THE MIGHTY SAXON
In the years following World War I, an uncle of mine bought a new “Saxon” automobile.
I don’t know what year the car was made, nor where, for sure. We were always allowed
to believe it was a German made car. I don’t know when post-war imports of the German
car were first renewed, but I do know that a Saxon Motor Company was formed in Detroit,
MI. in 1914 and lasted until 1922. “Unk”, as we called him, bought it “new”, I have been told,
and he paid a price which in those days was considered to be rather steep: price for it either
$2400 or $2600. It varied with different accounts. That was considerably more than other cars
cost during the early 1920’s. It was, I suppose, a “luxury” car for those days. The rest of the
family tended to looked at it as a bit of spendthrift foolishness for many years, as I recall.
We two boys came to love that car! We didn’t care where it came from. It was big,
fast and available.
“Unk” was not the easiest man in the world to get along with. He was my mother’s
younger brother. They grew up in Aspenwall , Pa. along the northern edge of the city of
Pittsburgh and moved to South Norfolk, Virginia around 1911. The “Saxon” Touring Car must
have been bought in the Norfolk area when Unk was , perhaps, in his early twenties. I would
1915 judging by a Saxon advertisement I have seen from an old copy of “The Literary Digest”
which Unk used to read. My Granddaddy footed the bill for the car wherever it was
purchased, I’m sure. My uncle was never one for working very much and, being a rather
spoiled Mama’s boy all his life, he didn’t have to. He usually got what he wanted even
thought it took a bit of time and careful parental manipulations to do so.
He was proud of that “Saxon”. too. He kept it clean, met its needs precisely and saw to
it, as far as I know, that it never spent the night outside of a protective garage except,
perhaps, on trips he’d take now and then.
We boys learned early that the way to get Unk in a good mood was to admire and
praise his fine car. And it was a long, high-slung beauty worth admiration ,too. It was black. It
had large wooden-spoked, cream colored wheels, it had a powerful horn quite unlike the
“ah-ooo-gah!” types we were used to hearing on older cars. Best of all, it had a high, unusually
wide back seat which extended well beyond the narrow, protective, two-sectioned, upright
windshield in front of the driver. We boys made those high perches our seats. There was
nothing like the thrill of scudding along a dusty road and feeling the wind in full force against
us. Ink must have bent a good many speeding laws in his time, especially when he “took the
boys for a ride.” He’d whiz down the dirt road, his eyes on the instrument panel and call the
speed back to us. Thirty miles per hour was “fast” in those days and he did sixty at times. Wow!
Years later Unk and his Mama moved away and the Saxon went with them.
I think it had six-cylinders and when it left our area it looked as new as ever. It was a pretty
car, very long and not overly brassed as so many early cars seem to have been in those early
days. It was with genuine heartbreak some years later when we heard the sad news that Unk
had traded the “Saxon” for new car. I won’t mention the name of the car he bought. It was
on the market for just a year or two and his version of it held together for a bit longer than
that, but not very much.
The harsh irony of it all is that is that the old “Saxon” Touring car is, probably, still being
driven at some antique car show this very day...high back seats and all...shined up...and
moving around as sassy as ever!
A.L.M. August 7, 2002 [c705wds]
