Jon and Dean's Model "T"

 Jon Logan Sampson says: During the '50's in Florence, Dad (Johnnie) got us into restoring a Model T Ford (Model T's were Henry Ford's first cars and started about something 1908 thru the late 20's).  One could buy one new in any color one wanted....so long as it was black!  Dad may have got us into this as yet one more way of keeping us from getting into trouble some other way (as though hunting, fishing, sports, working in the store, etc., wasn't enough); or.....to fulfill a disappointment he may have had earlier.  Apparently, he was offered a 1911 (Brass Radiator) Model T which  (Great) Grandpa LOGAN Wooldridge's had sitting in his barn, and was too busy to restore (WWII, etc.), or didn't have a place to store it.

 

Anyway, we retrieved three 'piles of junk,' out of the brush (given, purchased, or filched), and started the 'restoration' during our spare (?) time.

 

As an aside, one Sunday afternoon (while I was working on the 'T'), a car pulled up outside the garage, and I was 'called out.'  (Cousin Dave's recollection of his encounter with the police, while 'sleeping' on the side of the road reminded me of this.)  Anyway, one of the occupants of the car (who was a year behind me in school), apparently thought I shouldn't be dating his 'girlfriend,' who was a freshman in high school.  What to do?  I invited him to step across the road (Rhododendron Drive); put a knee into that place between one's legs; had him on the ground, and slapped him around a bit.  (A couple of days later he came into the Western Auto store, looking a little bruised, and apologized.)

 

After we'd got it running, & licensed, I was working on it one Saturday, in the summer, and had a date for the drive-in (some of you older folks remember drive-ins), and my own car ('47 Plymouth) was in the shop for a paint job.  The folks had offered the use of their '57 Ford, but when I went to the garage, it had a flat tire.  So.....I jumped into the 'T,' drove out Canary Road, and picked up my date.  (Not a lot of privacy in a 1923 Ford Roadster pickup [without a top]).