Operation "Move iT"

I've known Tracey, and her husband Jack pretty much as long as I've known Jan, who I took ownership of the the T from.  They all live in Ashland, WI. We're all great friends who go a long way back. When we visit one we visit the other.
Even so, when when I first discussed taking ownership of the T, I was very surprised when Jack said that he would move it from Ashland to Lester Prairie for me. I'll be honest with you, I didn't believe it (Jack is noted for being a bit of a joker) and so I did little investigation on methods to move the car the 271 miles to its (then) possible new home.
Months passed and the change of ownership became finalised, and it turned out Jack was still keen to deliver the car for us, so I took him up on the offer. After all, that is what friends are for.

Left hand down a bit.

Jack and Wink loaded the T onto the trailer on Thursday, and operation "Move iT" was ready to begin.

0 dark thirty and the T is ready to begin its journey

Early on Friday morning, Jack and Tracey left Ashland under cover of darkness. Probably best, as this car is a part of the Ashland landscape and its departure will cause sadness among many of the towns residents.

A stop at Menards to honour a previous owner

On the way to the Minnesota Prairies, Jack decided to stop off at a Menards DIY superstore for a photo opportunity. As you will come to find out an upcoming blog post, a previous owner was a member of the Menard family.

Welcome to Minnesota!

It's here!

Just under 5 hours after the car left Ashland it arrived in Lester Prairie, Minnesota. Its new home.

I am pleased to see it

The pouring rain could not dampen my enthusiasm for seeing the car arrive at its new home.

In the garage with a Studebaker and an MGB

Because it was raining and raining quite hard, we got it garaged fairly quickly.
With the car safely parked in its new home, I went down to the government offices in Glencoe, to get the change of ownership registered, and to confirm if the original 1926 plates that I have for the car could be used. I had looked the the relevant pages of the Minnesota DMV website concerning original plates and I was fairly certain that the use of them would be OK on a classic car.
The young girl behind the desk wasn't so sure, I don't think she had handled such a request before so she turned for a supervisor for help.
"1926? Wow. Does it run?" She asked, as she went through the process of filling the paperwork in.
Fair do's, she handled what was a confusing situation to her with great professionalism. I have heard tales of woe from various other classic car owners whose state Department of Motor Vehicles haven't been as helpful.
As I left, the clerk told me that even though she wasn't 100% sure, it looked to her like I would be able to use the original plates on the car. So when I got home, I put them on the car, (just to see what they looked like)

In anticipation that everything will be alright.

Now the adventure begins.

A historical interlude (1) Billie O'Hern

(This is the first in a series of historical articles that, though not directly relevant to my T, are prompted by the research and findings for it.)

All cars have keys, even Model T's. Naturally you need a key ring to keep them on, and the vast majority of key rings have a fob on them. Wether for decoration, publicity, or nowadays, security.
The spare set of keys for my T have a rather interesting fob with them, which set me on a historical investigation.
Firstly, I should state that these are not the original keys for my 1926 Coupe, but as Ford only used a limited number of keys for their cars back then, they fit.

Who was Billie O'Hern?

Just who was Billie O'Hern of Minneapolis?
As the bottle opener end of the fob says "Auto", I originally wondered if he was a Minneapolis car dealer. The Google machine gave me an answer very quickly. He wasn't a car dealer, but a saloon keeper and tobacco seller who also ran a pool room at the Cedar Avenue property.
In addition to the name and address on the fob, there is the wording "NW Main 2137", that is his telephone number. As for "Auto 38207",  that may well be the registration of a car. That would mean these keys could be for a vehicle with a plate number 38207.

This period number plate perhaps gives a clue to what the "Auto 38207" means.

Born to an Irish father and Canadian mother in 1875, Billie opened the saloon at 927 Cedar in 1902. His trade cards of the era show that he referred to himself as Billy O'Hern or in later times Wm. F. O'Hern rather than "Billie" as seen on my item. By the time of the 1918 date on the fob, prohibition was only a couple of years away. This was the year the Wartime Prohibition Act was passed that banned the sale of drinks above 1.28% alcohol by volume. Perhaps the changes of name were to give him an air of respectability in these times.

A naked lady on a key fob?
Probably quite risqué in 1918.

Let's take a look at the backside of the opener. A naked lady, stood in water. Is she bathing? It's certainly a risqué image for the times. Another bottle opener from O'Hern's that I found on the internet  has the same motif on it and was intended as a token worth 2 1/2 cents to trade in for a drink at his establishment. Is the naked lady a racy image just to titillate, or does it imply that ladies were available there? It is rumoured that Whiskey Junction at the end of the block was a brothel. But as for Billie's place. We will never know.
What of the establishment, What of 927 Cedar? It is long gone, probably demolished when Interstate 94 was built in the 1960's, as many neighbourhoods were during the construction of the highway. Cedar Avenue itself was realigned at this time which also makes things difficult to follow today.
Nowadays the address seems to be part of a warehouse parking lot. But just down the road, at 913 Cedar is the well known Minneapolis music venue, The Cabooze, and its neighbour "The Joint".

927 Cedar and the locale today. (Google Maps image)

Whiskey Junction, at the end of the block is a structure built in 1886

Perhaps "The Joint", and "Whiskey Junction" at 901 Cedar give us an indication of what Billie O'Hern's place might have looked like back in the 1900's as they are contemporary with his establishment.
Did the original owner of these keys frequent Billie's place in 1918? These were certainly the years when you could have a T in any colour you liked as long as it was black, and if you were to come out of the bar, into the street to a line of identical, black Model T's, the only way you would have of telling your car from the others was to know its number plate.
Could these keys even be from Billy's own car?
Perhaps it's just a random piece of ephemera put on the key ring by a trader to make the keys look interesting.
We will never know for sure, but it's an interesting piece of history anyway.

How did I get here?

I've known Jan Cameron a long time. Since college. In fact she, and her husband Wink, are some of my wife Lorrie, and I's best friends.
Some fourteen years ago Jan announced that she had fulfilled a life long dream and bought a Ford Model T. As a child she had told her father that she was going to own one and now she had achieved that dream.
My wife and I were quite envious, (this was in the days before I had bought my first classic car, the 1976 MGB that I still have). We thought it would be great to have an old classic car, and you can't get much more classic than the Model T, the car that shaped America.
Every year we'd drive up to Ashland, WI from mid Minnesota to visit, we'd see the car, take rides in it, gaze longingly at it, and generally be quite envious. Several times we mentioned that if she was ever going to sell it, then she should consider us as potential buyers. Not that we thought we'd ever be able to afford something like a Model T, I didn't think she'd ever part with it anyway. I was convinced that she would keep it until her dying day and then it would go to a family member.

Above: I'd take photo's and sepia tone them for fun.
Below: A video of one of Lorrie's rides in "Liz"

Jan, being a historian, has gathered some information on the history of the car and I'll share that in later posts. Under her ownership Liz, as the car was named, had been used as a fundraising tool for the Ashland Historical Society. For a donation to the society, she would give people rides around town. Over the years Jan and Liz raised about $12,000 for the society. Jan became known as "The Model T Lady".
The years went on, and at the end of 2017, Jan announced that she was ready to sell. She'd have one last summer of driving in 2018 and that would be it. Much to our surprise I got first refusal on her. All those years of hints must have paid off. I still had no idea if I could even afford one though.
"Why don't you use the money your Granny left you?" Lorrie suggested. My Grandmother had passed away about a year previously and had left me some money. I did some research, asked Jan what she was looking for for the car, and the two amounts were very close. You'll notice that it was my wife that suggested this. I tend to refer to it as my car. But it was very much a "we" decision, and I might get into trouble it I refer to it as "my" car too often.
The plan was that I'd spend some time in the summer learning to drive the vehicle and then have her transported to her new home on the Prairies of Minnesota in the fall. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned over the summer and as a result I don't have anything like as much driving experience as I'd like. But I can make it go in a straight line, around corners and stop it too. So that's something. My feet want to go to pedals that aren't there. But I'll get there.

The day of the final test drive.

On October 14th I wrote the cheque and The Model T is officially mine. Now I'm just waiting for it to arrive from Wisconsin. I've cleared some room in the garage for it. It's a small car, it doesn't need much room. But I'll probably need as much room for all the spares coming with it too.
The car should be here in about 10 days as I write this. The days are going by too slowly.

Introduction

I love cars. 

As my many blogs would suggest, I am interested in many things. But I have a real passion and appreciation for cars.

Old cars. 

Perhaps that goes back to the garage (service station for Americans) that my late father used to work in, and by the time he retired, co-own. Whenever I went around there, there would be lots of cars being worked on. They'd all be considered classic cars now, but back then, they were all just ordinary, everyday cars.
I loved the Parts store. There were parts on shelves, big parts, little parts, spark plugs in a rack, gaskets hanging from hooks on the walls. At the time I didn't know what many of the parts were but it was like a cave of hidden treasure for me.
Then there was the Land Rover. A series 1, I think. Dad would go out in it on jobs when they didn't need the breakdown (wrecker). Wether riding up front, or in the back under the cover of the canvas hood. A trip was an adventure. We rode out to my grandparents in it one particularly bad snowy winter's day because it had four wheel drive.
I'm not a know everything aficionado, though some unusual facts may stick in my mind that might lead people to think that. But no, I just like cars. I prefer to see them on the road rather than in a museum. Cars are meant to be driven to be appreciated properly, wether by the person behind the steering wheel or the person in the street. If I see someone drive by in an old car I'll always give them a "thumbs up" of appreciation.
To date, I own, or have owned: A 1976 MGB, a 1973 MGB GT, A 1963 Studebaker Lark Cruiser and now this. A 1926 Ford Model T Coupe.

My 1926 coupe, during the test drive.

The full story of this car will be told over this blog. I already know some interesting things about it, thanks to Jan the previous owner. So there will be plenty to share for quite a while. I hope you'll come to understand and appreciate this passion of mine, and this particular car.