Sounds Like A Plan

Less than a week away from the 2009 Doughty 500 kickoff and things are starting to come together nicely. We still need a host for Thursday's happy hour, but other than that the details have been flushed out. Here's an itinerary update straight from the horse's Mike's mouth:

Mon
Hayward via Weyerhaeuser and Ladysmith Depart 0830
Lunch: Burdie's Bar & Grill in Weyerhaeuser
Arrive: 1530
Happy Hour Hosted by: Paul & Bernie
Dinner: Angry Minnow

Tues
St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and Spooner Depart 0830
Lunch: 1130 in Spooner @ Tony's Riverside
Arrive: 1600
Happy Hour Hosted by: Dave
Dinner: Family choice

Wed
Mx Group:
0830 - 1100 - Mx Training
1100 - 1300 – Lunch – Family choice
1300 - 1530 - Mx Training

Drive Group
Free play day: Self guided tour of Hayward or points beyond.
Happy Hour: Pay bar in auction room partially funded by Doughty Auction proceeds (A very worthy cause!)
Auction 1645-1745 Hosted by: Jay and Chad
Dinner: Flat Creek Eatery and Saloon

Thur
Cable and Namekagon Lake
Depart 0830
Lunch: 1130 outside Cable @ The Rookery Pub
Arrive: 1530
Happy Hour - Hosted by: ??????
Dinner: Family choice

Fri
Home to Eau Claire via Rice Lake, Chetek
Depart 0900
Lunch: 1130 in Rice Lake @ Family Choice
Arrive: 1600

Two Drink Minimum

The 2009 Doughty 500 planning sub-committee unanimously approved a plan to release funds from the rainy day account to jump start activity at Wednesday evening's auction. The plan calls for each person in attendance at said event to be provided with two vouchers that may redeemed at the bar in exchange for various and sundry beverages. The impact of this stimulus plan is expected to be felt immediately, especially given the historical record of the multiplier effect on the drinking activities of Doughty family members.

2009 Logistics Review

Attention, attention please. We've just received the official orders for Operation Doughty 500 2009 from the joint chiefs of staff. Please review and pass down the chain the command as appropriate. This is not a drill.

Doughty 500 – 2009 (Mike, Sean, and Tom)
July 27 – 31
Hayward, WI

Latest News:

-Hotel: 21 rooms are booked! (1 more than the block). Some rooms are still available. The name has changed--Now the Flat Creek Inn & Suites.

-Wednesday: Will be a "Hands On" Maintenance Training Day. The "younger" generation will complete a procedure (such as changing a timer) while the experts watch and advise. Subject areas to follow.

-Help Wanted: Please volunteer for the happy hour of your choice (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Also and Auctioneer for Wednesday night.

-Spread the word! Make sure everyone you think might be interested / coming gets the latest news. A hard copy is going out also.

-Water Bottles: We will have D500 water bottles again this year thanks to Chad and Danette.

Hotel:

Flat Creek Inn & Suites (formerly Ramada Hayward)
10290 Hwy 27 South
HWY 27 S & CTY RD B
Hayward, WI 54843 US

Phone: 715-634-4100
Fax: 715-634-2403
E-Mail: ramada-hayward@cheqnet.net
Rate: $85
Block #730

Itinerary:

Mon
Hayward via Weyerhaeuser and Ladysmith Depart 0830
Lunch: Burdie's Bar & Grill in Weyerhaeuser
Arrive: 1530
Happy Hour - Hosted by: –––––––––––
Dinner: Angry Minnow

Tues
St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and Spooner Depart 0830
Lunch: 1130 in Spooner @ Tony's Riverside
Arrive: 1600
Happy Hour - Hosted by: –––––––––––
Dinner: Family choice

Wed
Mx Group:
0830 - 1100 - Mx Training
1100 - 1300 – Lunch – Family choice
1300 - 1530 - Mx Training

Drive Group:
Free play day - Self guided tour of Hayward or points beyond.
Happy Hour – 1700 at Flat Creek Banquet Room (Pay Bar)
Auction: 1715 – 1800 Hosted by: ––––––––––––––
Dinner: Flat Creek Eatery and Saloon

Thur
Cable and Namekagon Lake
Depart 0830
Lunch: 1130 outside Cable @ The Rookery Pub
Arrive: 1530
Happy Hour - Hosted by: –––––––––––
Dinner: Family choice

Fri
Home to Eau Claire via Rice Lake, Chetek
Depart 0900
Lunch: 1130 in Rice Lake @ Family Choice
Arrive: 1600

That is all.

The Soul of the School

Bill Kauffman reviews the book "Small Wonders" which examines the rise and fall of the one-room schoolhouse:

Decades after consolidation had obliterated one-room schools, researchers discovered their advantages. The child in the small school is not just a statistic on a government chart. She receives "individual attention and recognition." She works at her own pace. She has, most important, a place. As Mr. Zimmerman remarks, recent alternatives to "the large, alienating modern school," from charter schools to homeschooling, have sought to foster "the snug, communal aspects of the one-room school." But the one-room-school model entails community control, which liberals and conservatives alike resist if the "community" sings from the wrong hymnal.

The idealization of the little red schoolhouse, Mr. Zimmerman concludes, reflects a rueful awareness that in modernity Americans "gained the whole world of technological conveniences and lost the soul of their communities."

Even after Mr. Zimmerman's unsentimental accounting of its defects, the one-room school shines in comparison with the over-large and remotely controlled warehouses in which too many children are educated today. Reading "Small Wonder," one wonders if Americans will ever tire of chasing after the gods of Progress and Bigness and rediscover the little things, red schoolhouses among them, that once gave us our soul.

Look For The Doughty Label

Danette is wondering if there is any demand for Doughty 500 water bottles again this year. If so, she needs to order the labels soon. Drop a note in the comments to share your thoughts or send her an e-mail at: dennissmithlan@centurytel.net

Fordlandia

Review in Friday's Wall Street Journal of the book Fordlandia by Greg Grandin (sub req):

Ford thought he could do better: He would create a vast rubber plantation in Brazil, thus ensuring a reliable supply of latex for his new Model A as well as for his Ford trucks and tractors. In the process, he intended to show the world that his system of production would also elevate the lives of his workers. Fordism, to him, meant rational organization, the regimentation of labor and the application of technology to produce more and more goods at an ever quickening pace.

In return for such demanding drudgery, Fordism required that workers be paid much more than the going wage scale. This largess (if that’s what it was) in turn allowed them to become ­consumers in their own right, buying the products they made and creating even more wealth for their employers. Fordism worked at the gigantic River Rouge plant in Dearborn. In Fordlandia, it was hoped, the company would gather the seringueiros into one place, where they would grow and tap thousands of rubber trees, hundreds to the acre. Ford would provide them with relatively high wages (to keep them consuming), the best medical care (to keep them working) and even ­recreation facilities (to keep them happy).

Back in 1922, the Washington Post—commenting on what its editors saw as a petulant factory shutdown in the U.S.—had defined Fordism as “Ford efforts conceived in disregard or ignorance of Ford limitations.” There was something to these words. When it came to Fordlandia, what the Americans and their Brazilian collaborators couldn’t do was overcome South American Leaf Blight, which started attacking the trees as soon as they matured. An infestation of very hungry caterpillars only added to the challenge. During its best years, Fordlandia’s three million rubber trees produced 750 tons of latex; but every year the Ford Motor Co. consumed more than 50 ­million tons.

And Ford’s dictates to his employees in the Amazon came to be resented. The Brazilian workers didn’t like being made to eat in company mess halls, where they were fed a diet of oatmeal, canned Michigan peaches and whole wheat bread. They were humiliated to have their living quarters constantly inspected for cleanliness and their bodies inspected for venereal disease. They were angry that U.S. Prohibition was enforced in wet Brazil, where liquor was legal.

Ford clashed with the Roman Catholic Church, declining its offer to run Fordlandia’s schools. So when the American managers asked an itinerant Catholic priest to preach against alcohol he replied: “For heaven’s sake, I’m not a Baptist.” And forget the Lambada, or whatever its 1930s ­predecessors were: In Fordlandia entertainments featured American square dances.

Romantic Fools

PJ O'Rourke on The End of The American Love Affair with Cars:

The American automobile is—that is, was—never a product of Japanese-style industrialism. America's steel, coal, beer, beaver pelts and PCs may have come from our business plutocracy, but American cars have been manufactured mostly by romantic fools. David Buick, Ransom E. Olds, Louis Chevrolet, Robert and Louis Hupp of the Hupmobile, the Dodge brothers, the Studebaker brothers, the Packard brothers, the Duesenberg brothers, Charles W. Nash, E. L. Cord, John North Willys, Preston Tucker and William H. Murphy, whose Cadillac cars were designed by the young Henry Ford, all went broke making cars. The man who founded General Motors in 1908, William Crapo (really) Durant, went broke twice. Henry Ford, of course, did not go broke, nor was he a romantic, but judging by his opinions he certainly was a fool.

America's romantic foolishness with cars is finished, however, or nearly so. In the far boondocks a few good old boys haven't got the memo and still tear up the back roads. Doubtless the Obama administration's Department of Transportation is even now calculating a way to tap federal stimulus funds for mandatory OnStar installations to locate and subdue these reprobates.

100K For A Good Cause

DeeAnne is cycling 100 kilometers to raise money to fight diabetes. You can find out more about this event and donate here.

Aught-Nine Tour Information

(Courtesy of Mike)

The Doughty 500 2009 basics have been established. Below are the dates and hotel info.

Doughty 500 – 2009 (Mike, Sean, and Tom are the cruise directors)

Date: July 27 – 31

Location: Hayward, WI

Hotel:
Ramada Hayward
10290 Hwy 27 South
HWY 27 S & CTY RD B
Hayward, WI 54843 US

Phone: 715-634-4100
Fax: 715-634-2403
E-Mail: ramada-hayward@cheqnet.net

20 rooms
Rate: $85
Block #730

One Hundred Years

An article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal called This Car Changed America (subscription required) celebrates the upcoming 100th anniversary of the sale of the first Model T (Oct. 1 1908):

One could start a lively debate among historians about which car is the second most influential in American history. Perhaps the Chevy Corvair, which launched Ralph Nader, the consumer movement and the litigation explosion? Or the Volkswagen Beetle, the official car of the 1960s counter-culture? Or maybe the Toyota Prius, which might lead to cars powered by electricity and fuel cells?

But there is zero question about which car has had the biggest influence: Henry Ford's Model T, which went on sale 100 years ago, on Oct. 1, 1908. The Model T put America on wheels, created mass mobility, revolutionized mass production, established the American middle class and eventually reshaped the country's physical landscape with suburban sprawl. Over a two-decade run more than 15 million were built, more than any other car in history except for the Beetle.

The Model T followed Ford's Model R and Model S, adhering to the fledgling company's convention of naming cars after letters of the alphabet. Even before it went on sale, dealers had ordered 15,000 Model T's -- more than twice as many cars as Ford Motor had sold the entire previous year. Henry Ford, who was 45 years old and only modestly successful when the T was introduced, promised dealers that the car would be reliable, affordable and versatile. He was right.

The Model T's two-cylinder engine produced 20 horsepower, less than some of today's John Deere lawn tractors. But to a farmer used to harnessing two or four horses to a plow, having the equivalent of 20 horses must have seemed a quantum leap. The car could cruise at 45 miles an hour at a time when that speed felt plenty fast on America's rough roads. It got 15 to 20 miles on a gallon of gas. There were two gears, plus reverse. A chassis crafted of a new type of steel, vanadium, made the Model T lighter but stronger than other cars of its day, and it was the first car with fully interchangeable parts, which made repairs easy and inexpensive.

The first Model T cost about $850, compared with the price-tags of $1,000 or so on comparable Chevrolets. Until 1913 the Model T was available in four colors: red, green, blue and black. But that year Mr. Ford invented the moving assembly line and, with it, modern mass production. He decided that using just one color would further enhance efficiency, and famously declared that customers could have "any color they want, as long as it's black."

A year later Mr. Ford began paying his workers the unheard-of sum of $5 a day, and the American middle class was born. By 1922 Mr. Ford had cut the price of his Model T to $250, while competitors were charging closer to $300. One of every two cars in America -- indeed, in the world -- was a Ford. Mr. Ford had made good his pledge: "I will build a car for the great multitude. No man making a good salary will be unable to own one, and enjoy with his family the blessings of hours of pleasure in God's wide open spaces."

Model T's could be -- and were -- converted into speedsters, tractors, fire engines and delivery trucks. New companies made Model T accessories; one allowed the engine manifold to be used as a cooking grill, another powered saws for chopping wood. The Lamsteed KampKar, a forerunner to the Volkswagen micro-bus, was a $535 kit that converted the Model T into a camper, with beds, stove and running water. The KampKar was made by Anheuser-Busch during the 1920s, when Prohibition forced the brewer into other lines of business.

Model T's became such an American staple that "The Original Ford Joke Book" was published in 1915, poking affectionate fun at the car. One entry:

It maketh me to lie down beneath it.

It soureth my soul.

It leadeth me in the paths of ridicule for its name sake.

Yea, though I ride up the valleys, I am towed up the hills.

Over the years, Ford regularly improved the Model T, with such additions as headlights and electric starters. What didn't change were key design quirks, which eventually made the car obsolete and allowed General Motors to pass Ford. The Model T had three floor pedals: a clutch, a reverse pedal and a brake. The accelerator was mounted on the right side of the steering column, where turn signals often are found today. The car never did get turn signals; drivers used hand signals instead.

The car was nicknamed the "Tin Lizzie," explanations for which vary. Eventually it was made in 19 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, India and Japan. "It was the first world car," says Robert Casey, curator at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., and author of an excellent new book, "The Model T: A Centennial History."

Model T enthusiasts gathered in late July on a fairgrounds in Richmond, Ind. -- home of the Model T Club of America -- to celebrate the car's 100th birthday. Among the 800-plus Model T's on hand was a Lamsteed KampKar belonging to Peter and Sally Kable, who shipped it from their home in Kiama, Australia, to Los Angeles. Then they took nearly six weeks to drive it to Indiana, camping out many nights, just like the "tin can tourists" of years past. Eric Gould drove his Model T from Monroeville, Ala., also the hometown of Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- a book that changed America in its own way.

Also attending the celebration was Edsel Ford II, a member of Ford's board and a descendant of Henry Ford. "I am thrilled to be with the keepers of my great-grandfather's legacy," the 59-year-old scion told the crowd. The Model T succeeded, he added, because it was "a product that delivered freedom." Near the end of his remarks Mr. Ford grew choked with emotion, clearly and deeply moved by the occasion, as indeed was his audience. The loudest applause came when Edsel introduced a tall, friendly 28-year-old junior purchasing analyst for Ford Motor who happened to be his eldest son: Henry Ford III.