Yellow Model A gold to Harrells
| Posted in | Posted on
More than 50 years ago, he can't recall the exact year, Ralph Harrell bought a 1929 Ford Model A sport coupe he spotted in pieces in a driveway on Breckenridge Road.
"I traded him a real nice '53 Buick Roadmaster. It was perfect," 82-year-old Harrell recalled. "That car would be worth more today than that Model A."
But Ralph and June Harrell value the eight-decades-old Model A as if it were gold. They have driven it every year since the mid 1950s, hauling their two daughters in the rumble seat and delighting passers-by as they tool along in the yellow vehicle.
On a summer day a decade ago, the Harrells were on a pleasure drive around Lake Monroe when a couple flagged them down. "Here comes this old couple," Ralph said as June added "they were about our age."
"They said that when they got married they went to New York in a car just like ours and we asked if they wanted to go for a ride," Harrell recalled. He and June helped the couple into the rumble seat "and we rode them all around the lake and they just hooped and hollered."
When the drive ended, the elderly couple had a difficult time extricating themselves from the compact back seat. "We almost never got them out," Harrell said. "Really. It was tough."
He insisted that I crawl into the rumble seat, and once there I didn't want to leave. What a great place for a passenger. I finally climbed out, gracefully, when Harrell said he would not take me for a ride because of the ice and snow outside. He said if I come back on a sunny warm day we will go cruising.
I got the story of the Model A, and a few other cars stashed in the back of his automotive garage in Bedford, while sitting as close as I could to a cast iron wood stove emitting waves of heat. Neighbor Raymond Deckard, who has lived in the same place since 1940, joined us. Maybe it was the fresh pot of coffee and jug of half-and-half, or possibly the platter of fried apple fritters from the Magic Morning Bakery that lured him over.
More likely, it was to spend time with June and Ralph Harrell, two of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Even though Harrell "retired" from the car fixing and painting business years ago, he and Deckard still tinker with friends' cars, and lawn mowers. Two years ago, they rebuilt the Model A's engine. You will find them there most days in Harrell's garage at the north edge of Bedford complete with framed photos on the wall ranging from cars restored over the years to Dolly Parton at her buxom best.
The men take car mechanics seriously; Harrell diagnosed my slipping transmission by my description of the car's behavior alone.
After coffee and treats, Harrell announced it was time to go to the back room. Sure, I wanted to see his 1926 Model T truck (custom built over the years and bearing a resemblance to Mr. Haney's peddler's truck on the television show "Green Acres." I don't know about you, but I can sing the theme song all the way through . "Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside .")
So, I left the warmth of the wood stove to see the old truck, which the Harrells drive in area parades. It is adorned with things such as his family's heirloom moonshine jug, his father's nail keg, a chicken coop, a stretched-out rabbit hide and even a pair of moose horns as a hood ornament of sorts.
He also has a shiny black, quite sleek 1951 four-door Chevrolet sedan parked back there. It turns out that during his years as a teacher at Bedford North Lawrence High School's vocational school, Harrell's students got to try their hand at car painting by taking on a section of the old Chevy.
"Dozens of kids painted this car," he said proudly, "One would get a quarter panel, another, the trunk lid."
As I admired the sedan, Harrell brought out two dried-up fox carcasses he hangs on the Model T truck for parades. I took one look and ran back to the wood stove.
