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1943 Jeep-O Clubs

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1943-07-07-leafchroncile-clarksville-tn-pedge2

This pledge for Jeep-O club drivers was published in the July 07, 1943, issue of the Leaf Chronicle out of Clarksville, Tennessee. This pledge appears to have been unique to the Clarksville area.

In April of 1943, the Kiawanis Club of Anniston, Alabama, started the Jeep-O Club, an effort to alleviate the transportation problem facing soldiers by pledging to give rides in their vehicles to soldiers who needed one. It was an early Uber system, only with volunteer drivers.

It’s possible the Kiwanis Jeep-O movement got is name from the previous November’s Jeep-O gram movement in Texas.

This photo shows an actual Jeep-O stop. It appeared in the April 15, 1943, issue of the Huntsville Times:

1943-04-15-huntsville-times-jeep-o-club-lores

By May, the Jeep-O club idea had already spread to 22 states:

1943-05-23-anniston-star-lores

A couple months later, in the July 07, 1943, issue of the Leaf Chronicle out of Clarksville, Tennessee,  the paper reported how a Jeep-O club was staring up there:

1943-07-07-leafchroncile-clarksville-tn1

On October 1943, the Barksdale Bark (out of Barksdale Field, Louisiana) reported that Barksdale drivers could obtain a special windshield sticker that would identify their vehicles a Jeep-O club members:

1943-10-30-barksdale-bark-louisiana-jeep-o-club-lores

It’s not clear to me how the Jeep-O concept evolved after late 1943, as the articles about it no longer appear. .

 

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