Historic photo shows garage in between the wars
An historic photo taken some time between the two world wars has found its way to local historian Christine Clement.
The photo is one that belonged to the late Doris Hintz, who is one of the people in the photograph. Her son Melvin passed it on to Ian Vercoe who in turn gave it to Christine.
Te Puke Motors was located at the corner or Jellicoe St and Boucher Ave where Think Water is now. It was previously called Bostock and Vercoe.
A note on the back of the photograph says it was taken around 1930 and gives the names of the people in it.
Melvin says his mother worked at Te Puke Motors from leaving school as the “office girl”, and she would have been around 20 when the photograph was taken.
He says the garage used to issue drivers’ licences. On one occasion the owner asked his mother to drive one of the cars.
“The boss wanted her to shift a car one day and take it up town and she said ‘I haven’t got a licence’ and he just wrote the licence out and said ‘now you’ve got one’. She never sat an official licence like you have to do today and she drove for about 70 odd years on a licence that she never sat for.”
Also in the photo is local baker Bob Bell who had a shop near the current site of the BP petrol station.
Just to the west of Te Puke Motors was the office of Te Puke Times and across the other side of Boucher Ave, where the Countdown supermarket is now, were the old borough council offices.
The Hintz family came to Te Puke in September 1918.
Do you have any historic photos you would like to share? Call or email us on (07) 926 1035 or news@tepuketimes.co.nz