"N" Is For Nash, (Lost and Found, No. 14)

                                           An original mixed-media painting, on illustration board
                                            3.5x5", ( mat size, 8.5x10")
                                            $45.00, (plus $10.00, pack & ship)

     "N is for Nash, and P is for Packard, and S is for Studebaker, and W is for ....."

     In the late 1930's, perhaps that kind of memorization was used to help children learn
their letters. when they were playing with their alphabet, building-blocks and toy cars.
Those were the days when practically all the cars on America's streets and highways
were the proud products of American car companies.  Sadly enough, for American
workers, the time would soon come when many of those proud names would be gone.
After World War ll, the overpowering competition from foreign and domestic car
makers, swallowed up many of the once-proud, brand names, and now we are left
with only vague memories of so many of those gleaming icons which once ruled
America's roads.

     The tiny, toy car in this miniature, which I found in the bottom of a long-forgotten
toy-box, dates from those years shortly before the war.  That was in the days before
war-shortages of commodities such as metal for castings and rubber for wheels, made
the manufacture of such toys a rarity during the early 1940's.

     The little toy car appears to have traveled many an imaginary mile in the busy hands
of the two small boys of the household at that time, who were my brother and I, living in
a much more carefree age.  The car suffered some paint loss and is a bit bent,  but
it still rolls on its original wheels, even after more than seven decades of waiting for a
child to come along and take it out for another ride.

     They made them well in those days. They made them strong, durable and reliable:
the cars, and the toys........and brothers.