I was born in Detroit, Michigan in the spring of 1932. Although I’m sure that the date was printed on my build sheet I don’t know my birthday.(I never learned to read) They painted me a glossy black and I have five windows and two doors and I’m part of the famous Ford family. I was sold shortly after I was born for $490…not a small sum in those days of depression and I have 12410 siblings, although I must admit that I can’t tell my brothers from my sisters.
My very first memory is of a ride on a big truck to Mansfield, Ohio and a small Ford dealer there where my first owner, kindly Mr. Raymond paid for me in CASH! He was soooo happy, but I do recall that Mrs.Raymond was muttering about”…a whole new kitchen…” or something.
Nevertheless, she did pat my mohair seat as Mr. Raymond drove me home that first time.
I got washed so many times that first year I thought that my paint was gonna fade but I think that I was the shiniest car on Mulberry Street in 1932!
The years went happily by and except for needing a new battery and two sets of spark plugs I was “…the most reliable car in the world!” according to Mr.Raymond.
But alas and alack that fateful day came when my owner got what he called “car fever” and as we arrived at the same Ford dealer where I was first sold, I knew that it would be the very last time I would feel his gentle hands on my steering wheel. Mr. Raymond traded me in on a new 1938 Ford “Woody” station wagon with real wood on the sides and back. I have to admit that the woody was “snazzy” but I confess to being quite sad to watch it and Mr. Raymond drive away.
I was relegated to the back row of the used car lot and sat there for the whole winter of ’38. I missed traveling around and my rear left tire even went flat and stayed that way for a month before the mechanic patched my inner tube and re-inflated my balloon tire.
FINALLY…a nice young couple bought me in the spring of ’39 and once again I was getting regular baths and trips around Mansfield and even one long trip into Chicago. Wow what a city!
But soon there was a World War (number two) and cars weren’t being built so my new family, the Carters, kept me until 1950. Even though I didn’t get my gas tank filled very often and there were no new tires throughout that whole period we were pretty happy.
I mentioned 1950…that was not one of my favorite years because although I was bought by a WWII war veteran I didn’t get driven around much and I WAS getting older and eventually I was relegated to a small garage where I sat…are you ready for this?….for FIVE YEARS!!!
I didn’t see the sun…I was dusty and my tires dry rotted and cracked and even a few mice and squirrels…well, I don’t like to talk about it…it’s not nice what they did and where they went. Anyway…one bright sunny June day in 1955 the garage door creaked open and there stood this kid staring at me and saying…”Yeah…well, whadaya want fer her?”
“How about fifty bucks?”
“Give ya…forty!”
“SOLD!”…and I was.
I had to be towed to a new place that looked like a big barn and the kid whose name was “Jonesy” and his gang of buddies started pullin’ off my fenders and lowering my springs and they even took my flathead four cylinder engine away and put in this new “V8” which almost didn’t fit under my hood.They took off my chrome and put on new wheels and even gave me a new horn which sounded like “Ah-ooga” or something you might hear on an old Chevy.
But I DID notice that my sore springs weren’t sore and my flat feet weren’t flat anymore and I didn’t cough when they started me up. In fact, the very first time I was driven out of that barn my back wheels spun so fast my tires squealed. THAT had never happened before…EVER!
It was amazing…I actually felt like it was maybe the 1930’s again. We zipped all over town and had kids hanging all over me and on Saturday nights we went to the drive in and gunned my engine and hung around with all sorts of other makes of cars…Mercurys, Oldsmobiles, And even some Chevy’s (not a big fan of Chevy’s) plus some cars that were as old as I was. It was the most fun I ever had!
But one September day I’ll never forget…it was raining and since I had no roof anymore I was in the garage…my young owner came in and patted me on the radiator and said “Bye Old fella…I’m off to College and can’t take you. I’ll be back on holidays…maybe.”
And that was the last time I saw anybody human for….pardon me while I regain my voice here…ah…for 45 LOOONG years.That’s NINE times the amount of time I spent in the garage before. (I can’t read but I can multiply pretty well) Lonely isn’t the word!
Well, to make a long story a bit shorter, around 2005 I became a “barn find” and they even made a TV show about me being rebuilt for the second time in my life. I’ve got this 550 horsepower ten cylinder Hemi engine and great chrome wheels and a paint job that’s metallic purple with gold flames and now I’m the loudest, fastest, hottest hot rod you ever saw, going to shows and winning ribbons and getting photographed…I’m actually kinda famous.
So you see…no matter how old you are, as long as you’ve got somebody that cares about you…you can be the happiest you’ve EVER been!
If you see me blurring by….wave!