cadillac, he’d come back to haunt her. Even when she could have bought one, she never did.

The model “T” was the ultimate practical car. It didn’t have much style but it did provide mobility to the working class. By 1924, thanks to Ford instituting the assembly line a new Model “T” was priced at $260 down from the original cost in 1908 of $850.

In July of 1929 Klaus and Mary (Vierstra) were out on a picnic with friends and took pictures of Mary and “their” car. They were married in Jan of 1930. Soon after, however, in October of 1929, would be the stock mark crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Klaus not only had his own vehicle, but by 1930 was working at the Arcade Market where one of his jobs was to deliver groceries to the townspeople.

Klaus and Mary loved to take road trips.  They were taking road trips long before it was “cool” to travel Route 66! In the 1930’s and 40’s they traveled by car to Mary’s birthplace in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, to Maine and all over New England, including the Cooperstown National Baseball Museum in NY in 1949.  

Often times they traveled with family member to the shores of New Jersey for camping adventures.

By the late 1930’s Klaus had a 1934 Chevrolet Master, four door sedan. This photo shows my uncle Milt (nickname Ron) inside the family car in May of 1939 outside their home in Whitinsville, MA.  

In the 40’s to early 50’s, Klaus and Mary were superintendents of the town poor farms in Stoneham and Northbridge, MA.  During this time he made good use of his farm truck.

In August of 1947, while the family lived at the Northbridge Infirmary (Poor Farm), they were visited by family members from the Netherlands. Here is photo recording that event with the family car out front.

In July of 1953 they had an epic journey where they drove across the country, from Massachusetts to California to attend my parents wedding in Los Angeles.   On the way they stopped at Big Spring, MO in the Ozarks, the Will Rogers Memorial in OK, a ghost town (probably Jerome?) in AZ, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and Knotts Berry Farm in CA.  They continued their journey home through Northern California to see the Redwoods, up to Portland, Oregon then on to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore before returning home. I can’t imagine driving to all those places, especially in the southwest, without air-conditioning, or power steering!

In 1954 Klaus and Mary resigned from the poor farm, sold everything they owned and bought a small trailer. They then drove the Chevy and pulled that trailer from Massachusetts to Florida to start a new life in Clearwater as a grocery store owner with their daughter Ann.  Unfortunately, they were forced out by a large chain that opened across the street. At 47 years of age, he had lost EVERYTHING and returned to Massachusetts in 1955 to be close to family.

I only remember Paka driving a Volkswagen Bug. Since cars, to Pake, were a symbol of America, it seems odd that he developed a love for German engineered VWs.  However, he probably bought Bugs because they were cheap by comparison to other car models at that time.  A new Bug in 1958 cost $1545, where other cars cost upward of $2000.

I recently ran across a small article in the newspaper from the Boston Globe, that was dated 1959, about my grandfather:

“Klaus Dykstra of Div. 64 (refers to the number of the Building department that my Klaus worked for at Sears Roebuck & Co.) recently visited his son, who was promoted to Captain in the United State Air Force at Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia.  Klaus’s son is a Navigator in SAC and flies our newest bomber, the B-58 (I think that should be B-52).  An interesting sidelight of Klaus’s trip was that in the 2300 miles that he covered in his little Volkswagen, it cost him only $19.00 for gas, but $17.00 for tolls.  How about that.”

At about 23 mpg for a 1958 VW, that’s 100 fill ups for about $0.17 per gallon. How about THAT compared to gas today costing upwards of $4.00 per gallon.

Some of their other adventures included returning to Florida, to visit my family in Ft Walton Beach, in 1961 and again in 1974 to attend my father and stepmother’s wedding.  I can also remember them driving out to Omaha, Nebraska, for my high school graduation in 1973. They drove from Massachusetts in their maroon VW bug, with a young man who accompanied them on his 500cc motorcycle!

A comment from my cousin David: From the mid 1960s on he drove AMCs. He and I shared a love of cars. He made Beppe promise not to sell his 1974 AMC Concord after he died. He wanted me to have it. When I bought a BMW, she joked that he’d probably like to come back, not to haunt me, but to go for a ride.

My grandfather was an amazing man who lived through the voyage across the ocean as a small boy,. He grew up in hard times, lived through the Great War, the Depression and WW2. He worked hard farming and helping those less fortunate than himself as superintendent at two different Poor Farms in the area. He lost everything when trying to live his dream but was able to bounce back with the help of family, that was so important to him. Through this all, he loved America and the hopes living in this country could bring. His love of cars were his indulgence in to living the American Dream.

I’d like to give thanks to my cousin David for his insights and to friends who helped me identify some of the cars