[Tom Endy]

There are lots of young folk out there who are interested in the Model A Ford and would like to own one. My advice to them is to hook up with the local Model A club. Most Model A clubs will not be something that will interest them because most have become a social club for older people and there is nothing they do that will interest them. However somewhere within the club group will be one or two people who will take notice and quietly step forward and become a mentor. From the mentor, or mentors, will come the pass down of the enthusiasm of the Model A Ford.

A few years ago a young fellow in my neighborhood just out of high school approached me one day and told me how much he admired the Model A he had seen me driving around the neighborhood. We talked for quite a while about the Model A hobby and I explained the culture to him and told him I would help find a car for him.

During the next year we looked at one car and he spent time with me working on Model A's. I could tell he was hooked. The process was interrupted when his younger brother graduated from high school intent on joining the Marine Corps. Before long they both joined. They went through boot camp at San Diego and advanced training at Camp Pendleton together. Before we knew it they were both in the war in Afghanistan.
Nine months later they both came home unscathed and as veterans.

We immediately resumed the task of finding him a Model A. Before long we found a very suitable 1930 Tudor. It had a nice body, paint job, and interior. However everything else was compromised, but the price was right. I encouraged him to join the local Model A club, which he did. He was not able to attend the monthly meetings, but since he was stationed at Camp Pendleton he was able to attend a number of seminars on week ends. At the seminars he met several people who quietly stepped out of the crowd to be a mentor.

Over the next couple of years these mentors and myself helped him go completely through the car. Today it is a very fine car with all of the mechanics completely rebuilt. It even sports a Mitchell overdrive. Since our young Marine was under 22 we got him signed up for the youth restoration award, which helped with the finances. His pay that he had saved up when he was in Afghanistan also helped.

He loves that Model A and drives it everywhere. He has become very visible at Camp Pendleton. Before long his father was hooked on Model A's and we found him a dandy unrestored 1930 town sedan and in the past year and a half we have gone completely through this car as well. His father is also considered a young person.

Sad to say the local Model A club as an organization has taken little notice of this young fellow. However the benefit from joining was that a few dedicated Model A'ers stepped up and offered their mentoring. And that is the benefit of a young person joining a Model A club.

More than four years have gone by since the first encounter, and my young Marine friend, Sam Thompson, and his brother Mark will both be discharged in a few months. Both are sergeants as well as veterans and both are young men to be proud of. They both will be off to college in the fall on the GI Bill and Sam will be taking his Model A Ford with him to college.

Semper Fi
Tom Endy