TEXARKANA - Upward of 15 million Model T Fords were built through the 1920s, and roughly a century later one of those pioneering Tin Lizzies belongs to Joey Wilson.
Wilson, son of Kenneth and Tiffany Wilson of Texarkana, was bequeathed the vehicle by his grandfather, the late Raymond Wilson, who left the then-teenager with a Model T as his first car.
Back in Henry Ford's day, the Model T revolutionized the automobile industry with its accessibility to middle class families and its assembly line construction. It truly changed the world forever.
Fans of Dr. Pepper and Coca-Cola locally may recognize the Wilson name, as the Nashville, Arkansas-based bottling company supplying those sodas has been the Wilson family business through several generations.
Wilson's granddad acquired the Model T on a business trip to Mena, Arkansas, the young Wilson explains, and the car was eventually parked at the Nashville plant for years. In the last year or so, Joey has refurbished the car and brought it to Texarkana, even taking it out on a spin around town, no doubt attracting curious onlookers.
"It's a 1926 Model T, and I believe that the woman that he bought it from was the first owner, so that would make me the third owner," Wilson said, noting his grandfather died in 2011.
"I remember when I was a small child - I'm 23 now, I was born in 1997 - when I was 5 or 6 years old, he would take us for rides in it, and I knew about it but I guess I didn't realize it was anything too different. It was just my ganddad's car," Wilson recalled. "He'd take us every now and then (for drives)."
He believes his grandfather was the only one in the family who knew how to drive it, so when he got older it wasn't getting ridden around as much. "It's different. It's not like a standard transmission. There's no real instructions," Wilson said, noting he has a couple of books about it, so that's the only way he knows how to drive it.
The Model T was a hobby for his grandfather. The family had a distributorship in Mena, and when he was there he somehow came into possession of this one, sort of a spur-of-the-moment transaction, the grandson recalled, for a man who was set in his ways.
In the 1990s, his grandfather had the car restored, having found local mechanics who worked on old cars and could pretty thoroughly restore it, Wilson said.
"The body and most of the metal was in good shape, but there's wood and leather upholstery, and I think a lot of that had kind of faded and that was replaced when they restored it," he said, adding, "The engine was overhauled." He's not sure of the extent.
The car is in good shape, and it may have been painted since that restoration. But it hadn't been driven enough and kept indoors out of the weather, Wilson said.
Before his grandfather passed away, he decided he wanted to leave it to Joey.
"I've wracked my brain all the while trying to figure if I'd shown some particular interest in it as a child, compared to my siblings and cousins and things that might have been interested," Wilson said. "I've made the most of it, I think. I've been pretty happy with it."
It's been in his possession since 2011. He was 14 at the time, not even driving a regular sort of car. Not many people today can say their first car was a Model T. In the subsequent years, he didn't do much with it, however, but workers at the Nashville company tended to its well-being.
But then recently he'd been thinking about it, the fact of having an old antique car that had not been driven in "who knows how long," just sitting there at their plant in Nashville. A conversation with someone spurred him to consider that old Model T's condition more seriously.
"I guess it dawned on me I should probably get it at least running where I could drive it if anybody ever asks. Somebody might really enjoy it," Wilson said. He had a bit of spare time to devote to the project, too, but he didn't expect much - not sure if it would ever run again. But get it running again, he did.
"I guess, not to be too technical, it's in good shape. The paint's real nice. It's not rusting, basically what you would expect from a car that was really well restored but then just kind of lived indoors for many, many years. That part of it's really nice," he said. "The upholstery is just perfect. It doesn't have any tears in it or anything."
He's worked on it part time whenever he had a spare moment. There was always something to do on it.
"Since I've decided to start working on it, I guess it's been a little over a year. I think it was around this time last year," Wilson said. A couple of weeks ago, on a whim he brought it down to Texarkana because some folks were curious.
"I've learned more and more exactly what state it's in. It's been in various states of repairs since I started it. I've been able to drive it, and then it's kind of broke down on me," Wilson said, "and then I've realized something that's needed to be done to it."
When he drives that Model T around town, he notices the response. Nearly a century after it was made, the Model T attracts notice, just as it did in the heyday of ubiquitous Tin Lizzie glory.
"I get looks and honks and hollers," Wilson said. "It's not an everyday sight, I'm discovering pretty quickly."