Is reading this “God is watching me at my level” wrong? Is anachronism in understanding anachronical?
My mother started reading this short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald “What to do about it”, published in 1933. What’s happened to a 1927 bicycle wheel after it was stuffed into a tirelock?
Following the break up with the car, after he’s disarmed, the car starts pulling itself up and the driver gets up the engine. Immediately after we know the car is his. Now he’s used a “chisel” for it, and is slowly disassembling the car. No burglar happened for a month. And we are supposedly given an explanation, what the
car arrived in that state at…? When he turned over into the lane from the main road, he became aware that the rubber had yielded gently to the pressure of time, thus accounting for the innacuracy of the steering wheel.
Afterwards, he finds a “gong” (which seems to be some kind of device to screw bolts in a wheel), and he uses it to hit the chisel onto the tire-lock:
Bill adjusted the chisel and the gong—it was curious thing he found under the seat that he thought of as a gong because it gave out a ringing sound—and struck a discouraged blow. To his surprise the lock yielded
So I’m left very confused. I don’t know if the problem is whether I don’t understand the story, the words, or maybe history. If the tirelock happens when the wheel is bent or flat. How do you catch it? Was it possible that they had used tire locks as they were repairing their cars in the 1930s? What are the best places to ask this question on history forum?
What else could I suggest for a free newsletter?
In I’d Die for You and Other Lost Stories, published by Scribner, a compilation of unpublished stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we find this entry in the Explanatory Notes : 41
1955 tire lock: In 1958, the Ford Model T, was discontinued and replaced by the Model A. Of course, some other cars were of course widely available in America then, but a young doctor with no money would have been constrained to the most affordable. If the Ford Model T was discontinued, would it have changed since To quote for the car’s wear, it is 7 years old. Typical for a small car. The tire-lock held firmly in place, to prevent easy theft.
So, as Lambie pointed out in the comments, the character is trying to unstick the tire-lock. How do we take a look at the 1927 Ford Model T. if we look at the paint on that car, we can see that the spare tire had been locked a block deep inside the car.
What is a story?
