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Member Car Profiles

The Callfas Ts — The Start By Bob Callfas

eventually found out, but dad doesn’t recall getting in trou-
ble over it.

Sometime in the 1960’s, it was sold to another
neighbour, Henry Attrux, who did an amateur restoration
on the car and got it looking pretty good. After he passed
on, his son Armand became the caretaker. Dad had kept in
contact with Armand hoping to acquire the car at some
point, and a tentative agreement was made until his Mrs.
Convinced him because he had three Model T’s and three
granddaughters that one should be willed to each of them
(how happy they would be is hard to say). After Armand’s
passing, it was willed to the son, who let’s just say, is less
than cooperative on the subject. Oh well, we did try.
Grandpa’s 1918 Model T with a few of the kids
These memories built the foundation for Dad to
Our family connection with the Ford Model T acquire a Model T Ford of his own. Stay tuned for the rest
commences with Grandpa Menno Callfas making the tran- of the story in a future issue of The Running Board.
sition from horse power to horseless power, having pur-
chased the 1918 touring car when he was living in Ros-
thern, Saskatchewan, and would be the transportation mode
for the growing family when they moved to the farm near
Speers, Saskatchewan in the mid 1920’s. These are some
memories from my Aunt Lucille, who is 93 years young:

“I think my dad bought the car new, as he had it in
1922 (when he got married). Nearly every summer, we
went to Rosthern to visit relatives. We had to cross the
North Saskatchewan river on the Peytrofka ferry. This fer-
ry was built in 1903—now there is a bridge there. There
were steep hills on either side of the river, so going down
the ferry my Dad would shut the motor off to save gas—one Aerial view of the family
time the key fell out and through the floor boards, so when farm near Speers. You
we got to the bottom there was no key. We all got out and can see the back end of
the car in a shed in the
trekked back up the hill until we found the key, then went central area of the photo
across the ferry and all got out to push the car up the hill
on the other side.

Once on our way home from Rosthern an axle
broke and my Dad got a big truck to take us home with the
car in the back. Guess we pushed it up on a few planks, we
all rode in the car except Mom and Dad, who rode in the
truck cab. This car never got stuck as long as my dad took
enough kids to push it out of the mud or sand (nine kids in
the family). You couldn’t drive very fast at night or the
lights went out, the magneto or some such thing burned out
then you had to use a flashlight if you had one.”

Grandpa was one of the last people to use a Model
T in the Speers area. He drove it until 1943 when a 1939
Ford replaced it. The 1918 was parked in a shed in the
farmyard for a few years, then it was moved to a neigh-
bour’s garage for a number of years. In around 1954 while
it was at the Aucklands, Dad (Harvey) and his older brother
Frank covertly managed to get it running and toured it
around the countryside for a few miles. This event was The car often appeared in the Speers parade, as shown here with
Armand Attrux
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