HE’S BEEN BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THIS 1930 FORD SINCE HE WAS 13

Michael Dudding, 70, a former owner and operator of radio stations who lives in Denison, Iowa, on his 1930 Ford Model A, as told to A.J. Baime.

Growing up in Buffalo Center, Iowa, I often quizzed my mother about her childhood. One story that stuck in my head was about how much she enjoyed riding in her father’s car, a 1930 Model A. When I was 13, in 1967, I heard a commercial on the radio about an antique car auction in Blue Earth, Minn. It didn’t take much effort to persuade my mother to attend, and on our roughly 20-mile drive there, we agreed that if we were lucky enough to find a Model A in our price range, we would split the cost.

My siblings and I were hired out during the summer months to area farmers to “walk their beans”—meaning we would pull out the weeds where the beans were growing. We were paid an average of $1.50 per hour during the growing season. Having walked beans for four years, I had funds I was hoping to use to purchase my half of the Model A.

At the auction, a 1930 Model A like the one my mother remembered from her youth came up for sale, and I innocently began to bid. We bought that car for $800. I drove the Model A home. Although underage at 13, I had experience driving tractors and such. I didn’t expect the Model A’s brakes to be so weak, so at the first stop sign, I bumped into the back of the car my mother was driving.

The Model A was a car that changed history. It was introduced in 1927, and sales skyrocketed. [This model was the first to feature the “blue oval” Ford logo that is still familiar today.] Production ended in 1932, after nearly five million were built. A Model A similar to ours was famously driven as a getaway car by the American gangster John Dillinger. His Ford sold in 2010 for $165,000.

I grew up with a lot of siblings, and we lived 6 miles outside of town. The Model A became the car we used to drive ourselves to school. None of us ever tested how fast it could go. Our top speed was usually 35 miles an hour. It was a neat car to drive in winter. When all our other car batteries were dead, the Model A always started. Because of the high wheel base and narrow tires, it was an ideal car to drive through snow drifts.

We used the Model A for my graduating high-school yearbook picture in 1972 with about 50 senior classmates gathered around. My parents used pictures of the car for our holiday cards. As my siblings and I headed off to college, it got driven less and less, and ultimately was put in storage.

Decades passed until my older brother Tom took the Model A to his shop in Mason City, Iowa, in hopes of making this car operational again. Two friends of mine in Denison who had an interest in antique cars, Richard and Howard Christiansen, ultimately took the car. It became a three-year restoration project.

Since then, we have taken the Ford to car shows, where it has won first and second trophies. It was used in Kansas City for my daughter Desiree and her husband Scott Macke’s wedding pictures. We’ve had it in local parades. Weekly, I wash it, dry it and wax it by hand. It has about 97,400 miles on its odometer, and it runs like a top.

The Model A serves as a piece of automotive history, and my only regret is that my mom passed away before it was fully restored. My goal is to keep this piece of history preserved, and it will eventually go to my son, Tyler, to keep it in the Dudding name.

Write to A.J. Baime at [email protected]

2024-08-04T12:04:09Z dg43tfdfdgfd