Show I Ghosts In The Model T bittner First South in the franchise is parked a T Were pedestrians and examine the poked my head day and was by a stampede of inside that oia car There was Dad when he had more hair and fewer lines and when there was a spring in his step and his brood was secure in the absolute knowledge that Dad could fix anything so there was nothing to worry I WATCHED him cranking and cranking out in front of the car while my brother advanced the I heard the cough ana rattle as the engine caught and watched my dad sprint to the driver's seat before the engine I saw mother sitting on the high straight seat with the baby on her saw my brother scoot over to let dad have the drivers but he remained in the favored spot between our I MET again my perpetual gnawing envy of the only boy in a family of seven and next oldest to who was allowed to do ail the things I wanted to and couldn't just by divine right of being a I didn't understand or accept the differences then and haven't accepted them but I've forgiven him for being recipient of those Until I think about IN BACK were my oldest sisters with their windblown haircuts and close fitting felt hats with just the tips of their hair peeking out so Back there also were my two redheaded sisters with their massive freckles and unruly hair who were always mad at each other and at whoever tried to come between them to ONE OF the favorite forms of recreation in that family was appeasing the redheads who weren't twins but earnestly informed whoever that they were only six months On mother's lap was my little the only one younger than who by right of her babyhood received privileges I envied but didn't really want for And I had to admit she was a even as I tried in vain to plaster my hair down again so it would lie close and tame like WE WERE a family who filled the Model T to bulging and insured that whenever we stopped for gas except in our own the man would certainly put his head in the window and begin counting It always made mother but amused His only regrets in having seven children was that there weren't and he was one father of girls who really liked it that JUST putting my head inside a Model T Ford brought all those people back for a and I wondered where they have For they are all though some of them are still The redheads have grown up and middle aged and married and raised their own broods and still retain that special closeness which shuts everyone else out a THE LITTLE sister is with her blue eyes set into her head with sooty One of the older sisters is she of the windblown haircut and flute-like The oldest my second mother has her own numerous family but was always more mother than even is but father is with us yet a Age has bent his shoulders and slowed his but the lingers are still agile and the eyes BUT THEY are all I look in the mirror and search for the tow-headed girl with blue eyes and crooked teeth and ears which would stick through the hair no matter how carefully I arranged each In the face of the mature I see no hint of that I look at my man with his showing through the top what was a black mop and see no resemblance to the wiry boy who usually had his head inside a The eyes are the same with their mischief and sly and the drawling voice still evokes the teasing but the boy is HOW IS it that a Model T. Ford can survive unchanged while the people have changed beyond The Model T. shows signs of having been but I fear no amount of skill in reupholstering will change this woman into the spindly legged girl who perched on the front seat of the Model T waiting for dad to come out of the post office with the MEN ARE supposed to be yet we are outlasted by things which we because even if we are we are not Only such as Model T's remain This is what I had not expected when I looked inside that old I walked away I WONDER who else sees the ghosts in that Model T. |