License Plate Please? (Day 15)

This license plate is from my Grandpa’s car.  It will hang in a section of license plates from the 1930’s in the Civil Life Pub.  I also have a license plate of his from 1976.  Story below. 

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So my Grandpa Basler worked for Ford Motor company as a car salesman for over 60 years and I wish I had license plates from every car he drove.  His first car was a Model T and I remember him telling stories about how they would constantly be fixing their Model T’s with practically anything they could find.  Mechanics back then were much more resourceful and the Great Depression of the 1930’s meant if you had a car, you pretty much had to fix it without spending a lot.  

My grandpa was quite the likable chap and spent a good portion of his life serving as Mayor of the great town of Bloomsdale, MO.  During this time he made $1.00 a year for his services. He grew up in a house on the main road through Bloomsdale and when he married my grandmother he built a house next door.  So for 94 years he lived within 100 yards.  He met Harry Truman once, had a possible meeting with some guy named scarface and spoke about driving car loads of sugar up from Bloomsdale to Missouri during Prohibition.  

He was one of the kindest men I have known and he would have loved to come to the Civil Life.  He and my grandma lived a simple life in the country...canning their vegetables, living off the land and believed in the reduce and reuse long before it was common place.   In many ways, my business is named after the way he led his life.  He was one of my greatest cheerleaders when I owned 33 and there wasn’t a time we were together that he didn’t stop trying to introduce me to someone if people were around.  But my favorite times with my grandpa were always after we had finished some chore and would walk back into his basement and he would head to the refrigerator and grab a beer. He didn’t drink much but he definitely understood that there are times a beer just feels right.

The first drink at 33 was poured to him and my grandma.  It is with great pride I put his license plate up on our wall.  Right now it is hanging behind the bar.  It will be joined by a license plate of his and several others I collected from the 1930’s and 40’s.

Here’s to my Grandpa and to one of America’s greatest generations.

Cheers!