Photo: cbc.ca
Here’s a very sweet story that’s packed with nostalgia: an 87-year-old man from Nova Scotia, Canada still has the first car he ever bought. Not only that, but he still drives it around, albeit only on shorter distances now.
Randall Pittman is 87 years old and he bought his first car when he was 17, he tells CBC News in an interview last month. It was a Ford Model T that hit the auction block and for which he’d saved up a long time: he was working as a gas station attendant part time and made about 10 cents an hour. You do the math.
“Eventually, I bid $45 and the auctioneer, as auctioneers do, kept saying, ‘Forty-five! Who will give me 50?’,” Pittman remembers. “I stupidly said ‘Forty-seven fifty,’ and he said ‘Sold!’”
He bought the Model T and couldn’t stop driving it. Even today, he takes it on riders around in his hometown, but will no longer trust it for longer stretches. If they have to show up to various antique shows, the Model T will travel separately on a flatbet.
A look at the short video at the bottom of the page will show you why Pittman avoids taking it for longer drives. In addition to the fact that parts for it are very rare and expensive, in case it breaks down, the Model T doesn’t have turning signals or seatbelts, let alone air conditioning.
“You have to see the air conditioning,” Pittman tells the CBC reporter, grinning and opening the windshield. To signal a turn, he has to stick his arm out, much like a cyclist would do nowadays. Asked about brakes, he laughs and “promise[s] they work,” the report notes.
As you may have guessed, this awesome grandpa has a thing for antique cars, so the Model T isn’t the only jewel in his garage. “Pitman bought another 1927 Ford Model T, a coupe, in the 1960s. He's been restoring it alongside his truck for the last seven years,” the publication writes. “And while he's not exactly sure how many kilometers he's put on either vehicle, he's confident they'll all keep rolling along.”
“Eventually, I bid $45 and the auctioneer, as auctioneers do, kept saying, ‘Forty-five! Who will give me 50?’,” Pittman remembers. “I stupidly said ‘Forty-seven fifty,’ and he said ‘Sold!’”
He bought the Model T and couldn’t stop driving it. Even today, he takes it on riders around in his hometown, but will no longer trust it for longer stretches. If they have to show up to various antique shows, the Model T will travel separately on a flatbet.
A look at the short video at the bottom of the page will show you why Pittman avoids taking it for longer drives. In addition to the fact that parts for it are very rare and expensive, in case it breaks down, the Model T doesn’t have turning signals or seatbelts, let alone air conditioning.
“You have to see the air conditioning,” Pittman tells the CBC reporter, grinning and opening the windshield. To signal a turn, he has to stick his arm out, much like a cyclist would do nowadays. Asked about brakes, he laughs and “promise[s] they work,” the report notes.
As you may have guessed, this awesome grandpa has a thing for antique cars, so the Model T isn’t the only jewel in his garage. “Pitman bought another 1927 Ford Model T, a coupe, in the 1960s. He's been restoring it alongside his truck for the last seven years,” the publication writes. “And while he's not exactly sure how many kilometers he's put on either vehicle, he's confident they'll all keep rolling along.”
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