My Dad, John M. Peterson, was a Lt. in the Quartermaster Corps in Europe in WW II. After the war while he was still in Europe he had the opportunity to buy a jeep ("Army surplus" so to speak). In his autobiography he says, "I was able to buy an almost-new jeep which I could ship home under the new peacetime rules for officers transferring to and from Europe." Upon return home he and my mother moved to Boston where he attended Harvard University. The jeep was their main mode of transportation. In the autobiography he tells this story, "One icy day there was a traffic jam when cars were unable to climb the hump of a bridge over the Charles River. I ducked down a side street, and them drove my jeep on the sidewalk of stately Beacon Street, turned a sharp corner and got onto the bridge to help push two wheel-spinning cars ahead of me. This showed the advantages of small size and four-wheel drive!"
They drove it from Boston to Chicago ("in below zero weather") when he went to the University of Chicago to get his PhD. In Chicago they sold it at four times what he paid for it! It had been a very good investment. I remember my mother telling me that she hadn't been that fond of the jeep, though, because it was so open and cold in winter. Hopefully she never told him that!
My Dad, Mar 1946, waiting to be sent home after the war
My mother on the hood of the jeep, August 1946
My mother and friends in the jeep, August 1946
Another view of my mother and friends in the jeep, August 1946
My mother on the hood of the jeep, August 1946, you can tell that my Dad was proud of that jeep!
That's more pictures of the jeep than I've seen before! It looks great, but I have to admit that my first thought was of Boston and Chicago winters in an open car!
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