Mom's First Car

Early spring of 1951 found my mother in her second year of teaching grammar school at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. It was a job she would keep until she married in April of 1955.
Not having a car of her own at this time, she would get a ride to and from work with a co-worker who lived up the street. This went on for several years until she decided that spring of ’51, that she had saved up enough money and that it was time for her to finally get her own car.

Worcester’s big Ford dealer back then (and still today) Harr Ford, had a car that caught her eye…a 1951 Ford Custom convertible. The car was not the lot and would have to be ordered. So after haggling on a price, she signed the required paperwork. Mom remembers that the purchase price was around $3000.00. She also remembers that she had to make two colors choices when she ordered. Her first choice of color, was turquoise exterior with a black interior. Her second choice was just the opposite…a black exterior with a turquoise interior. The salesman told her it would be several weeks before a new shipment of cars arrived and he would call her. The call from Harr Ford came two weeks later, her car had arrived. Unfortunately it was her second color choice, but that didn't matter, she was anxious to get her new car. The next day after being "dealer prepped" Mom drove off the Harr Ford lot in her shiny new Ford.

The passage of time has dimmed some of my mom’s memories of that car, but she did remember that it was V-8 with manual transmission (three on the tree). It also had a radio, heater and white wall tires, all of which were options back then.

Mom also remembers that the first weekend she had the car she drove to Cape Cod, where her parents had a cottage. She said the most lasting memory she has of that car is of driving with the top down and the wind blowing through her hair. She recently stated, “it really was a beautiful car, I loved driving it”
My Mom kept that car until just before she married. My (future) Dad suggested they sell it as his car was newer and bigger...he had a 1954 Ford.
I would like to think that Mom's car is still around, but the law of averages goes against that. She sold it to the police chief of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts who just happened to be her friend's father.

Through the years she told me she had taken pictures of that car, but didn’t know what became of them. Then several years ago while going thru some long forgotten color slides there it was…the very car…her ’51 Ford in glorious Kodachrome color. Those slides probably hadn’t seen the light of day since Eisenhower was president, but now I had before my eyes, pictures of my Mom and her brand new 1951 Ford taken on an early spring day in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Two of those pictures can be seen at the top of this posting.

She is right...it was a beautiful car.