When did owning a Model A become a hobby?

[nkaminar]

My first Model A was an old car. I drove it all over California. There was a Model A club in my college and I did join them for one tour, but mostly I just drove my Model A like I would drive any other car. I loved driving it on back roads, but when necessary I did drive it on major highways. I was passed by most cars on the road but I didn’t care. It was just an old car, but I grew up loving old cars.

Now when I drive my current Model A to the grocery store it is as if I was driving an alien space ship. An oddity, not an old car. Things have changed. When did this happen?

 

[jb-ob]

In the 1950's the AACA would not recognize a Model A as a historically significate automobile because EVERYONE was still driving one.

Something from an alien world of 100 years ago is a 'curiosity'. Odd seeing Amish horses & buggies in front of modern stores.

 

[Oldbluoval]

They were recognized as “novel” and unique in mid 60’s. Fellow drove one to high school and still has it last I heard.(on blocks in a building)

 

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

In some ways they became someone's hobby when people started collecting them to preserve them. Some can also say that when a car quit being repaired and started being restored, then maybe that was the turning point. The irony was it happened when the cars were not really that old.

Look at the Horseless Carriage Club. That club was officially founded in 1937, and people were collecting and restoring 20+ year old cars as a hobby. Also, the AACA had its beginnings in the mid-1930s when back in the Model-A era, there was large a New Car Show somewhere in Pennsylvania that invited participants to drive 25 year and older vehicles to the show to be displayed amongst the automobile manufacturer's new models. A few years later, someone compiles a list of those attendees and formed a club to promote collecting & owning antique cars. That is why some 50 years later in the mid-1970s, AACA adopted the 25 year & older eligibility requirement that is still their requirement today.

Kinda funny to think about Jim's comment regarding AACA not allowing Model-As. That would make sense because in the early to mid 1930s when AACA was formed, a Model-A WAS still a brand new car. This hobby really ain't nothing new.

 

[alexiskai]

Something is a hobby when you spend your leisure time doing it. Sounds like it was a hobby for some people when you were in college.

Maybe it wasn't for you at that time, but at some point in your life you became the sort of person who posts on a hobbyist web forum 6,000 times. So when do you think you changed from one sort of person to the other?

 

[JayJay]

In some ways they became someone's hobby when people started collecting them to preserve them. Some can also say that when a car quit being repaired and started being restored, then maybe that was the turning point. The irony was it happened when the cars were not really that old.

Look at the Horseless Carriage Club. That club was officially founded in 1937, and people were collecting and restoring 20+ year old cars as a hobby. Also, the AACA had its beginnings in the mid-1930s when back in the Model-A era, there was large a New Car Show somewhere in Pennsylvania that invited participants to drive 25 year and older vehicles to the show to be displayed amongst the automobile manufacturer's new models. A few years later, someone compiles a list of those attendees and formed a club to promote collecting & owning antique cars. That is why some 50 years later in the mid-1970s, AACA adopted the 25 year & older eligibility requirement that is still their requirement today.

Kinda funny to think about Jim's comment regarding AACA not allowing Model-As. That would make sense because in the early to mid 1930s when AACA was formed, a Model-A WAS still a brand new car. This hobby really ain't nothing new.

Interesting. California can issue “Historical Vehicle” license plates to vehicles that are 25 years old, manufactured after 1922, and “of historic interest” (whatever that means). I’ve often wondered where the 25 year moving cutoff came from. I guess that arguably a 1990 Yugo might be considered for a Historical Vehicle plate.

There are some restrictions on when you can drive with Historical Vehicle plates, although I don’t know of anyone who has had them enforced. Most folks I know try for “Year of Manufacture” plates that don’t have any driving restrictions. Or (as I do) just use regular plates.

Before you ask, 1922 and before can be issued “Horseless Carriage” plates.

 

[WHN]

In some ways they became someone's hobby when people started collecting them to preserve them. Some can also say that when a car quit being repaired and started being restored, then maybe that was the turning point. The irony was it happened when the cars were not really that old.

Look at the Horseless Carriage Club. That club was officially founded in 1937, and people were collecting and restoring 20+ year old cars as a hobby. Also, the AACA had its beginnings in the mid-1930s when back in the Model-A era, there was large a New Car Show somewhere in Pennsylvania that invited participants to drive 25 year and older vehicles to the show to be displayed amongst the automobile manufacturer's new models. A few years later, someone compiles a list of those attendees and formed a club to promote collecting & owning antique cars. That is why some 50 years later in the mid-1970s, AACA adopted the 25 year & older eligibility requirement that is still their requirement today.

Kinda funny to think about Jim's comment regarding AACA not allowing Model-As. That would make sense because in the early to mid 1930s when AACA was formed, a Model-A WAS still a brand new car. This hobby really ain't nothing new.

As always, great information.

I sold my high school Model A in 1964 to a guy who restored it.

 

[Keith True]

Up into the 70's there were always several A's parked in the millyards in Newmarket N.H.Most of those workers lived within a mile of their jobs,and there was no need for them to drive their nice modern car a mile to work just to leave it parked there all day.Lots of them had their dads or grand dads worn out A's,and they would use them just for that.If the A was in good enough condition they would also use it to go to the dump on Saturdays.

 

[Will N]

1952. That's when the Model A Restorers Club was founded.

 

[32Ford13]

Isn't a hobby something you spend money on, spend time on, and things go right and things go wrong? Sounds like Model A's to me

 

[ModelA29]

When the first guy decided to keep it around instead of trading it in on his new car.

 

[Bruce of MN]

In 1953, my Dad bought the coupe I have now as just a cheap 2nd car to drive to work.

 

[Dino's A]

Personally, I take calling it a "hobby" an insult. Restoring and driving
antique vehicles means a hell of a lot more than a hobby.

Some view it as a lifestyle. I am one of them. But that's me.

 

[JayJay]

Personally, I take calling it a "hobby" an insult. Restoring and driving
antique vehicles means a hell of a lot more than a hobby.

Some view it as a lifestyle. I am one of them. But that's me.

I like “avocation”, “passion” or “calling”. Something to imply a bit more personal investment than a hobby.

 

[Richard Knight]

Affliction, which I have had since about 1961.

 

[fundytides]

I aquired 3 Model A's in the summer of 1958. One cost me $60, one I took in trade on a 1949 Meteor and one I traded the guy a 1935 Chev pick-up that I saved from a scrap metal yard. I still have the $60 car, a 31 standard roadster that I started driving agian a few years ago after an extended "restoration". The 30 Fordoor that I took in trade, I sold a few months later after replacing a broken piston. The one I traded the guy a Chev pick-up for was a worn out 29 Tudoor and I sold it to a guy to make a tractor after I had swapped the motor from it with the motor from my 31 Roadster. Wish I had the motor back so my roadster could have it's original motor. Anyway I also convinced 2 of my college friends to buy Model A's as well. Don't know if this all makes it a hobby but if not, it soon grew into one for me as I continued to aquire, and dispose of a long line of inetersting cars over the years. Everything from a Lloyd station wagon and early VW beetle, all the way to 30's 40's and 50's Fords, a MK V Jag and an XK 120, several MG's and an original 27 Model T, purchased by my Dad in the 60's from the original owner. At some point this all certainly became a hobby but I don't know exactly when. I do know that, as I often say, these old cars keep me out of trouble and are the only things I have that are older than I am.

 

[David in San Antonio]

Mark Twain wrote something like: A man will lovingly care for his horse and carriage, and spend hours of leisure time driving around. But offer to pay him a decent wage to care for and drive that same horse and carriage and he’ll decide it’s too much work.