Ridge Route

Irvin Borders’ letter (Feb. 11)) may question the photo caption of your wonderful article (Feb. 1) on the “Old Ridge Route,” but I very clearly remember in 1927, at the age of 7, that my mother, who had one of the first driver’s licenses in the state, my brother and I drove the Ridge Route in a new 1927 Buick sedan, dark blue with black fenders, purchased from Howard Buick Co. on Figueroa Street, to San Francisco.

The trip was made in three days so my brother and I could see the interior of California. The trip was a learning experience, especially about overheating cars, which the Buick did on the Ridge Route. We learned to never remove the radiator cap as the steam might scald you. It did to my brother, but lucky for him, my mother had a bottle of mineral oil in her luggage and saved him from having any scars, except to his manly ego.

Borders may be right that nobody in his right mind would drive the Ridge Route in a sedan, but my mother, who died Jan. 13, 1987 in her 90s, had the American spirit of adventure.

LILLIAN KLEIN

Mammoth Lakes