My earliest memory of the MODEL 'T' FORD is of our family car. It was a 1924 Tudor sedan - which is also the year of my birth.

My mother was the only driver in our family. My father would start the car and move it around in the yard but never on the street. (he never got a license).

He had limited ability as a mechanic but did take care of the "T". Each Spring he would remove the engine head and scrape off the carbon deposits softening the carbon by soaking it with gasoline and then igniting the gas! He put top dressing on the top and used roofing tar to seal around the top gutter. He also painted the car with a brush. It looked good to us.

Inside the car, I remember there being large hard fungus growths (from roof leaks). The car had a 'Fat Man' steering wheel which was handy as my mother was quite large.

My father (Pop) had an Irish temper and vocabulary which he took out on the car quite frequently. I remember a very hot Sunday when he went for a drive to Rome about 15 miles from Utica NY. We had a flat tire and no spare (money was very scarce at that time). Pop kept tools under the back seat so we children (5 of us) had to climb out so he could get them. He put a "cold" patch on the inner tube and then had to pump up the tire with a hand pump. No easy job as I learned in later life. We all climbed back into the car and headed for home. About a mile or two later the tire was flat again. Because of the heat the patch didn't hold so the whole process was repeated! After a few more miles it was flat again! The Irish in my father came to a boil and he told my mother she was going to have to drive home on the rim. If this wasn't bad enough, Rome had roads paved with bricks. The resulting noise was something and my Mother was very embarassed when people in passing cars looked at us. But the "T" got us safely home with only a flattened rim to show for our troubles.

In summers we frequently went to Oneida Lake (30 miles) which had nice soft sandy beaches. Everyone drove onto the sand to get close to the water, so many times we would get mired in the sand and our fun outing wasn't as much fun for Pop.

We had severe winters in Utica, only main streets were plowed and the centers of streets with trolley tracks were plowed by the trolley company. For this reason and the cost af a license ($9.00) the car was usually put away for the winter. You could get a 1/4 year license so the car was registered in the spring. When the car was used in any real cold weather, Pop would pour boiling water into the rediator and over the engine head to warm it. Today I wonder why the head or block didn't crack! Sometimes alcohol was put in the radiator but it quickly boiled away and couldn't be trusted to protect the engine from freezing.

We children were often called on to help Pop start the car - - while he cranked, we were supposed to operate the spark and throttle levers. When we did it wrong and the engine didn't run we heard some more Irish words.

Another time, when Mother drove into the yard the car suddenly lurched - - a rear wheel fell through the cover of an abandoned well we didn't know was there. One more job for Pop.

Yet another humorous memory I have is of Pop trying to hold back the car after he had crank started it. He was saved when the car hit a small tree by the driveway. No damage to Pop, the car, or the tree.

A memory, not so humorous, when I was five, was when I fell out of the car when it was climbing a hilly street in downtown Utica. I went rolling down the pavement, unhurt, but plenty scared. Luckily the cars following were able to stop in time.

Once I went to visit my grandmother who lived in the outskirts of Utica, sparcely inhabited. Mother parked the car under a tree light for safety, but when she came back she discovered 'someone stole the headlight lenses'! So much for the safety of a light.

Another time, coming home late at night from Grandmother's, we ran out of gas. Pop walked to a gas station, it was closed, and he pounded on the door until the owner woke up, unhappy, but he gave us some gas (try that today!!).

The only long trip I remember was to Connecticut (~250 miles) to visit an uncle. Picture the "T" loaded with 5 children, our parents, and enough clothes and supplies for a few days stay - and going down a long steep hill, the brakes failed! Mother finally drove it up an embankment to stop it. I can't recall how she drove it the rest of the way and back, but apparently there was no damage preventing us from getting back home with no further problems.

In the end, we ultimately sold out "T" to our milk man who wanted to make it into a buzzsaw. It still ran good and complete with a few extra parts we got $2.00 for it (in the early "30s").

I also remember a neighbors "T" Touring Car. It was only used in the summer and was covered and on blocks in the winter. The son was the driver and together with his sister and mother, I was often invited to go fishing with them. I would sit up front while the women sat in the back. How about that?! I always looked forward to those outings which included a picnic lunch and Canadian Bacon sandwiches.

I still often wonder what finally happened and the final fate of those cars, hoping they didn't end up in a WW-2 scrap heap, as so many did.