The foundation and floor still exists where this old Aubrey Garage building stood. Notice in the photo that the old building had a second floor. If you look closely, you will see a railroad rail that is buried in the ground just in front of the boy on the far right with his hands in his pocket. I don’t know the story of the rail iron, but until just a few years ago, this rail iron still existed on the property line boundary.

I speculate that perhaps the rail iron that was driven into the ground may have been there for protection of the gas pump, which had a glass globe on top. It was probably planted there to prevent inexperienced drivers from running into the gas pump.

The boy filling the gas tank on this T Model is Garland Housden. He became an auto racing enthusiast at about this period of time and a little while later possessed the racer that was called "The Aubrey Spirit."

The business, Aubrey Garage, was owned by Olen Burk. The gas pumps of that day were operated by a lever that pumped about a quart of gasoline per stroke of the hand pump lever.

Also, you will notice that this was a full service garage because one employee is taking the hot cap off, to add water to the radiator. The unknown driver is patiently waiting for his full service.

The car is being filled up in the back, which indicates to me that it was not a Ford, as most of the Ford tanks were located just above the dash and under the windshield.

I do not recall this building in my lifetime, but I think it remained until the early 1930's.

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, there was not much going on, since we were in the midst of the great depression. Our families traveled to Denton occasionally to shop. Most families in the area did not have dependable transportation, which was the case of my family. My mother depended on Mr. Henry Lanford to take her into Denton to do her shopping almost every Wednesday.

Mr. Lanford was a very safe driver, which my mother especially appreciated. I looked forward to this trip with Mr. Lanford each week.

Mr. Lanford’s car was not a model T with the gas tank on the dash, but it held gas in the back of the car. When we would begin to go up the long and very narrow trail of the road up from the Clear Creek bridge between Green Valley and Denton, the car would not go forward up the hill because the gas would not flow up to the engine.

As kids we thought this was the most exciting part of the trip, because we rode up the hill with the car traveling backwards. The gravity of the gas would flow down to the engine while the car traveled in reverse up the hill.

We would soon be at the top of the Clear Creek Hill and on our way to Denton. Mr. Lanford never drove much more than 10 or 15 miles per hour. As a five-year-old, this was an adventure I looked forward to each week.