Has this happened to you?: Are you the original owner?

[JD in CA]

So today I had the 30 and 34 out, getting ready to put them in the barn.  Some folks walked by, admiring the 34 and asked me:  “wow, it’s amazing.  are you the original owner?”  
 

well, I turn 60 in November.  If I happened to be well off at the time, and 20 years old when I bought it,  today I would be 106 years old....didn’t think I looked that bad...thanks lady....

[edinmass]

JD......great town you live in.....almost moved there 20 years ago. I’m sure you don’t look a day over 95! Nice truck. Sure did miss PB this year. See you next year. Ed.

[1937hd45]

Great photo! Really like it when there is a great background behind the cars. Like Ed,  we  missed not having a week in Carmel/ Monterey. 2021 can't get here fast enough. Bob 

[keiser31]

I'm only 68 (next month), but I get that question a lot.

[Mark Gregory]

I have never been asked that question.

 

But a few years ago I was working on my Reo Royale on the driveway. 

 

And a 5 year old girl came by and said you should go to the car store and buy a new car.

 

I agreed with her and said you are absolutely right.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Mark Gregory (see edit history)

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

Several times when my wife and I are at a car show she has been told “it is nice you come to the car show with .your father” or she has been asked “did your dad restore that car?”. Ugh....I’m 66, she 64.

[JamesR]

2 hours ago, JD in CA said:

So today I had the 30 and 34 out, getting ready to put them in the barn.  Some folks walked by, admiring the 34 and asked me:  “wow, it’s amazing.  are you the original owner?” 

 

 

And you didn't say, "YES" ????????

Dude, those opportunities only come along once in a life time! 😄

[oldcarfudd]

I used to get that question all the time.  My collector cars range from 106 to 116 years old.  Now I turn the tables.  Someone asks me how long I've had the car and I say: "I suppose I can't convince you that I bought it new."  They look at me funny, and we both have a good giggle.  I'm contemplating getting a skeleton to put in the passenger seat with a sign:  "Original purchaser. Died of carowner virus."

[rocketraider]

My Pontiac bud and I are 5 yrs apart in age. At 59 his hair is still dark. I'm 63 and mine's been white for over ten years. We walk swap meets and I am invariably taken for his father.

 

Going gray/white early does have its perks. I've been getting senior discounts for years!🦳

[nzcarnerd]

2 hours ago, keiser31 said:

I'm only 68 (next month), but I get that question a lot.

 

As it happens I will be 68 next month too - 6 Oct.

[John_S_in_Penna]

4 hours ago, JD in CA said:

Some folks walked by, admiring the '34 and asked me:  “wow, it’s amazing.  are you the original owner?”  

 

Some folks don't think.

 

I expect they'll be among the ones voting in November...

[Chris Bamford]

I've been asked that question re my '47 Dodge and '26 Ford (which would put me at -8 and -29 years old at birth, respectively).

 

Anyhow, the original owner of my '26 T is no longer has his license, but still enjoys the ride:

 

 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

9 hours ago, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

Several times when my wife and I are at a car show she has been told “it is nice you come to the car show with .your father” or she has been asked “did your dad restore that car?”. Ugh....I’m 66, she 64.

 

 Bet she smiles.  

 

  Ben

[J.H.Boland]

A friend would get asked if he bought his 1909 Model "T" new, and his response was "yep,and I've only got three payments left" !

[60FlatTop]

I get asked all the time. But I have only bought a couple of cars that were actually "old". My keepers were about 15 years old when I bought them and we got old together.

 

 

Look closely at the features of the owners in these two pictures. They really could be the same couple.

 

The caption goes. "You almost made me bust when you told the city slicker you selling the Buick for money to fix the porch."

Edited September 27, 2020 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)

[JD in CA]

All part of the fun, parking somewhere and talking about the car, let people sit in it, take pictures, meeting people

[Aaron65]

That DID happen to me once.  I bought my '53 Buick in 2005, when I was 28 years old.  When I was in my early 30s, an older gentleman asked me if I was the original owner.  I very rarely am left without a snappy comeback, but I didn't know what to say.  The only other time I was that flabbergasted by a question or comment in public was when an older lady looked at me on a Sunday morning in a grocery store parking lot and said, "You look like I feel!"  Well OK then.    

Nothing like keeping a fella down to earth!

[46 woodie]

Yes, I have had someone ask if I was the original owner of my 1946 Ford Station Wagon, but I was born in 1947 so of course the answer was no, I'm not. Another unbelievable question asked of me was this. I was just leaving a cruise night and had a "Big Band" CD on the cars radio. A lady stopped me and started asking questions about the car and heard a Benny Goodman tune on the radio. She then asked me if I could only get music from the '40s on the radio or will it pick up modern songs. I just looked at my wife and did my best to not break out laughing.

[John_Mereness]

My favorite is when someone is all excited and asks me: Do you know this is an Auburn  ?  Interestingly, Yes, I do know. 

 

 

 

[John_Mereness]

2 hours ago, 60FlatTop said:

 

 

Wonder what the dog looked like ?

[60FlatTop]

2 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:

Wonder what the dog looked like ?

 

The same. The people just got dressed and posed for the sale.

[Graham Man]

My favorite was pulling into a car show...  A gentleman in his late 80's said "How did such a young guy like you, get an old car like that?"  I just smiled and said "Lucky I guess".

 

[keiser31]

Apparently, some of the Dodge Brothers Club members think I am about 116 years old.

[John_S_in_Penna]

3 hours ago, 46 woodie said:

 She then asked me if I could only get music from the '40s on the radio or will it pick up modern songs.

 

"Yes, this radio is from 1946, so it only picks up

radio waves that left the studio 70 years ago."

[Grimy]

6 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

"Yes, this radio is from 1946, so it only picks up

radio waves that left the studio 70 years ago."

This actually happened to me about 20 years ago.  A sister-in-law from southern Indiana (a blonde, too!) rode in my 1936 Pierce-Arrow with factory radio, whose speaker is in the header above the windshield.  At the time (sadly, no longer) there was a single local AM radio which played favorites of the 1940s and pre-rock 1950s.  I turned on the radio, the tubes hummed, and finally there was music--from the 1940s. SIL said, "OH! It's playing old music!"  I replied, "It only receives old music, it won't play anything newer."  She fully accepted that explanation.  She is a sweet person, however...  🙂

[Hans1]

About 1976,  I had my wife and 7 year old daughter in the garage to hear the Majestic 66 radio in my 1932 Essex Terraplane playing music.

 

Daughter asked if it was playing antique radio waves !

 

 

[John_Mereness]

The other disappointing one for people is when they run across my mom driving something (usually if her car is being serviced - which happens less these days as she will no longer allow dad to buy her cool things when she found the joy of a Honda and only taking it in for oil changes or she has some sort of charity function where they have asked her to bring something) and they are so excited to have her reply - "just a car, we have garages full of them, I have owned hundreds of them since I was married."  And, there have been a few that the reply is "not when you would have to take care of it" - those do not stick around too long. 

 

Thing you have to open the hood to turn off the gas do not last around real long either. 

 

Or Brass cars

Edited September 27, 2020 by John_Mereness (see edit history)

[padgett]

Now you have to open the hood to turn off the battery.

[Restorer32]

Had a neighbor who told another neighbor that it was a shame we could not afford a car newer than the '28 Cadillac we had at the time.

[Mark Wetherbee]

On 9/26/2020 at 10:19 PM, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

Several times when my wife and I are at a car show she has been told “it is nice you come to the car show with .your father” or she has been asked “did your dad restore that car?”. Ugh....I’m 66, she 64.

Here’s a downer on those same lines:

 

A few days ago my wife came home with tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard, one of her students who lives in our neighborhood asked how her grandfather was doing, so she said her grandfather wasn’t around now and didn’t understand where it came from. So the boy said “your grandfather, isn’t he the old man who lives with you and is fixing that old car” - In all his sincere innocence. I could only laugh too.

 

I do have to add that my wife works with physically and mentally challenged children in the school’s and we are probably about the same age as his grandfather is but it still stings a little...

[Buick35]

When my son was about three years old I was holding him in my arms at the flea market and some guy said"that looks like grandpa's boy"!

[Brass is Best]

I have had the opposite for many years. People say to me:  Did your Grandpa let you borrow his car today? You better be careful with it.

[Pfeil]

On 9/26/2020 at 7:19 PM, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

Several times when my wife and I are at a car show she has been told “it is nice you come to the car show with .your father” or she has been asked “did your dad restore that car?”. Ugh....I’m 66, she 64.

I have that problem too, only I'm 69 3/4 and my wife is 74 but looks like she's 60.

[ksbortner]

I have not had anyone ask me if I am the original owner of our 1916 Pullman but once when I was out for a drive, I stopped to get gas. When I went in the store to pay the cashier said "nice car does it run?". I had driven the car up to the gas pump.

[rocketraider]

They walk among us... and they're breeding.🤡

[gossp]

I have been present for my father to be asked if he is the original owner of a car 30 (or several more) years older than he is, but my personal favorite interaction with a stranger while out and about was in a 1920 Dodge Brothers. A man had done a lap and a half around our car at a gas station, and then gestured down to the hubcaps: 

 

“DB! Is this really a Duesen-Berg?”

 

@gossjh promptly replies:

”yes, and it’s for sale!”

[Mark Wetherbee]

Several years ago on a Mainely T Tour there was an elderly gentleman driving a good friends 26 Roadster. This  surprised the heck out of me as I’m not sure Rick would have let too many people drive it so after jokingly asking if I could go next Rick said the only reason he let the gentleman drive was because it was HIS car... the gentleman driving was the original owner and his initials were left carved in the aftermarket steering wheel. His grin was ear to ear as he drove his old car, absolutely priceless.

[Paul Dobbin]

16 hours ago, gossp said:

I have been present for my father to be asked if he is the original owner of a car 30 (or several more) years older than he is, but my personal favorite interaction with a stranger while out and about was in a 1920 Dodge Brothers. A man had done a lap and a half around our car at a gas station, and then gestured down to the hubcaps: 

 

“DB! Is this really a Duesen-Berg?”

 

@gossjh promptly replies:

”yes, and it’s for sale!”

  The hub caps on my Buick have big B, and I get asked often if it's a Bentley or a Rolls Royce?

  

[John_S_in_Penna]

A friend of mine, whom I've mentioned before,

really CAN say he's the original owner.  He got

his 1936 Oldmobile 6-cylinder new.

 

Imagine that a novice asks, "Did you get this car new?"

and being able to say in all earnestness, "Yes,

I will have had it for 85 years this Christmas!"

In the picture he's 95, and he still looks the same

(and goes to the office for half days every morning)

at age 100:

Edited October 2, 2020 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)