Touring memories in old cars

Paul and I wheeled Mom around in her chair to view the old cars parked around Fountain Square Saturday.

Mom’s probably met most of the show’s cars on some road she’s traveled during her 96 years of life. Most cars Saturday looked like they were far from the dusty roads they would have covered in their day.

Mom said the first car her family owned was a 1919 Model T Ford. It had the distinctive “new car” smell. Her father wanted to replace the horse and buggy transportation the family knew.

Grandpa had not driven a car of any kind when the salesman brought it out to the farm for him to see.

He got to handle it a little bit before the salesman took the wheel and drove them back into town to settle up. Mom worried whether her father could get the car back home since he’d have to cross a crooked bridge.

In the summer, the family rode the car “open,” but in the winter, the curtains made it cozy inside. Of course blankets helped keep the family warm as they ventured to church or to neighbors’ gatherings.

The 1929 Model A on the northwest corner of Fountain Square last Saturday brought a smile to Mom. It was much like the car Uncle Ben arrived in the night before he married Mom’s sister, Viola. Ben worked for an electric company and needed a car for his job, and perhaps, to impress his new bride and her family.

Mom remembered the car’s rumble seat. Rumble seat passengers basically rode outside the car, facing forward. Mom recalls her father and Uncle Ben later rode there while Aunt Viola drove some of the family to a wedding at a neighbor’s farm.

When Mom became a teacher, she drove a Model T with a starter. Once, after standing all day at school, it wouldn’t start. A neighbor came along who could crank it. He told Mom she’d probably not been able to crank it herself. People had cranking accidents.

My dad, 10 years older than Mom, got one of his first cars off the Michigan assembly line. He once owned a Star; Mom said it was more of a sports car in its day. By the time they courted, she thinks he probably drove a Model A.

For their 25th anniversary, my brother fixed up an old Model A or T and they drove that to their anniversary party.

My son’s fifth grade research paper was entitled, “Cars, From Novelty to Necessity.” The 1912 resource encyclopedia claimed cars would never replace horses because of poor roads, unreliable tires, and because horses were cheaper and just needed hay to keep them going.

Can you imagine the world’s history if the encyclopedia had been right?