George Botti tells his daughter, Liz Manocha, about how he came to own his first car—a 1930 Ford Model A Roadster that he had looked at and admired each day on his walk home from school.
Originally aired December, 30, 2005, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Liz Manocha (LM) and George Botti (GB)
GB: It was a 1930 Model A Ford roadster. And it was sitting outside, and it had a “For Sale” sign on it. And each day that I’d come by I had to stop and look at this car. It was beautiful. It had a rumble seat. It was green with black fenders and red-spoked wheels, and it looked like it was brand new.
One day as I was stopping and looking at it, a man came out. And he said hello; I said hello. He said, ‘I notice you’re looking at this car everyday. Do you like it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I like it. Very much.’ He says. ‘Well, would ’ya buy it?’ I said, ‘Well how much is it?’ He said, ‘A hundred dollars.’ ‘Ohh, I don’t have a hundred dollars. In fact, I could only get about fifty.’ He said, ‘I’ll tell you what. You get me seventy-five and you can have the car, but you gotta bring it back today.’
I ran home to my mother. There she was ironing at the board. And I told her what the story was. I said, ‘I really want to borrow twenty-five from you, Mom.’ She said, ‘Georgie, I’ll give you the twenty-five because you’re a good boy.’ And I says
So I brought it back and I gave it to the man. That next morning, I drove the car to school. I’ll never forget that day as long as I live, and I drove the car up and there was a little group under the tree. Those students turned around—you know, they wouldn’t hardly say hello to me just the day before. ‘Holy Mackerel! George, where did you get this car?’ ‘Oh, I got it alright.’ ‘It’s beautiful!’ Finally, I saw my friend and I called him over. ‘Spider, get in the rumble seat; I’ll give you a ride.’ And I took him for a ride.