Marking our fourth year as invited participants in Sharon’s “Model A Days” celebration, FRIENDS opened an informative exhibit focused on the life and times of Henry Ford, founder of the company that bears his name and the man credited with revolutionizing the auto industry with the perfecting of the assembly line.

June 3rd was a picture perfect day, and the streets of Sharon were crowded. “Model A Days” draws car collectors and hobbyists from all over the Midwest. The event in small-town vintage Sharon is in its 17th year.

FRIENDS volunteers distributed a four-page newspaper, the Sharon Tabloid, which described Ford’s dramatic career and his impact on society through his production standards and generous pay scale.

Using large historic photographs and well-researched display materials, the FWHS exhibit attracted passersby on Sharon’s busy Baldwin Street, where more than 200 vintage automobiles and other vehicles lined the curb. FRIENDS also conducted a “Ford Quiz,” featuring ten difficult questions about the Models T and A from the Ford company. The participants who answered the quiz correctly were entered in a drawing for a scale model 1932 Ford convertible.

The winning entry was that of Bob Davisson, of Milwaukee, who drove his ’31 Ford coupe to the event. Bob retired after thirty-six years with Bell Telephone, and served five years on the Board of the Wisconsin chapter of the Model A Club of America.

The exhibit and the newspaper satisfy the educational objectives of the FRIENDS organization, an ongoing effort to blend entertainment and enlightenment to foster the understanding and sharing of history.

In previous years, FRIENDS has staged historic reenactments accompanied by solid information on topics of interest to car collectors and history buffs who study the 1920s and 1930s. FWHS led off with an ambitious rendering of The Great Depression, and followed with a March for Women’s Rights and the destruction of a whiskey still as part of our portrayal of Prohibition.