Month: July 2025

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Cruise Nite 2025

Cruise Nite 2025 is in full swing in Kearney, Nebraska. This six-day event is sponsored by the Central Nebraska Auto Club and features a number of Show & Shines with food and music, drag races, a burnout competition, and a classic and collectible car auction (which takes place tonight)! I love that the participants also take a tour of the town’s assisted living and nursing homes; there are fifteen such places on the route, including the Central Nebraska Veterans’ Home. That tour took place Wednesday night, and here are some action photos of just a few of the cars and trucks (and their owners) spreading the happiness that only a classic can bring:

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An Automobile Word Association Game

Do you have any idea what all of these words have in common?

Gopher

Gambit

Ghoul

Ambush

Amuck

Viking

Vintage

This is a tough one, so here’s a hint: they all have something to do with the Ford Model T.

Give up? I recently picked up a 1919 Ford Price List booklet for Model T parts and accessories and found all of the above words and many more under the column titled “Code Word.”

These code words were used when ordering parts by telegraph, a primary means of communication in 1919. When sending a telegram, the sender was charged by the word, so code words were developed as a more economical way of communicating entire phrases or sentences. Existing words were used because telegraph companies and regulatory bodies were restricting the length of code words that weren’t “ordinary” words due to the additional time it took telegraph operators to correctly send the specified combination of letters.

You do have to wonder at the choice of some of the code words, however. For instance, if I was in need of a starting crank handle bolt for my 1909-1919 Ford, I would have telegraphed that I needed a “starting crank handle bolt,” no matter the cost:

1919 Model T with Knickerbocker Forma-Tractor attachment.