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| Ford Model T |
My paternal grandfather's first car was the Ford Model T shown above with him behind the wheel. The photograph was taken at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island in October 1920 while he was courting my grandmother, Huldah A. Hasselbaum. You can just see the joy and pride of ownership on his face as he sits up there in his Model T.
The Model T was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1908 until May 1927. It was the car known as the "Tin Lizzie" and was seen as the first really affordable automobile (which was largely due to Ford's innovations in assembly line mass production). The Model T was also the first car to have completely interchangeable parts. When the last Model T was rolled out in May 1927, there had been 15 million of them produced over less than 20 years. By 1918 half the cars on the road in the U.S. were Model Ts!
What did a Model T cost back in its day? The standard 4-seater in 1909 cost $850, but by 1913 the price had dropped to $550 and then to $440 in 1915. By the 1920s, the cost of a Model T had dropped to $260!
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| My future grandmother sitting in the Model T of her boyfriend, Arnold G. Tew, Sr. |
Photographs in the collection of the author.
For more information on the Model T and its history go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T.
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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew
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