\nIn spite of that tough painful experience, my dad always spoke almost reverently about Model T\u2019s and what a wonderful piece of machinery they were.\u00a0When still a bachelor in the1920\u2019s, \u00a0he\u00a0and a pal of his had the adventure of a lifetime driving their \u201cT\u201d over all kinds of roads and through all kinds of weather conditions from South Dakota to Detroit, Michigan..the motor city where their car was made. \u00a015 million tin lizzys rolled off Henry Ford\u2019s Detroit assembly\u00a0line between 1909 and 1927. After 1913 they were all painted black.
\nWhen dad retired in the late 60\u2019s he started going to flea markets and auction sales in search of Model T parts. Before long, the folk\u2019s small garage was filled with rusty fenders, wooden wheels and old engines that had been seized-up for decades. He devoted every free moment to the task at hand; trying to create one good car from several piles of junk.
![\"dad's](\"http:\/\/kelolandblogs.com\/lundatlarge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/dads-t-hack.jpg\")
<\/a>\nI can still see him out there..up to his elbows in dirt and grease.. patiently piecing together parts for that relic.<\/p>\n
Dad was a farmer and a house builder. I was never aware that he knew so much about mechanics until he tackled this project. In truth, though, everyone who ever owned a Model T had to have some mechanical knowledge in order to keep them running and road worthy. Clearly dad had not forgotten a thing about what every part was for and where it went.
\nBy the time he had a rolling chassis, the old man pulled a surprise on those of us who\u2019d been following his progress.\u00a0This wasn\u2019t going to be your run-of-the-mill Model T sedan, coupe or even roadster.\u00a0He was building a depot hack\u2026an early version of the taxi cab designed to haul travelers and their luggage from the train depot to their local destinations. \u00a0The depot hack\u2019s body was made of wood instead of steel and recreating it would challenge all of dad\u2019s extensive wood-working skills.
\nWhen it was finally finished, dad and his odd looking flivver soon became \u00a0familiar sites driving around town and in every parade within a hundred miles of Volga<\/p>\n
He absolutely loved that car which is why we were so shocked to hear that he\u2019d accepted an offer to sell it to a museum in Chamberlain.\u00a0I don\u2019t think it was because he desperately needed the money. It\u2019s more likely that his greater joy was in \u201cbuilding\u201d the \u201cT\u201d than driving it because before long he was back at auction sales and scrounging around shelterbelts in search of parts for another one.<\/p>\n
Dad\u2019s second and last Model T was a 1926 burgundy<\/p>\n
and black coupe. It too was driven in lots of parades until dad died\u00a01977. Mom eventually sold it for 36 hundred dollars\u00a0which she shared with us boys.\u00a0 Wish now I had the car instead of the cash. (From the L@L archives) My dad was one of the million or so guys who suffered a broken arm trying to crank start a Model T Ford. Long before cars had electric starters, the only way to fire up the four cylinder engine was to turn it over manually using the crank provided in front.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11540,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions\/11540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
\nA few years ago I did a story on the museum in Chamberlain..which was going to auction off everything in the collection including dad\u2019s depot hack.\u00a0\u00a0With Linda\u2019s blessing and some inheritance money in the bank, I decided to try bring the car back into the family.<\/a>\u00a0I was prepared to go as high as three thousand dollars if need be.\u00a0Within 30 seconds, the bid was at four thousand.\u00a0\u00a0I finally stopped bidding at six thousand dollars when it became clear that a fat cat car dealer from Montana who didn\u2019t give a hoot in hell about sentimentality wasn\u2019t going back to Billings without it.
\nI hate to admit this..but I was secretly hoping that the first time he tried to crank-start what was rightfully my car, he\u2019d have the spark set wrong and learn a painful lesson about Model T \u201ckickback.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"