oldcarfudd

20+ years ago, I got back into the hobby after a multi-decade layoff. I bought a 1930 Model A deluxe roadster, a very presentable 20-footer and a good runner. I gave lots of rides. One weekend, the teenage girl across the street had her first Catholic communion, which I gather was a Very Big Event. Many families with kids came for the festivities afterward. I brought out the Ford, blew the a-hoo-ga horn and asked who wanted a ride. I was, of course, swamped. But one mother wouldn't let her kid ride because I had no seat belts. There's no doubt that seat belts have saved countless thousands of lives over the last half century or so. But come on, lady! We're talking about a 1.3-mile loop of a private lake on private roads where kids happily play in the streets and the drivers notice and pay attention. She must have thought that the ditches at the sides of the roads in 1930 overflowed with the rotting corpses of children hurled unbelted from speeding Model As. Isn't it a miracle that some of us survived!

Aww - w - w - w -

I take my stuff to the recycler in a '14 T, or a '12 Buick, or (once in a very great while) a Stanley. They all carry antique plates. Isn't that part of the fun?

I regret that the only picture I have of Jim Bowden's Oakland was when it had to use the vulture truck on a tour in 2013. I had been a passenger in the back seat. The car ran beautifully until the radiator sprang a serious leak. Remember, this was a TOTALLY original car that had been recently rescued from many years in a garage, and not yet driven enough for all the dormant gremlins to awaken.

Was it Jim Boyden's original 1913 Model 40 that you rode in? I've ridden in it, too. Helluva car!

edinmass would probably call you floor sweepings!

Wait 'til you want to get on a plane. You'll set off the alarms just getting out of the cab! I have two fake shoulders and a fake hip, and I've seen just about every kind of pat-down they've invented.

400 pages! Yowza!

I have, among other brass-era cars, an entry-level 1912 Buick. I bought it running, but needing pretty nearly everything. I paid an excruciatingly excessive amount of money to have it professionally restored. It won a First Junior at Hershey and a Senior at Carlisle. I have driven it on many HCCA tours, slowly improving its reliability. One of my pleasures is giving rides, especially to kids. But this car is a Southern wide-track. The way Buick built wide-tracks was to use standard width fenders, with extended splash aprons to center the fenders over the more-than-normally distant tires. (Some other manufacturers did it differently.) That produced a l-o-n-g step from the running board, over the splash apron, to the inside of the car. Kids can’t make that step; they scramble to climb in and out of the car. My once-perfect splash aprons now have scuff marks made by a zillion excited kids going for a ride in my neat old car. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

gwells, Thank you for that link. Great article about a great trip!

Are they all giants? I don't think of ordinary-sized people being able to tower over a 1930-ish car that way.

Whaddya mean, eccentric? I resemble that remark!

Peter, are you familiar with the Willys Overland Knight Registry? wokr.org. While they're mainly involved in Willys and related cars, they probably have some spillover into other Knight-engined cars.

I thought Ed drank Crown Royal. If so, that's Canadian rye, not bourbon.

My first wife came from Alice Springs. She knew it well.

It would be interesting to see the low-angle pictures the guy down on the ground was taking.

The guy in t5he shirt and tie has something in his shirt pocket. Would it likely have been on the left or the right?

In 1959, I toured a GM-Holden plant in Australia. More recently, a Honda engine plant in WV on a Model T tour and a Honda plant in Ohio on a VMCCA 1-and 2-cylinder tour.

Wonderful story. Some of us sure have it easier than others. Thank you.

This outfit, of which I had never heard, has put itself on the HCCA calendar. It seems to be a stealth entry, since there's been no notice or publicity of any kind. The museum and Bonham's want folks to sign up for a one-day tour on March 27 (brr-rr-rr!). 40 miles round trip Newport, RI to Bristol, RI and return. Pre-1907 cars. Breakfast, lunch and dinner included in some upscale places. Entry fee is a mere $1,250 for a car and two people. After 23.2 seconds of deep thought, I have reluctantly decided to pass on this offer.

Live and learn!

I didn't realize any Pans had even been built, let alone survived. Wasn't that a stock swindle for which the perpetrator did federal time?

I think Coker should bring back those tires!

And not in North America, from the license plate and odd headlights lenses/reflectors.