GOMER — Elvet Foulkes is 92.
His sister, Della Salter, is 97.
Four years ago, the Allen County man purchased a 1937 Chevrolet Standard. It was a car that provided him and his sister with special memories of their father, Thomas, a proud Welshman turned American citizen.
Thomas had emigrated to Ohio from Wales in 1921, three years after taking part in the trench warfare of World War I, and 10 years before Elvet was born.
At the war’s end, Thomas found that opportunity in his homeland was limited to the coal mines. So, with $200 in his pocket, he left the lovely hillsides of Mountgomeryshire, Wales, where he was born, and sought a new life in America.
That journey would take him to the flat lands of the Gomer area in Allen County, where he had relatives. But while America was the land of opportunity, life was anything but easy.
Thomas and his wife, Quartense, raised their family during America’s toughest economic times. The Depression of the 1930s and the rationing of the 1940s during World War II, saw the family eat only what it could produce on their farm. They saved everything salvageable, from the water in which they would drink, to the water in which they would bathe.
“We had no refrigeration,” Della said. “Mom canned things. The only time we had fresh food was when it was in season.”
At one point, Thomas became the proud owner of a tractor, but couldn’t afford to buy gasoline, so he farmed behind horses.
“You could hear him singing in the fields as he worked. He had the beautiful voice of a Welshman,” Della said.
Another war would come — this one World War II — and things wouldn’t get better until the Allies prevailed. That’s when Elvet’s family planned a four-day journey of eight hours traveling per day to visit relatives in Saskatchewan, Canada. Their nine-year-old Chevrolet Standard would be put to the test, taking them through the heart of Chicago and Minneapolis, into the Great Plains, and over the Bighorn Mountains as they completed their 1,530-mile trip.
“I met my paternal grandparents for first and only time, along with some aunts, uncles and cousins,” Elvet said. “They had chosen to live in Canada, where Great Britain offered people 640 acres for $5 to $10 an acre as long as they stayed on that land for 10 years.”
When it came time to return to Ohio, Elvet’s father became seriously ill and was unable to drive.
“We thought it was because he ate some tomatoes despite having an ulcerated stomach. But he just kept getting sicker and sicker,” Della said.
Later, the pain would be diagnosed as appendicitis.
“We were lucky this happened at a time when penicillin came out,” Elvet said.
Still needing a way to get the family back to Ohio, Elvet was drafted by his mom to take over the driving duties, despite he was only 15 years old and did not have a driver’s license. Della would help navigate as Quartense sat in the back seat, tending to her ailing husband.
“I can still see the look on my mother’s face as we drove on roads through the mountains that had no guardrails and large cliffs,” Della said.
The family made few stops on the way home and never ate at a restaurant during the entire vacation.
“I drove at a top speed of 55 miles per hour. We would buy baloney and bread for our meals, and would sleep in the small cabins along the highway,” Elvet said.
It was tough seeing a person of their father’s stature suffering in the back seat.
“Here was a brave man who operated a machine-gun during World War I. He killed many Germans, something that bothered him quite a bit,” Elvet said.
At one point during the war, his father was sent back to Wales on furlough. While there, he learned of two German prisoners of war who were working on a nearby farm. He spent the day with them. When he went to leave, he and the two Germans knew he was being shipped back to the battlefield. “They hugged each other and cried,” Elvet said.
After listening to his father’s stories, the fatality of warfare would never be lost on Elvet. World War I was one of the deadliest wars in history, with nearly 60 percent of those who fought in the war being killed.
Elvet believes his generation has seen more changes in society than any others. His 1937 Chevrolet Standard reminds him of that.
“We’ve gone from a time where people pulled together, to an era where if your beliefs have you saying one thing, I’ll automatically say the opposite,” he said. “And could you imagine someone farming behind a team of horses today. It would never happen.”
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