Before the XUNICEF/UNICEF era: Ken Gibbs

THE MODEL-T FORD

I wonder how many of our surviving number will remember the T-Model Ford, and have had any experience of those icons of the early motorised age ?  I am referring to the period ~18 BU (~18 years before UNICEF was founded).

My father had allegedly negotiated to buy his T-Model for £ 100 around 1927, on the road and full of fuel.  When he came to collect it – and to pay the bill – he was incensed.  The cost of the number plates had taken the total to just over £ 100, so he told them to keep it.  They relented and he paid exactly £ 100 which included the number plates and full petrol tank.  Father was adept at the deal.

As a youngster, I had the good fortune to play on the pensioned-off Model-T before nature had had its way with it and it became too dangerous to be near.  Cobras seemed to find that it provided excellent cover from where they could strike and eventually devour tasty small animals.  While our parents found that we five boys were too numerous to control, the idea of losing one of us to a cobra bite might have had a bad effect on society’s view of team Gibbs, so we were banned from the T-Model.

History doesn’t relate whether there had ever been a User Manual, but father seemed to manage to drive it without damaging anybody or anything, so it would seem that steering, brakes and gear shifts were understood.  Maybe.

One thing that was not understood was the button on the floor near the clutch/brake/accelerator group.  He believed it to be for oiling something somewhere, and he pressed it occasionally thinking that it oiled the gearbox, or something like that.  That was, until he wanted to drive somewhere at night and when he switched on the lights, they didn’t show anything up too far in front, so he alighted and bent both headlights upwards so he could see where he was going.  Very practical, was our father.  A little later, he thought to lubricate whatever it was the button was supposed to lubricate, and then he could see nothing whatsoever, and had to stop to bend the headlights back to their earlier positions.  This is how he discovered how the dip-switch actually worked.

Starting the T-Model was by crank.  If one cranked two or three times and nothing happened, one was obliged to ‘taste’ the plus terminal on the battery with your tongue while holding the negative cable where it was un-insulated.  If you got a tingle on your tongue, the battery was working.  Crank again...

Perhaps best of all was the story that when cars (including the T-Model) came to use the roads, as they were not well understood, there were places where it was mandatory to have a man waving a red flag preceding the car – to warn unsuspecting pedestrians of the dangers of challenging cars on the road.  Readers who may have seen ‘Downton Abbey’ should understand the mentality of early car users and particularly pedestrians.

Mention of ‘Downton Abbey’ reminds me of a scene where a fox hunt was about to  take place.   For readers who may have observed a crowd of aristocratic English involved such an event, I am sure they will have seen amongst the participants, some women who were built stolidly, and how they rode their horses with an odd rise and fall motion, perhaps to accommodate the motion of the horse’s back.  I can’t help wondering if, when any of them were able to travel in a T-Model Ford, would they have expected the car to emulate the equine motion ?  Just thinking. . . .

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Father became relatively familiar with his T-Model and there was the time when a sister of his travelled all the way from England to the farm outside Bulawayo in what is now known as Zimbabwe, to ensure that he was cared-for adequately.  Those were the days before he had found a wife.  Apparently, on the way from Bulawayo where his sister had arrived by train, they were driving along the dirt road which led to the farm when a wheel overtook them.  What an odd sight it must have been but it was soon realised that it had come off his car and they had to stop using just three wheels.  Somehow, father managed, but he spent some time finding where the ‘passing wheel’ had disappeared into the bush and brought it back to the car, all the time while avoiding snakes.  What a welcome that must have been for his sister !

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While our father managed to operate the various vehicles which he owned, he somehow never would admit to needing some coaching.

At one stage, well after the T-Model had been discarded, it was decided that the farm was in need of a 5-ton truck, so a second hand Bedford was purchased.  It was to carry milk from the farm, in cases where the train was not available.  I’m not absolutely certain but I do believe that our father drove it but had some difficulty understanding how double-de-clutching operated.  You knew when father was driving the truck from the scream of the gearbox when shifting from a higher gear to a lower gear.  It was left to the farm manager or one of us children to drive the truck, probably in deference to the poor Bedford’s gearbox.

When it came my turn to become available to drive the truck, I was obliged to pass a driving test before being let loose in the Bedford on a public road.  I can only have been 17 or 18 years old, but had, by that time, sufficient experience of driving cars that it was just a test to see how I would handle the Bedford.

I should mention that I had learned the double-de-clutch routine on the various cars to which I had access, and was able to do the same thing on the truck while ‘learning’ on the farm.  No screams were heard from the Bedford gearbox when I was at the controls.

Came the time for the driving test in Bulawayo and I was asked if we could accomplish the test quickly as both I and the examiner had quite a lot of other duties as well.  We took off for a ten minute drive through the streets of Bulawayo with the examiner simply saying, “Take the next left turn” etc – to check that I was able to operate the trafficators and make the appropriate hand signals and the examiner appeared to be satisfied when we arrived back at the start point.  He said that he was satisfied with my handling of the Bedford but added that it might be best if I didn’t drive it like it was a sports car. . . . . .

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