ADOdbapi converting all data to strings

[max]

I am trying to access a foxpro database, using odbc all is well except
that dates prior to 1970 are not returned as valid usable data, so
would like to use ADO. When I select data containing numbers (long or
float) they are converted and returned as unicode strings. Dates are
returned as datetime.date which is great. Is there any way to change
this behavior other than to explicitly change back all fields using
cursor.description information.

thanks,

max