Alice’s Forgotten 1969 Ford Thunderbird

Until recently, Alice didn’t claim to be an automotive enthusiast. But ask her today, and she will tell you that she is proud to be a car gal. 

LADIES' LANE BY HOME HEADQUARTERS

Alice’s husband, David, has always been a self-proclaimed automobile aficionado, and growing up in Detroit, Michigan; the Motor City wouldn’t have it any other way. Alice claims she caught the car bug from her husband David in 2008 when he got her to join a car club. 

“We really weren’t in the club that long and I am seeing the other women there, and I was impressed to see women who had cars, but the husbands didn’t,” said Alice. ”Like Sherri, and her Nova, and her love for it, and her love for the club. I saw her, and I looked at my husband, and I said, ‘you know what, I want my own car’.” 

“David is always on the websites looking at cars, looking at cars, and looking at cars. I saw, I think it was a 1970 Thunderbird with the nose on it and I said, ‘I want that car!’”
“David said, ‘What?’”
“I said, ‘I want that car. All the other girls in the club have a car and I want to have a car too and I want that one,’” said Alice. 

Alice started the quest for her very own car. David had agreed to sell his motorcycles so that Alice could buy her classic car with his only condition being that the vehicle must be a Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury. Alice didn’t take issue with the terms because she had her heart set on a Ford Thunderbird. 

The first car Alice looked at was a 1970 Thunderbird in South Carolina. The car ran well, but had suspension issues. Alice and the owner were not able to negotiate an agreeable price so she kept looking. 

The second car Alice looked at was a 1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau Coupe. Alice and David made the drive up Highway 17 N from Leland, North Carolina to Jacksonville, North Carolina. Alice describes seeing the car for the first time. “When I saw the color, it was just a perfect car. It was just like I knew it was my car. After we pulled in the driveway, the worst part was it took them over an hour to start it.” 

The owner did finally get the car started and Alice took it for a test cruise. “Driving it for the first time, it was just so much fun. I guess having an old car and being from that generation, it’s like a bite of your past, your childhood. I was raised around ’69, ’70 cars. It was just a comfort feeling. It just felt right,” Alice said.

Alice loved everything about this T-bird. “I saw the back seat, the wrap around seat, and all the chrome, and the car is loaded with turquoise, the turquoise in the car itself, and the back symbol. I fell in love with it. It just floored me.” 

Even though it was love at first sight, Alice had to leave the car behind as she headed for home. The motorcycles had yet to be sold and finances were not available until they did sell.

Alice looked at one more Ford Thunderbird. Another 1969 model located in Raleigh, North Carolina with suicide doors, a feature that Alice liked. “He had it in his garage and it was filthy dirty,” Alice said of the owner’s car. “The car was filled with garbage and leaves. Everything you could see looked brand new, but he trashed the car.” 

As Alice was getting ready to leave the owner said, “I’ll knock the price down and…” Alice interjected, “You should take care of the car, wash it. That’s really a disgrace. You have such a beautiful car and you didn’t even take the time to wash it. The least you can do to her, is clean her, she deserves that. He kind of just nodded his head and said, ‘Yeah, your right. I should have.’” 

Alice said she received a phone call a week later from the seller letting her know that he had cleaned and washed the car and the price had been reduced, but it was too late. Alice had made her decision upon leaving Raleigh. She wanted the Thunderbird in Jacksonville. 

The 1969 Ford Thunderbird in Jacksonville, NC belonged to the second owner and he drove the car to work once a week. He didn’t really want to sell the car, but he was being transferred to California and wasn’t able to take the Thunderbird with him. 

Alice said, “The guy was very nice. I told him ‘I really love your car,’ and he could see that I loved the car. I think that was important to him because he did have other people who were interested in the car. But he could see that I loved the car, that I really wanted the car, and that I was willing to save up my money to get the car.” 

David soon sold his motorcycles and Alice was able to purchase her 1969 Ford Thunderbird. “It was really cool, when I came to get the car,” Alice shared. “We stayed there a couple hours and I got tons of hugs from him, his wife, and his kids. It was more than trading the title.” 

The starting problem was quickly alleviated with new battery cables and the cleaning and detailing began as soon as Alice’s car arrived at it’s new home. David said, “It was all done in three weeks in preparation of an upcoming show, the All Ford Show by the South Eastern North Carolina Mustang Club in Wilmington, North Carolina. We wanted this car ready for the show. It was going to be her first show, and her debut, and it was real important.” 

Alice pushed her bed over to one side of her bedroom to make room for the interior parts while they were out of the car. “It all ended up in my bedroom. I actually cleaned my room and laid blankets down so I could protect the parts, I didn’t want anything to happen to them,” Alice said laughing. 

The day of the show started off wet. “It rained on and off the entire show. I wiped down the car about a hundred times,” Alice stated. “When I was at the show it made me a little bit more excited. It was a big sense of pride. It really was because here is my car, the only one like it. And people walking by it at the show, there going, I remember that car, my dad had one of those cars.” 

“It’s makes you feel like the big community you live in really isn’t that big. It makes you feel more connected as a community as a whole. Because all of a sudden you have something in common with someone you’ve never met and you’re sitting there having a conversation with them like your best friends and knew them all your life and reminiscing about the past, and making that connection. And that’s really the best part of the whole thing for me.” 

Alice continued, “This man came up to my car at the show and he had a t-shirt with all the different Thunderbirds on it. He didn’t say anything. He just stood there and stood there. Then he goes up to my husband and asks him if it’s his car. David said, ‘Nope, it’s Hers.’ He had a pure love for Thunderbirds as I did and we had a wonderful conversation.” 

Alice exclaimed, “That was worth all my time. At the end of the show they are handing out trophies and they called my name. It made me feel good that I am not the only one who loves my car for what it is and the amount of pride and work that I put into her, and the amount of work that my husband put into her, because he did sell his motorcycles so that I could buy my baby. Other than cleaning her a lot and polishing her and trying to get her to shine, she’s not the prettiest car there. I mean she is to me and she is original. But you have all these cars there with new paint jobs. She is more original and I want to keep here original.” 

Alice enjoys her Thunderbird outside of car shows even more. “I don’t want to take her too far. I really want to keep her where I can get in her and drive her. I don’t want to think oh gosh, I’m going to up the miles too much here, and I don’t want to worry about that. I want to have a car that is my therapy. If I have a rough, super horrible day of work, I’ll come home and say ‘I need my therapy’, and I will take her out and just drive her. It is a different feeling. It’s a different drive than the newer cars. It’s smoother and more relaxing, you cruise it; you’re not driving. You cruise it. It’s enjoyment.” 

Alice’s philosophy is “just drive it. I’m not going to tow it anywhere and I’m not going to worry about the miles, I love going to the store or some everyday place and a person walks up to you and says, can I just look inside, can I see underneath the hood, and a lot of people say what kind of car is it because they don’t remember her, they don’t know her, and once they do, they are like oh yeah I remember her.” 

Alice has affectionately named the 429 big block powered Ford “Forgotten” as in the forgotten Thunderbirds and enjoys her time with her. Alice offers her advice for women who are reading this and thinking, “I want a nice car, I want a classic car, and I want to drive around like that. Yes it’s worth it,” said Alice. “It made my sense of community a lot closer. It really is a sense of pride. Would I say to jump off that fence and go for it? Yeah, I would. I would say jump off that fence and go for it, why not.” 

“If anything, bring your husband along, and get him involved. And that’s another part about it. It’s like all of a sudden, I wasn’t big into cars, and my husband was, it brought us really closer because now we are doing projects together. We’re going out on events together, we’re watching TV shows together about cars, and we’re making plans about what we are going to do next to the car together. Even with his car, either I’m helping him with his car or he is helping me with my car. It’s great for your marriage, it really is, its awesome for your marriage. It really brought us together,” shared Alice. 

Alice has noticed that she is treated differently at cruise-ins and car shows since getting her own car. “I see men give me a smile, like yeah, ok, she has a car, and every so often you see the women elbow there husband and whisper, ‘she has a car’. And if you’re that wife go ahead and stab your husband in the ribs and say, ‘hey she has a car.’ And if you want one, get one, and have that sense of pride. Enjoy it all the time, during the week, on the weekend, whenever.” 

Alice and her husband David reside in Leland, North Carolina are members of the Sun Coast Cruisers cc. 

LADIES' LANE BY HOME HEADQUARTERS

LADIES’ LANE BY HOME HEADQUARTERS is devoted to women of the classic car community in the Carolinas.