Author Ellen Collier—she writes fun novels about 1928 Galveston and a ‘Flapper’ Sob Sister (that’s a woman journalist, young readers) —saw a Model T and became mesmerized. Fairly lost her mind writing about the early 1900s antique mass-produced automobile.
Shucks Ellen, a still standing Model T isn’t a ‘Eureka’ discovery for this old college editor. I rode in a handsome classmate’s Model T in 1949. Back in the days when you didn’t need to add ‘..at Austin’ to locate The University of Texas.
We followed the Longhorn Band in the pre-election parade. He drove. I waved to the student voters who lined Guadalupe Street. Wanted them to vote for me in the Daily Texan Editor election.
To tell the truth, I didn’t care if student voters mistook the Model T driver for a candidate named Elam. My driver was taller and muscular, with a beaming ‘movie star’ smile. He was a still-young Navy veteran who had spent time on a mine-clearing vessel in the South Pacific. I knew him at the onset of World War II when we both lived in Abilene.
He volunteered to speak for me at sorority-candidate luncheons. I heard he always ended his speech with…”Remember, Elam is ‘male’ spelled backwards.”
Not sure that closing helped. But I needed all the help I could get. I was a candidate who could become the first—in 50 years—Republican elected Texan Editor. My opponents were making that a big ‘no-no’ in the all-Democrat state.
Also riding in the parade was a classmate named Liz Smith—another West Texan and the lady who would go on to become New York City’s most noted newspaper gossip columnist. Liz was the favorite to win the editorship of UT’s humor magazine.
Liz rode in a top-down convertible with some whooping friends who had joined the parade late. Suddenly, their convertible skid past my classmate’s Model T. The back ranks of the marching band scattered. No band member was injured. But as a result of hurt feelings, many campaigned for Tony Guerra—who was elected humor magazine editor.
I was elected, also. Before my classmate graduated, sold his Model-T Ford and hitch-hiked to Hollywood. Before Fess Parker starred playing Davy Crockett.
Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay
I enjoyed the Model T/Daily Texan editor election story. It left me wondering if Fred the Printer rode in the Model T. Did he help Elam campaign for Texan editor? So many questions….
Son of FTP