The Liberty Touring Car

This photo was taken in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. As a life-long Ann Arbor Townie, I recognize the old Art Deco bus depot in the background that still stands today. Shown in the photo is a man by the name of John Podesta (I'm quite sure he's NOT related to the John Podesta who was Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff) and his 1922 Liberty 10-D that was yellow with red wire wheels. The John Podesta in this photo was my grandfather's buddy who also lived here in Ann Arbor. I say they were buddies but I also recall a bit of a rivalry between the two men. You see my grandfather was fiercely proud of his Liberty, and rightly so; he restored every little part himself. Well, some of my earliest memories of my grandfather and the Liberty were from when we would take the car to the Greenfield Village Old Car festival at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. Every first Saturday in September we would get up early and my grandfather would drive the car from Ann Arbor to Dearborn to attend the show. I believe it's one of the longest running old car shows in the nation. Anyway, back then if you attended the show your car was judged; I don't think there was any way of avoiding it the way you can now. There were hundreds of cars that attended the show and throughout the day they would assemble 10 or so cars in a group and each of those cars would receive either a blue ribbon, a red ribbon, or a yellow ribbon. At the end of the day all of the blue ribbon winners would reassemble for the "Best In Show" trophy. At least this is how I remember it from when I was a youngster. For years both my grandfather and John Podesta's cars were more or less assured a blue ribbon and a position in final judging. One year my grandfather got a red ribbon while the Podesta Liberty (in a different group of cars) still got a blue ribbon. That was sad day for sure. My grandfather was furious! Apparently, the wire wheels on John Podesta's Liberty were not original to the car and that fact, which had never bothered my grandfather before, just ignited him. He didn't protest to the judges or anything like that but he sure got mad and all of us knew to keep our distance. As the years passed by, the nearly assured blue ribbons became a steady stream of red ribbons and the year my grandfather was handed a yellow ribbon was the final year he attended the show.