This is cooler than spit. The image above was sent to me by Joe Young out of Slapout, Alabama. The milk truck belonged to his grandfather – his grandfather’s two sons (Hey Joe, doesn’t that make one of them your father? Maybe?) stand proudly beside. YES!

I love old images like this.

A lot of you guys have probably already seen this. We featured it on jalopyjournal.com a few years ago and it was a frequent email bomb for years as well. However, Glenn Smith recently reminded me of it and decided a repost was in order. It’s pretty amazing to see the prices and the marketing pitch is glorious.

Check it out:

Charles Harper (1922- 2007) was an extremely gifted illustrator who drew his prime work from the late 40s throughout the 60s. If you have old copies of Ford Times from these years, you’ll see many of his charming wildlife bird and rural scene drawings throughout many issues. In 1955 he teamed up with famous author Philip Van Doren Stern on the amazing book “Tin Lizzie- The Story of the Fabulous Model T”. Stern had previously written “The Greatest Gift” in 1943, which inspired the Christmas classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life” a few years later.

Getting back to Mr. Harper, the renderings in this old book are so inviting and charming in their bold simplicity. He only uses two colors- a dark peach and pure black- for the art, letting the linework and flat shapes tell the story. Charley has an amazing way of using the minimum number of lines to convey action, personality, and context. I wasn’t able to scan these in, so pardon for the poor photographs. If you come across a copy of this book I really suggest you pick it up to enjoy all of of the great illustrations, and for the story of the Model T, of course!

Check this out… It’s the Duz delivery truck parked outside the St. James Hotel in Washington D.C. sometime around 1925.

Click below for a high resolution shot:

A few week ago, a considerate gentlemen sent me a number of letters written by a young woman that was traveling from Ohio to California by way of a Model-T Ford in 1928. I would really like to share that story here on these pages as it really is incredible, but I seem to have lost the sender’s contact information. If you are out there, send me an email!

I’ve been trying to verify the owner of this hotel. There is some consideration towards Henry Ford being one of the original investors, but I haven’t been able to find anything that substantiates that. In any case, I wanted to post it as I thought is was hilarious… and figured you guys would too. The slab was located inside a restroom at the Grand Union Hotel originally, but is now located at the Downtown Athletic Club in NYC. The text reads:

“The Meanest Man
in the United States
occasionally visits this Toilet Room.
He always carries away as a souvenir, either a coat
hook, doorlock, or paper holder and often several of each.
He would take the marble slabs if they were not made fast.
We guarantee this man a warm reception
if we get hold of him.

Ford & Co.
Grand Union Hotel.”

Nebraska farmer, Elmer J. Sweet, treks to Southern California by Model T to visit his sister and ‘wonderful pal’ Jane and family, accompanied by L.E. Cruise.

The pictures are nothing short of incredible.

In September of 1931, the New York Times asked Henry Ford what he thought life would be like in 2011. His answer was forgotten and mostly lost until recently when a South Carolina Law Firm stumbled upon the script. Henry’s answer was not specific so much as it was emotional and I thought you guys might get a kick out of it.

To make an eighty-year forecast may be an interesting exercise, first of the imagination and then of our sense of humility, but its principal interest will probably be for the people eighty years on, who will measure our estimates against the accomplished fact. No doubt the seeds of 1931 were planted and possibly germinating in 1851, but did anyone forecast the harvest? And likewise the seeds of 2011 are with us now, but who discerns them?

- Henry Ford in 1931

Last year, an employee at the Henry Ford Museum was doing some cataloging and stumbled across something very interesting. Essentially, she found a number of coded telegrams that were either to or from Ernest Liebold – Henry’s personal and general assistant. The series of telegrams is incomplete and some have yet to be decoded, but it’s still incredibly fascinating. If you’ve got a few minutes, check it out.

Here’s one that popped up on the H.A.M.B. It’s a model-T with tracks. The photo didn’t come with an explanation at all, but one can gather some assumptions. In the background is an Army tank and a number of fellows that look like Army brass. Could this be a military pitch?

They didn’t buy it.

Anyone know anything else about this contraption?