Where I come from, licensed car dealers can use temporary number plates to move unregistered vehicles on public roads. These plates are attached to the vehicle with leather straps. Could this vehicle be a trade-in or a new vehicle being moved with temporary plates? That might explain the lack of a spare tyre and the unused small bins.

[This would be one of the dozens of National Photo Company photographs commissioned by either Ford Motor Co. or one of its dealers in Washington. - Dave]

Top speed on the Ford TT with the standard single speed rear axle was only about 17 mph, but it was a heck of a lot faster than a horse and wagon.

This looks like a plumber or electrician's truck, although I can't figure out what the ventilated box above the rear window is for. Storing roadkill?

I've seen trucks like that, carrying plate glass. Here it is, parked in front of what may be a school on a summer's day.

The lurking urchins say, "Go ahead. Fix the window. We can wait" while the darkness of Hell (NOT creeping crud) reaches out for their souls.

Looks like it already has grasped our boy to the left by his ear and ankle. Will his friend escape?

Definite Our Gang vibe from this one. The towhead kid even looks like Jackie Cooper.

Aside: why doesn't Shorpy store account cookies? I have to log in manually every time I come to the site, frustrating.

[Shorpy does use cookies; they expire after 55 hours. So if you wait much more than two days between logins you will have to re-enter your username and password, which your browser should remember for you. - Dave]

What a day! The height of summer, sunshine all day long. These fellows hadn't a care in the world! I bet they stayed out until dark playing with their homebuilt truck. Today the same kids might play with a virtual truck, or car, on a video game. Not quite the same, is it?

Even in 1925 you couldn't leave your truck parked in DC without every blessed thing being ripped off. Including your spare.

It's perfect for an electrician or a plumber or anybody who has to haul a multitude of small parts and keep them organized, no matter how many hairpin turns you have to negotiate.

Lots of small bins on the side, which are conspicuously empty (some tradesman borrowed money to buy a new truck in 1925, and probably went bankrupt 4-5 years later). Still a narrow bed in the middle for the bulky stuff that you inevitably have to carry. I see pipe racks (could double as ladder racks) on both sides. I also notice the particularly fat (by the standards of the day) tires on the rear.

That would be a pretty sweet rig even today, except for the Model TT's inability to keep pace on the freeway.

The cut stone curb on the edge of the street is not unusual for the period however I don't think I've ever seen a cast concrete curb on the edge of a sidewalk.

[These granite curbs were, and still are, standard equipment in Washington. - Dave]