Dad in his New Ford

Here is Dad "in his new 1917 Ford". This was probably the car that was he and Mother's "courting vehicle" though I've heard him tell of riding a horse home from where she lived south of Garland. I don't remember this car but do recall a Sedan, Model T that we had ahead of our new '29 Model A Ford.  Dad always had a special interest in automobiles and probably soon after this picture was taken, attended an auto mechanic school in Kansas City.  We had a picture of Dad along with his fellow students in front of the "Sweeney Auto School". The folks never admitted it, but I believe their courtship had something to do with his "cutting out" of the course early and coming home. It seemed that the "tuition" was paid with the understanding that the student could come back and retake the course at any time. While Dad never expressed any interest in going back, my Mother  said she wished they had named me with Dad's name, and maybe they would have let me take the course. Mother inherited a lot of that kind of thinking from her Dad, and it served her (and us) well. Dad, on the other hand, would go out of his way to tell a prospective buyer everything that was wrong with a product. In   their later years raising Herford Bulls, she would always get more for them than would Dad.