Great Discoveries

Two statements caught my attention as I read about this old fellow, Henry Ford. Everyone knows him as one of the fathers of automobiles – especially the Ford family of cars. He is noted to have said…

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.”
“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

Oddly enough in my life I started with a Ford – and these two statements were something that I lived before ever hearing or reading them.

The year was 1960 – I was sixteen and everyone that was sixteen had one passion – GET YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE! That job was completed in early May about two weeks after my 16th birthday. Nothing was more important than your freedom that came with your Drivers License.

Next to getting a license was to be able to buy a car. The costs were high for someone with no money and no job. At sixteen I had neither. My dad and I talked about it. He had been thinking about an idea that might get me a car. He knew of a man that had an old car that might be for sale.

Now I should explain here that Dad had bought his first car when he was young. I believe that he had bought it as a “kit” and had assembled it. He called it his “bug”. It was an early model Ford – somewhere in the 1920s – with no top and lots of room for people to sit wherever.

Dad suggested that I may be able to buy a car similar to the one that he bought as his first car. When I look back now I can see that he likely was planning this for some time. He knew where it was and hoped that we could get it…but it was to be my own car and I needed to buy it myself.

We traveled to Truax, Saskatchewan – the home of my mother. We went west of where the old farm was climbing up some low hills to the Ed James Farm. Ed was a classic of his time…a farmer/inventor that always did things a little different. He was odd or different from others around him. As we drove into the farm yard we were welcomed by a barking dog.

I think that Dad had called about the old car were going to look at that day. I just followed along as we walked out behind the barn to the old rusty car. There it was…with the roof caved in to a pile of sticks and old fabric that was now completely gone except for a small sample around the edge of the roof. The seats were now nothing but coil springs with all the fabric and upholstery gone. Everything was rusty and brown. The glass windows were okay but inoperable. It was sitting up on blocks with no rubber tires on. All that was below each fender was the old wooden spokes that the rubber tire was to be fastened to.
There in front of me was a 1925 Model “T” Ford. A “one owner” vehicle. Ed James had bought this car in 1923, in Detroit, Michigan from Henry Ford’s show room and factory. Then he had driven it home to Saskatchewan. However in 1923 it had been a “Touring Car Body” – which in modern day’s terms meant that it was a convertible. With the top down it would allow the air to whish through your hair around your face – along with the bugs etc.

It was cold in Saskatchewan and also dusty – an open car – the “Touring Car Body” was not comfortable and definitely not too clean for the ladies to sit in. In Detroit it would have been different.

Henry Ford had an offer made to all his Ford Owners – “If you drive your vehicle back to the factory in Detroit you will qualify for a body upgrade.” For a very small price you could have the body changed from a “Touring Car Body” to a “Tudor Body” – which simply was an enclosed vehicle with two doors and a semi soft/hard top made of wooden slats covered with a black canvass and then insulated below.

Ed James had driven this vehicle over 1500 miles to Detroit and had the body changed and then drove it home again. In a modern vehicle on very good roads you need at least three days to drive that distance – there were no stories how long it took Ed to drive that distance.

I stood beside Dad and in front of Ed James… Then Dad said to me, “It will be your car, you make the deal.” I stumbled a little and then asked Ed how much it was. He looked at me and simply said, “Well I don’t want to charge too much… how does $10 sound to you?” A big grin spread across my face. I can still feel the burst of excitement when Dad looked at me and said. “You can afford that much I am sure… good we will take it.”

Ed had the rubber tires in the tool shed – hanging all those years on separate hooks. They just needed to be pumped up. Dad and I took them to town to the garage that had an air pump.

I sat on an old empty fuel pail in my “new car” steering it all the way back to Regina – 60 miles… with my dad towing me with his 1950 Pontiac. I grinned from ear to ear for well over the two hours that it took to get the car back to the city.

When we got home I am not sure who was more excited me – or dad. We placed the spark coils in the box that held them, then we added gas to the old and very dry tank that had been empty for more than 20 years. I grabbed the crank and cranked the motor. It coughed once or twice and then roared to life. Dust came out of everywhere – rusty dust – but it was running. No top, no seats, and no life before but now it rumbled away just the way that it had done way back in 1923 and 1925. I think that the old car was smiling as much as I was that day.

For the next year I cleaned and sanded every part of the old car. I applied body putty and then sanded the new application over and over again. Then we had it painted. The top would come in the next year. I had a car and was able to drive it whenever the weather was good.

Old Henry Ford had said… many years before that…
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.”
“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

Nostalgia… yes…
I look back now and know that these words were what Dad had ingrained into me. Now the old car stood as a testament to what can happen all over again.

Sadly I sold that “old girl” for a whopping $150 two years later. I figured that I had made a killing. I had bought a newer old car – a 1937 Dodge Roadster Coup with silver wire spoked wheels and a rumble seat on the outside. It was only $75 and it also needed very little work on it. After one year with both cars there was no more room on the property.

As I write this today I kind of shudder at the thought of how much they might have been worth today… Oh boy…

Reflecting on Old Henry Ford today….
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

PS - Yes this is my old car shown here... sniff... sniff...