In 1953 my dad decided we should buy a Model T to restore. At the time dad was delivering groceries to small stores for a wholesale grocer. A store owner in Geneseo, Illinois, about 70 miles north of us, told him about an old farmer that delivered eggs to his store with a '22 center door Model T. Dad made the contact and we drove up there prepared to buy the car. The farmer told dad the car had been put away for a few years and the tires were no good. Dad borrowed tires and rims from a friend for the trip.
It was bitter cold that February day and dad and I went to the car to warm up while the old fellow went in the house to talk to his wife about selling the car. When he came out of the house we walked up to the porch to meet him and get his decision. He said "Boys, if you want that car she's gonna cost you a hundred dollars!"
The borrowed rims and tires were 21" and the car had 30 x 3 Ω wheels. We wrapped the bad spots with friction tape, pumped up the tires and decided to chance it.
My dad was an innovator and he had it all figured out how we would tow the car home. He ran a chain through a long pipe and tied the cars together. He also brought a long string and 2 short pieces of rubber hose. We rolled our drivers windows up to hold the hose in place and ran the string from my car to the T. One tug on the string was "slow down" and two tugs was "stop." I tied my end of the string to the zipper pull on my jacket and off we went!
It had to be quite a sight, a 47 Cadillac with a phone booth on wheels about 5 feet behind it! It was pretty hard for an 18-year-old kid to keep the speed down on that big Caddy and when we made the first corner my zipper jerked up to my neck! I looked in the mirror and I swear the Model T was up on 2 wheels! We had a little "chat" about speed and "stuff" and made the rest of the trip without incident.
It was a long, cold day but dad insisted we stop at a friend's gas station so he could get the T running and drive it the few blocks home.
There would be many more old cars in his and my life but that first one was special and between us we kept it 40 years.