Ragtop

Greeting family and friends! Today's page from the Ralph Family Photo Album, "Rag Tops",  pictures some of the convertibles that our family has had over the decades and the small impact that one of our ancestors had on the auto industry.  Photo #1 - James Reber's 1903 Motor Car, Photo #2 - Dad at the wheel of "Mom's" 1949 Oldsmobile in 1953. Photo Number #3 - Me and sister Debi in my 1953 Ford circa 1959, Photo #4 - 1962 CVHS Homecoming Queen candidates with Jim at the wheel of a new Chrysler on loan.

Our albums are filled with photographs of family members with wheeled vehicles dating back to the turn of the last century and to Grandpa Swinnock pictured in his horse drawn buggy in rural Nevada and Grandpa Ralph in sporty open touring cars in Philadelphia. Automobiles have been a part of our family history beginning with our fourth cousin, James T. Reber who retired from American Bicycle Company in 1901 to form the Reber Manufacturing Company (changed a year later to Acme Motor Car Company) in Redding, Pennsylvania where he produced a succession of one, two and four cylinder Reber motor cars. (James shared great-great grand parents with our paternal grandmother Florence Reber). Reber’s products demonstrated advanced engineering beyond that of many of his competitors however there was no escaping the competition of the burgeoning automobile manufacturing industry and he built his final Reber motor car in 1914. His son James C. went on to form the Reading Metal Body Company producing aluminum bodies for a wide range of automakers specializing in elegant hand built limousines. Our grandparents, Charles and Florence Ralph of East Lansdowne, PA, owned a series of open motor cars in the teens, but it wasn’t until 1953 when dad bought his first convertible, a sleek green used 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 with a white “rag top” for mom. She generously let my brother Jim and I “borrow” it occasionally until we got our own cars. We would “custom” outfit the Olds with our own hub caps, Jim with spinners and me with metallic green moons. Gassed up and top down, the Old’s was usually dad’s car of choice for Sunday drives and and for Southern California road trips. My first car was a used 1953 ford convertible that dad picked up from a co-worker for $250. Spray painted red in our dirt floor garage by enterprising brother Jim, my rag top was soon known as “The Red Flash” (Richie had an identical  Ford convertible on Happy Days 15 years later). Of all of his cars Jim has had through the year’s he has never had his own rag top, however ironically he will be remembered by the Castro Valley High School Class of 1962 for escorting the candidates for homecoming queen around the football field in a brand new convertible lent by the generous local Chrysler dealer. I wonder if he checked for Jim’s Drivers license (?)