The Model T

My oldest friend, Phil Cavanaugh, sent me these splendid images the other day:

Part of Phil’s letter said:

Back in 1968 I dragged a 1924 Model T Ford touring car out of a barn in Wallkill, NY. I spent the next year restoring it and have had it since. Over the next 43 years I’ve enjoyed many a tour driving it. I’ve always lusted after Ford cars of the late Model T era, thus the years 1926 and 1927, but these are hard to find and rarely in good shape. Finally I found one on eBay (where else) and bought it. I’ve since sold my 1924 to a guy in Tucson. The new car sat in a museum for five years and so is totally gummed up with gasoline; the gasoline has turned to varnish over time, and the car also has a few other problems associated with advanced age. It will go to College Station to an expert this weekend and, hopefully, it will soon be back and running again. I’m attaching photos both of the old car (black) and new one (green).

Phil spent his working life as a superintendent of military museums, an avocation born of his youthful fascination with history, especially that of the Civil War—but the impulse of preserving the authentic past extended forward in time enough to bring us these resplendent survivors of the Youth of the Automobile.

Thanks, Phil.