Saturday, August 07, 2021

How did your ancestors find their black Ford Model T in a parking lot full of black Ford Model Ts?

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How did your ancestors find their black Ford Model T in a parking lot full of black Ford Model Ts?

Apparently, the Ford Model T only came in one color, black, for several years. Also, the Ford Model T was so popular that Henry decided not to take out ads about it for several years as well.

So when all that the American public would buy and drive were just black Ford Model Ts, your family would have parked them in a parking lot full of other black Ford Model Ts.

So after your family (your parents or grandparents) did their thing, how would they successfully track down their particular Ford Model T out of a sea of them at that parking lot?

How did they know that their particular Ford Model T, wherever they parked it, was their exact one, and not just someone else's next to theirs that just looked like theirs?

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There no large parking lots at that time. There were no large numbers of cars at that time.

Correct, and if you see old pictures of streets filled with parked cars those are staged to make a town look prosperous.

That said, even during the era of black Model Ts there were lots of differences based on the year it was made and the options added. It was very unlikely that you would see another car exactly like yours parked near yours.

What did parking lots for state fairs and county fairs look like at the time then?

They weren’t parking lots.

These events were just put up in someones field, pasture land. It wasn’t as … organized, manufactured, as it is in a city.

It was a huge open land space. No infrastructure.

Also most events did not have the numbers if attendees as they do now. Most folks would know or be related to someone there. Not all events were like this, but most.

It was easier to pick out your vehicle because: there were not crammed side by side and if they were there still was enough room to “remember and find” your specific spot.

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Mowed fields. Sometimes with fenceposts and ropes to make lanes and walkways. Some still do.

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Senior discounts... achieved!

Cities were small, dense, and many not designed for cars. If a bunch of people wanted to go down to the sea shore, they might take a train. Same goes for special events.

60 something

They stopped making the Model T in 1927. Somebody born that year would be 94.

that does not mean people stopped driving them

My 1st GF in High School [ 1982 ] was driving a 1952 Ford F1 Panel Truck ... her sister drove a 1958 Country Sedan

60 something

It means the parking lots weren't full of them by the time we were around.

Indeed, but I would be willing to bet 10 or 15 yrs later there were still a bunch in use in Rural America

There were also other car brands available. Ford just made a car that was finally affordable to the middle class, hence its popularity.

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It's called a license plate.

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But wait a second, were license plates already invented when Model T's were new? EDIT: Googled when license plates were invented: 1903. Then saw pictures of 1925 plates.

And they didn't have a smartphone to take a picture of the license plate or a notetaking app (like my QuickMemo+) to type down the plate details. So were they expected to just, memorize, the plate?

Summer of 69

Yep, and also phone numbers, and birthdays and anniversaries.

they used cuneiform tablets to mark location relative to the stars. but seriously, you use your notetaking app to write down your own license plate every time you park? The future is full of amazing wonders!

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...you can't remember your license plate number unless you take a photo of it?

That reminds me: I got my current SUV after trading my old one in back in June. I should take a picture of my most recent license plate when I go out today.

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I've had 3 different plates in the last 3 years. I have the number in my phone's Notes app too.

Just how old are you for that to surprise you?

Yes, people actually knew how to remember things. Knowing from memory all your relatives, and a few friends addresses and phone numbers and birthdays was also common.

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And street lights have been around since the 30s. Red Yellow Green.

Not a product of apps and gig economy.

My grandmother painted hers periwinkle. No problem finding it at all!

tracked it by smell.

There were no parking lots back then

You just remembered where you parked.

My parent's oldest car was a 1952 Chevy.

So, I get what you are asking. And... while I haven't got anyone around to ask, my Grandma did talk about her father's car.

She was born in 1903, a few months before the Wright Brothers first flight. She grew up on a farm in upstate New York. Her dad was a farmer, but very interested in new technology. He had a car when my Grandma was a teen. I don't think it was a model T... the family has lantern headlights that appear to have come from a Benz quadracycle (not as fancy or high performance as a model T at the time). She said he kept it in the barn. He use to take the engine out to work on it. They would occasionally take it into town. They were one of, if not the only, families to have a car in town. So.... their vehicle was the one without a horse.

(Off topic... my grandma was taught to drive at a very young age, and remembers driving into town, paying $0.50 for her first driver's license, and driving home - but we were never sure what year and what car that was.)

Also for fun.... I decided to do a little math fun. You've already heard.... there were no parking lots. But how rare were cars really.

I live in a suburb of Detroit. I'm only going to consider the down town of my little town. Today's population is 20000. In 1920, we had 850 people. Today, in the US, car ownership is 0.797 cars per person. In 1920, that was 0.086 cars per person.

So.... in my town today we should have: 15940 cars. In 1920 my town would have: 73 cars.

(Numbers pulled from Google, Wikipedia, etc...) OK, sure... those are wild estimates. Not accurate. But it should give us an order of magnitude. (Physicist Enrico Fermi was famous for this stuff.) A combination of fewer people, and lower car ownership.

With 73 cars in the entire town.... its probably safe to assume your car is the one outside the front door of the store.

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"...when all that the American public would buy and drive were just black Ford Model T's,"

That was never a thing. Not only were original Model T's made in multiple colors, blue, gray, red, and green were common, the Ford motor company didn't offer it in black until 1913, five years after it first debuted. In addition they didn't all look like clones of the first 1908 model, just a few years after it first appeared there were also a large variety of Model T body styles.

Model T's weren't a sea of sameness when parked anywhere, they were in the road or parked along with many other models of cars by many other makers. Also there were hardly parking lots at all, unless you were in a big city and going to a big venue, one parked on the street, and remembering that you parked one door down from Kresge's was pretty easy. When parked in larger venues, like a large lot or field, remembering geometrically where you parked and what your car looked like was no different, and possibly even easier than today when you return to the parking area and gaze over a sea of beige/blue/gray egg shaped sameness.

TLDR; There was never a parking lot of black Model T's, because they weren't all black and there was a lot of variety in both the colors and the body styles. "Any color they want as long as it's black" was Ford marketing BS for reasons I didn't list here.

Actually, Ford found out that the black paint dried the quickest so the could build the cars quicker. If in doubt, google it but yes, they were originally in different colors as you state.

Yes, the black was a manufacturing choice, faster drying paint gets them through and off the line faster.

I had a good early education on early Fords as one of my uncles was a Model T and Model A aficionado, owning 13 of them, along with a barn full of Studebakers, in many configurations, including his 'work truck' a 1930 Model A panel truck. Good times.

50 something, going on Medicare

Looked for the Philips 66 ball on the radio antenna.

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