Great Grandfathers ID card from Model T Factory

I was just given this ID card from my gradfather of his fathers badge when he worked at the model T factory here in Detroit and I thought I would share.

He was a woodworker in the factory, from what I gather he worked on the wheels there after he came down from Mackinac Island where he was the island carpenter.

What really caught me was the cost of the replacement badge - $5 in 1918, that's the replacement cost of my work badge now, I can only ***ume its because of the cost of getting a picture taken then and/or a hell of a deterrent to lose it!

 

That's realy cool! But $5.00 that was a whole lot of money back then.

 

very cool. I love driving by the old plant on Woodword ans thinking about what it must have been like. My Wifes Grandpa used to by the seconds from the tire guys at the plant and sell them to service stations when he was a kid.

 

Wow, that's really neat, thanks for sharing! What a great piece of family history to have.

I had no idea they had badges for admittance way back then, especially with a picture!

 

Great history there. Thanks for shareing. Never get on HAMB that I dont learn something because members like you take the time to scan and post information and I for one really appreciate it very much.

 

Awesome post Probesport, glad you shared with everyone

~J

 

Very cool.

 

Neat! Thanks for sharing. You should see if you can scan/print out the entire thing into an 8x10.
The #'s make it resemble a mug shot.

 

That's Neat, Thanks for sharing.
Dave

 

Mr Rounds made wheels. lol

 

Thats a cool piece of faimly history your lucky some one kept up with it. But for 5 dollars I guess your grand dad was afraid to loose it lol

 

Good job Mr. Frank Rounds on helping build an iconic automobile.

and 5 bucks?? probably would have been cheaper to buy a new model T.

 

Five dollars is what Ford paid for a days pay around 1914, and that was way more that others at that time. Someone posted a YouTube of the Model T production line a while back, I remember there was a section on the wheel shop. Hopefully someone can find it and post a link. Thanks for posting the ID tag.

 

Love the 52!

 

very cool stuff , i love how in those days a picture even a work picture was an event to get dressed up for!

 

Video of wheel production line starts at 1:10 and goes to 1:50. Check out the guys hand sanding the wooden spokes. Rough work!

 

I keep thinking about how much $5 was back then. According to the CPI Calculator it is equal to $70.43 today!

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

 

Now I can finally complete my plan! I just need to scan a picture of myself onto that ID, then I can sneak into a Ford plant and get those parts I need...

 

Thanks for taking the time to post that. Very neat piece of history.

 

Ford implemented the "Five Dollar Day" in 1914. It had some interesting, often unreported strings attached!

Take a look: http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~ppennock/L-FiveDollarDay.htm

That badge is really neat! While you hear about the overview of the Ford ***embly line a lot, you rarely see or hear about the worker's daily lives. Thanks for sharing-

 

That's a really cool peice of family history. Thanks for sharing it.

1918 $5 = 2009 $70.43 Damn that's an expensive ID card.

 

That's an interesting read.

 

amazing. treasure this. i'm always amazed when i go to estate sales what family members are willing to sell. keep this one forever and continue the tradition of keeping it in the family.

and if you don't want it....... forget everything i said above and i'll gladly pay you the $5 bucks for it

-scott noteboom

 

That card was issued in 1918, and it has obviously been cared for. First, by the gentleman who it was issued to, and secondly, in the same fashion set from his example, by his family. Why? Because the man in that photograph earned every single cent he ever made, through a work ethic not common to today's society. He knew if he had to pay five dollars to the FoMoCo, that was five fewer dollars worth of groceries on his children's table. God bless him, he has surely earned his rest in heaven.

By the way: The average salary in 1918 was $2,500.00 making 5 dollars roughly $77.17.

 

great post!

 

and a time machine....................

 

Thanks for sharing .

 

Cool artifact. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

That's pretty cool, thanks

 

that's really cool.

wonder if those ever come up on ebay. bet they are really hard to find.