When my Dad was in high school in the 1930s, he traded his aging pony for an even older car, a 1912 Model T Ford. From it, he and his friends built what was called a speedster, an early hot rod. Before it had a windshield or even a body, he put on his best suit and drove it 20 miles to a dance, and had a perfect evening. On the way home though, a skunk blocked the way, and it won the standoff. That started a chain of events that led, eventually, to a career in the automobile business, including almost 25 years as a Lincoln-Mercury dealer. As a boy, I asked Dad to tell this story over and...