How I learned to drive an A

[Art Bjornestad]

In 1946 at age 12 I worked as a line boy at Half Day Airport in Illinois. On weekends I drove a Model A roadster pickup down the grass landing strip and another boy ran a large Pierce Arrow engine/winch combination which was bolted to the bed.

A long steel cable was attached to a sail plane and with the forward speed of the A and the winch gathering up the cable we soon had the sail plane high up in the air. The pilot would drop the cable and both of us on the ground had to drive back to get ready to launch the next one.

It's been years but I still remember watching the gas gauge sloshing around and grabbing second gear.

 

[Gary/IA]

Dad let my older brother (age 9) drive himself and my sister to country school in the Model A.

Near miss with another car resulted in my brother going into the ditch, no one hurt.

As a result: Car not injured, Sheriff called, Dad fined $100, brother and sister walked the two miles to school from then on.

All I got to do was ride in the A but good memories of it.

 

[Dan Baron]

As many of you have heard I've always wanted a Model A as far back as when I was 12 years of age. I never drove one until I bought one back in 89? I had to ride my bike to where the driver was, because he couldn't drive down the residential streets to my house. I remember it being started up on a trailer and the driver rolled it off and left it running on the side of the road. After sighing all of the paperwork, I was left alone with my new toy to drive home. It was only 2 miles at most. Just then my wife drives by and sees this, well lets just say she thought it was a hunk of junk. She might have said something like a "pile of s--t". She pulls behind me and waits for me to start home. I needed to get acquainted with all that there was to do in this car so it took me awhile. After a moment or so I was on my way. Never knowing what the spark and throttle levers were for, don't you know I stalled the car with my wife behind me, looking like, well are you going to get this home or am I going to have to call a wrecker for this piece of crap. See above for what she really said. I never saw how it was started and the truck driver was long gone. So it was up to me to figure where the starter button was. After I figured out how to start it. I had the biggiest smile I ever had, and laughed all the way home. While in the rear view mirror I could see my wife shaking her head all the way home. That was my first driving adventure in my Model A. I'll post the second drive soon. I had my wife actually in the car for the second drive. I have to admit, she was brave at first.