Model T Ford

About the time I was born – 1917 – my father, Hal, bought a Model T Ford. A model with a turtle-back to make it look like a so-called respectable car. This could be removed and replaced with a truck back. My father was a bee-keeper. He could use the “truck” back to haul bee supplies. The Model T could seat 2 people – my mother, father and me if I sat on my mother’s lap. I think there was a hand brake, 2 pedals and a gas pedal (maybe a gas control on the steering wheel). There were isinglass window covers in case of rain or snow. In the winter, my dad had to heat a kettle full of water on our coal range to fill the radiator. The radiator was drained at night so it wouldn’t freeze. When we went out to visit friends in winter, we had a beautiful woolen “robe” to cover the radiator while we visited. Ma Vic, an elderly friend of the family requested, “Tell Harold not to park that rattle trap car in front of my house”. My father often let me drive to the bee yards. When I was 9 to 10 years old, of course the roads were dirt, one lane. There was no traffic – the men were at work and the women didn’t drive. We took that car over the Colorado mountain roads. Sometimes we had to back up a steep hill. The car had more power in reverse. All through the many years my father used that Model T Ford truck. When he reached his 71st birthday, he sold it for $500.00.