Blast From The Past at the Central National Meet

Reunited With My First 1949 Ford Custom

By John Emmering

We all have great memories and stories about our first car and that old flathead Ford we owned so many years ago, but it’s rare to be reunited with the car of our youth as I was this summer at the Central National Meet in Springfield

While paging through a copy of the Indiana Regional Group’s Nov-Dec 2013 Hoosier Views newsletter just before the NIRG member’s meeting last January, I spied a photograph of a Sea-Mist Green 1949 Ford Custom Fordor on page six that I believed was the car I bought at age 16.  Two years earlier I had seen what I believed was the same car offered for sale on the internet by an Ohio antique car dealer.  As I turned to page nine in the newsletter, another picture of the car confirmed my belief.  It seemed more than a coincidence that on the top right side of the windshield of the pictured car there was a small round Ford-Mercury Club of America sticker like the one I applied to the windshield glass of my car back in 1972.   The newsletter identified the current owners of the 1949 Ford as fellow Early Ford V-8 Club of America members Jack and Betty Price of Indianapolis.

After mentioning that I believed I had found our old ’49 Ford to my father, he went to a drawer and produced the bill of sale from the vehicle dated August 10, 1971.  The Ford was purchased from C. Piano Used Cars, 144 Addison St., Elmhurst, IL for $675.00 plus $33.75 tax.  Most importantly the bill of sale had the car’s serial number.  I soon got Jack Price on the phone and told him that I believed I had once owned his 1949 Ford.  A check of his vehicle registration confirmed the fact that it was the same car that I bought just before the start of my senior year in High School.  After enjoying the car for three years and doing many improvements, I traded the ’49 Ford to my father in 1974 for a Pinto my mother had driven so I would have a “daily driver” at college.  My father entered the ’49 Ford in shows and did lots of work on the car until he sold it in 1978 in order to purchase a 1962 Thunderbird.  The 1949 Ford passed through several hands spending time in Florida and Georgia until the Ohio Car dealer obtained it and sold it to Jack and Betty Price. 

Since my wife Robin and I were in Indiana last May we arranged to stop by and visit Jack and Betty Price at their home in Indianapolis and I got to sit behind the wheel of my old Ford once again. We encouraged Jack and Betty to come the Central National Meet this August and sure enough they registered and came to Springfield showing their 1949 Ford at the meet.  I really enjoyed having the old car from my teen years right next to my current 1949 Ford Custom Fordor on the concourse.  It is great to know that the car that brought me lots of fun back in the 70’s inspiring  my interest in Ford V-8’s is still around in the hands of great owners and is still being shown and appreciated.