Gus and the Model Garage

[twas_brillig]

Popular Science magazine ran a column each month from 1925 to 1969 entitled 'Gus and the Model Garage', wherein Gus would solve a mechanical problem as well as participating in life.

A chap named Mike Hammerberg has spend the last few years putting all of the 'Gus' stories up on the following site: https://www.gus-stories.org/index.html

I'd hoped that they were, perhaps, available in hard copy as a Christmas present for my 93 year old Dad, but no luck. Instead I've printed off one from each decade and will be putting them under the tree for him.

Figure that there's a few grey hairs on this site who would have read Gus at some point in their lives; so, if you're stuck for something to put in the Christmas card....

Doug

 

[startech47]

Got me started on cars.

 

[davester]

I loved reading Gus. I didn't get my license until 1970 but that didn't stop me from dreaming about having a car while reading Popular Science in the late '60s.

 

[aeronca65t]

Wow!

Gus, Smokey and Tom Cahill (at Popular Mechnics) were my favourites growing up!

Thanks for the link.

 

[Westfield_XI]

I still remember one of those stories.... Gus fixed a problem a guy was having with his car cutting out by taking the car key off his 1/2 lb. bundle of work keys. Because of that I don't put any keys but car keys on my key ring to keep it lighter. It's funny how little things from your childhood can change your behavior.

 

[JPSmit]

I still remember one of those stories.... Gus fixed a problem a guy was having with his car cutting out by taking the car key off his 1/2 lb. bundle of work keys. Because of that I don't put any keys but car keys on my key ring to keep it lighter. It's funny how little things from your childhood can change your behavior.

Not Gus but I remember when I was 16 or so someone accidentally taking my dad's coat instead of his own out of the church Christmas eve. The coats got sorted out but we had to walk home on a beautiful but really cold snowy night. I've never left car keys in a coat pocket at church or otherwise since.

And, I love the Gus stories - I also remember

 

[Guest]

Got some old PM's here. Cahill was a charater !!! Some of the things he says sounds like out of an old black and white private dick movie.

 

[Westfield_XI]

I think that being "hard boiled" was like being a "gangsta'" is today: everybody still wants to be tough guy!! . Did people in those days really talk in real life like they did in the old movies? All that rapid fire banter and patter?

 

[terp83]

Doug

Thanks for the info on the site--I now have it saved as one of my favorites. It seems as though we always had a subscription to Popular Science when I was growing up. I'm sure that there are several episodes in which Gus Wilson has long ago solved some of the problems that have been more recently discussed on BCF.

I am looking forward to reading each and every episode, and experiencing automotive history through the period that these episodes were published.

Jerry

 

[AngliaGT]

I remember those stories well.Wasn't there one concerning
a TR3?

- Doug

 

[DrEntropy]

What a great link! Thanks brillig!!

Between PS and PE I was always busy tryin' ~something~ out. Da was a subscriber from an early age, early '30's. He kept it coming thru my youth. Mother would sometimes be less-than pleased with our machinations, but over all it was a positive influence. The other mags he made sure were in the house with regularity were NatGeo and Scientific American, Fortune, Playboy, LIFE and MAD... :wink:

This rattled a few synapses: Dad's dad was a "Lifetime" member of NGS, missed the first year or two but had the rest cataloged and in book cases in his basement, for reference by any of the grandkids to peruse. The volumes had to stay in his home and be read in his presence... no 'dog ears', no defacing the material. He left us in 1968, the guy was literally a walking encyclopedia.

Now it's iPods an' texting wot occupy kids' heads. Something's lost, methinks.

 

[Sarastro]

I never read the Gus Wilson stories that much, but I do remember reading everything Tom Cahill wrote that I could find. He had a colorful, irreverent writing style, which I enjoyed immensely. He said a lot of things that the bean counters wouldn't allow today, for fear of offending the advertisers. Especially, he was blunt in criticizing American cars ("Michigan mugwumps" was the term he used) in comparison to British ones. That, more than anything else, got me started on British sports cars.

Compare that to the automotive press today, who think that a "sports car" is just a mini American muscle car with a little better handling, maybe. The difference between those guys and the ones writing today is the difference between yesterday's LBCs and today's dreary selection of modern automotive hardware. I think the two are related.

 

[AngliaGT]

I believe his name was Tom McCahill,& the most memorable line
for me was about a Wite 4 door Maverick.He described it as "The-
perfect car to rob a bank in - eyewtnesses would only describe
it as some kind of,White 4 door American car".
That's how I felt about my '72 Yellow Cortina MKIII.

- Doug

 

[Sarastro]

Yes, you're right. I had been trying to remember his name, which had slipped my mind until this thread appeared. (Lots of things do that these days.)

The guy had quite a life; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_McCahill.