My great grandparents Gertrude 'Gerde' (Miljander) and Anders Nelson on a spin around the family farm in 1922 in Painted Woods, North Dakota. They are abroad their 1921 Friend (convertible) Motorcar.

What you have here with a Friend Motor Car, it acts like a Ford, even wants to look like a Ford, used to swagger around acting like a Ford! But is in fact a rare 1921 car made by the Friend Motor Corp out of Pontiac, Michigan. The give-aways, though subtle, are the higher squared off back, different shaped fenders, different steering wheel, head-lights and the lack of high gills on the side of the bonnet, which made it prone to over heating.

It was a lower cost and a more efficient family vehicle made to compete with the Ford, thus designed to look very similar. The glass on the front of the head-lamps were molded into the same 'perforation' pattern as the front grill. Though in this photograph it looks like my grandparents haven't cleaned off the plains dust for months.

The Friend was an automobile manufactured in Pontiac beginning in 1920. Otis Friend had taken over the Olympian Motor Company in 1920, and manufactured the Olympian and he soon named the vehicle after himself. If he had stayed with Olympian, who knows it might have gone over better with the car buying public.

The Friend was shown at the New York Automobile Show in January 1921, it featured a four-cylinder engine, a 112-inch (2842mm) wheelbase, and had a five-seater, two-door roadster body. Wooden artillery and wire wheels were options.

The Friend originally sold for $1585. The price was reduced further to $1185, when sales had become sluggish. Unfortunately this had no effect and production ended with fewer than fifty cars built. A six-cylinder model was planned, but the company went out of business before any were manufactured.

Gerda and Anders emigrated to North Dakota from Landskrona, Sweden in 1902 and 1903, respectively. They brought there family over and enjoyed long lives on the Dakota plains. So here they are, driving their car on the family farm in Painted Woods, that acts, looks and swaggers like a Ford, one has to think back then, that was a big deal.