2012 Car Share event
Have you ever been to a car show and said… “That is a neat car! I wonder what it is like to ride in it?”
Car Show… actually… Car SHARE
Throughout my life I have been traveling to car shows. Looking at the cool cars, leaning in close, but not TOO CLOSE.. because all the cars had the sign on them, “Look but DON’T Touch.” I certainly can understand owners wanting to keep the car they have labored over and/or spent a ton of money on to stay perfect. Because of this I started my own kind of show called “Car SHARE.” The idea is that you can look at the cars in the event, and if the owner is willing, you can ask to go for a ride.
My first Car Share took place in 2011. The idea at the time was to show college students and young people of today what it is like to ride in a Model T. I also taught a few lucky people how to drive the 1916 Model T Speedster and 1926 Model T Touring. The young folks (some were in their 60’s but they were young in that moment) were over the moon. They got to do something that few people today can claim. In the latest event, children with special needs rode in the cars. One young man even got to “drive” the 1926 Model T. At the time I was just happy that everyone had fun. Months later I was walking through a local grocery store when a woman came up to me. She said you may not remember me, but my son got to drive your Model T. I said that’s great, I hope he enjoyed himself. She said, he more than just enjoyed himself that day. When he returned to school in the fall, he had the best story to tell the class for Show and Tell!
2012 Car Share event
Body Old, but Heart Young – Retirement Home Rides
My love of sharing these cars is not just limited to the young. Every year in the fall and spring I take one or two around to retirement homes in the Lancaster and Bucks County areas. Just like with the Car Share events, the residents come out in droves to look at the cars and go for rides. The joy on their faces makes all the hard work worthwhile, and for weeks after my visits, they are still talking about the experience. It is neat to hear a resident on the phone excitedly telling a daughter or son about the car they rode in and how that ride brought back wonderful memories.
Stepping Back in Time
Renting my cars is not just for weddings and anniversaries. Last year I had a friend of a friend contact me. Her mother was turning 70 and she wanted to do something special by taking her back to see her old house. The woman explained that her mother had seen my 1958 Ford in a parade and said she had a car just like it when she was in high school. She wanted to surprise her mom by having the car drive up to her mother’s childhood home in Allentown, PA. The mother had no clue that her daughter was going to arrange to have her old car at the house. As the woman and I talked more, I thought of an idea that would take her mother back in time. I asked if any of her mother’s high school girlfriends were still alive. She said she would check. A few days later I got a call back. Three of her mother’s high school girlfriends still lived in the area! Her mother had not seen any of them since she had gotten married in the 1960′s.
With those words, my idea came to life. Her daughter secretly contacted her mother’s high school friends. On the actual birthday, I transported the 1958 Ford to Allentown. I picked up the three girlfriends and drove to her mother’s old house. As her mother stood looking at the house she grew up in, I drove up in the 1958 Ford with her high school friends yelling out the windows. Her mother was overwhelmed (lots of smiles and tears… including me). The surprise was not over, though. With everyone in the car for pictures and a drive, I took the exact roads she did in high school. With each turn came laughter and conversation about how much everything had changed, and some of the old buildings still existed… including her high school, which was now a law firm. There were pictures by the school and pictures with the car. The 70-year-old ladies where laughing and giggling like they were 18 again. After visiting the high school, we started home. The next part was a complete surprise to me.
When we pulled up to a red light in the center of town, all the doors flew open and I watched with total amazement as these 70 year old ladies did a Chinese fire drill. Not only were we having a good time, so was every driver at the light. The sight of four old ladies running (maybe not running) around the 1958 Ford was priceless.