by Marty Green ·
Friday, July 12, 2024
A bumper crop—pardon the pun—of antique cars rolled through town center in this year’s Fourth of July parade, to the delight of young and old alike. Pat Jennings and Theresa Ledoux, who organize the antique car brigade each year, both said this year’s number of cars was exceptional. “I think this is the most we’ve ever had,” Jennings said. Ledoux agreed, “This year’s turnout was amazing.”
“I’ve got a little problem with old cars,” Bryan Fox of Lunenburg admitted. Standing beside his 1926 Model T Ford on the library field, he acknowledged he has two more antique cars at home. He also pointed out that, by 1926, the gas tank in a Model T was up front. As a result, it was no longer necessary to drive the car backward up hills when the tank neared empty, as owners of earlier Fords had to do to keep the gas flowing to the engine.
Fox is not the only owner who has found it hard to stop at just one antique car. Jud Ratliff and Bob Blanck, who started taking part in the Harvard parade even before they moved to town, have nine old cars.
Ratliff brought a gleaming red 1960 Buick Electra 225 to this year’s parade. He has owned the car for more than 30 years. Among other luxuries, the convertible features a speaker in the center of the back seat, lest the rushing wind interfere with passengers’ enjoyment of the Kingston Trio. (Yes, the trio had two top-selling albums in 1960.)
“This is the car we drive the most,” Blanck said, pointing to a 1911 Cadillac. It was fully restored to its original beauty, from the crank starter on the front to the leather seats stuffed with horsehair. A friend of Blanck’s father had pulled the car out of a Connecticut junkyard in 1940. Had it stayed there a little longer, it might have been turned into scrap metal, which was the fate of many old cars during World War II.
Another longtime parade participant was Dan D’Amore, whose 1957 Chevy Corvette sported numerous prize ribbons dangling from its rear view mirror. The two-tone turquoise and white convertible won many of those ribbons in past Harvard parades. And D’Amore has two more Corvettes at home—“one in pieces,” he said.
A tiny three-wheeled 1962 Messerschmitt captured attention in the parade when owner Gerard DelPriore of Littleton flipped open its cockpit roof to wave as he drove past the Common. Later, down at the library field, DelPriore mentioned that Elvis Presley had owned a Messerschmitt. Six-year-old Alice Kozhemiakin from Boxborough was the first of many children who were eager to climb inside the little car. “Don’t drive it away,” DelPriore told Alice with a grin.
Not all cars had been restored to their original appearance. Some, like John Panetta’s 1952 Ford F1, had been customized instead. Panetta’s pickup was an eye-catching burnt orange. While it was not a color from the 1950s palette, it did harmonize with the beautiful wood grain in the truck’s handmade bed, and also with Panetta’s auburn-haired King Charles spaniel, Milo.
Andy Warner’s 1924 Maxwell (a brand made famous by Jack Benny); Malcolm Lee’s 1930 Model A Ford named OOGA, which he learned to drive at age 5 on the dirt road at his grandparents’ house; a VW bug; and a robust British contingent of MGs and Austin-Healeys—the cars and the stories that went with them were numerous and fascinating.
Bob Blanck drives on Ayer Road in his 1911 Cadillac. He started taking part in the Harvard parade even before he moved to town. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Bob Blanck with the same 1911 Cadillac before he restored it. (Courtesy photo)