AMHERST, N.S. — The first time Beth Munroe got behind the wheel of a Model T Ford she knew she was hooked.
First of all, the car was from an era when women didn’t drive and secondly, how could you not love the nostalgia and unique noises the car makes?
“There’s just something about the put, put, put of the engine that I love,” said Munroe. “What’s not to love about it? There’s something very special about the car. They’re simple and elegant and they take you back in time. When you think of 1926 you’re in the Flapper era.”
She said her Model T was considered a doctor’s coupe because it was very reliable. Now, almost a century later, they’re not as reliable.
“They need a lot of TLC. You can’t really go any faster than 25 or 30 miles per hour and some days you can only do what your car wants to do. Some days it’s not going to be a happy camper and you’re not going to go too far and other days you can go far.”
Munroe, a retired pharmacist who runs Mrs. Pugsley’s Emporium in downtown Amherst, bought her first of two Model Ts approximately 25 years ago and she is sometimes seen “putting” around the streets of Amherst taking her 1926 coupe edition out for a ride. She also has a 1917 Model T that’s not running right now.
“People’s faces light up when they see a Model T because you can’t go very fast,” she said. “People could probably run faster than you can drive some days.”
In July, Munroe and her father, John, participated in the 2019 Red Dirt Tour at Brudenell, P.E.I. that was hosted by the Model T Ford Club International and featured 147 Model Ts from across North America.
The club has chapters around the globe with more than 3,700 members. The Munroes are members of the Atlantic Chapter, Maritime Ts.
The Red Dirt Tour was only the third time the group has had an event outside the United States. It’s the first time the tour has come to Atlantic Canada and the first time in more than 30 years that it has been held in Canada.
“We have a local chapter that gets together once or twice a year to talk about our vehicles and learn some things from other owners,” she said. “We do a lot of education amongst ourselves, learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to taking care of these cars because they really are so special.”
It was the Model T and Henry Ford’s assembly line concept that revolutionized transportation just as the Volkswagen, or people’s car, made cars more accessible several decades later.
Munroe said she never intended to buy a Model T, but when the seller offered her the keys and she learned how to engage the engine, disengage the brake and use the throttle she was immediately in love with the vehicle.
“One of the reasons is it’s so easy to service,” she said. “In a lot of cases it’s just a screwdriver and a couple of 9/16th wrenches, and a little ingenuity.”
Munroe and her father thoroughly enjoyed the Red Dirt Tour that saw the Model T owners take their vehicles to events in the eastern part of Prince Edward Island as well as to historic sites like Orwell Cove and Charlottetown’s Victoria Park and finally tourist-friendly Cavendish.
“You start out in the morning and you have breakfast and you have this tour book in your welcome package. You can follow the directions, or you can do your own route and say ‘Oh, I really wanted to go here or there.’ I only went to a few things I really wanted to go to and really enjoyed my time on P.E.I.”
While they didn’t participate in all the events, Munroe said the neatest thing about the tour was at the Rodd resort where all the owners got together almost daily and swapped stories or helped each other out since century-old cars can be fickle at times.
While the Model T is rare, despite being massed produced between 1908 and 1927, Munroe said people would be surprised by how many owners there are – and a lot own more than one.
