Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Trail Along, Folks!

Creator: Don Russell (author)
Date: December 1933
Publication: The Polio Chronicle
Source: Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation Archives
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2


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1  

THE seven-year-old bus, known to hundreds of patients for its bouncing, wrenching, jerking, and bumping action, has at last been retired. In its place is something new and sleek, blue and long, a vehicle to comfort the soul and rest the gluteus of the most tired of polios; something to point to in pride and enter with assurance -- instead of sneaking up into with hurried apprehensive glances when a push boy boosted one in with a heave and a grunt. Really it is a pleasure to ride in this new chariot of ease.

2  

The patients' new aero-car to the pool (the official name is Curtiss Aero Car) is what is commonly called the trailer. Actually this is the aero car, a two wheel Pullman type car attached to a power car which in this case is a Reo coupe. Both the power car and the trailing unit are painted Biltmore blue, which in itself is a contrast to the mud black of the old bus.

3  

Entrance to the aero car is quite as easy as riding in it. There are two doors, front and rear, each double so that there is adequate width to run a wheel chair in the car once the ramps under each door have been pulled out -- in fact a medium width wheel chair can run in one door, roll down the aisle and out the other door, but who wants to run out of this bus? The front door is about five feet high and is intended for curb loading. The rear door is about six feet high, so that the tallest person may have no difficulty walking into the car. Once one is in the car there are parallel rails suspended about eight inches from the roof, above the aisle for polios to grasp for support in sitting down and rising from the seats. Above the windows on either side, is another rail for the same purpose.

4  

All these things help put one in a happy frame of mind but the thing that keeps one happy is the seating arrangement and the seats. The seats have air cushions which squeeze and ease one into place gently, very gently.

5  

Across the front of the bus is a divan -- call it a settee if you wish -- which will seat four large persons or hold a six foot stretcher with no difficulty. The back of this seat may be swung up, Pullman fashion, to accommodate another stretcher. Under this seat is a compartment to contain crutches. With their backs to the sides of the car, facing each other, are two rows of four individual chairs. Directly behind these chairs are two facing settees (divans) with individual arm rests which accommodate four persons each, or, if the arm rests are folded back, one six-foot stretcher each. In short, the bus seats twenty persons, or eight persons and four stretchers. Still another combination is two stretchers and sixteen persons. All the upholstering is in brown Spanish leather; the flooring is of a skid-proof composition.

6  

Our aero car is really versatile. Undoubtedly, this is due to its design representing the, combined efforts of the patients, the engineers of the Curtiss Aero Car, and President Roosevelt. Even the brakes are different; four-wheel hydraulics on the power car and electric brakes on the aero car, with fifteen adjustments from the dash of the power car for these electric brakes.

7  

Everyone likes this new mode of transportation, perhaps because it's smooth-looking, perhaps because it's easy to get into and to get out of. I like it because it's comfortable to ride in.

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