Car collector

As a young boy on his father’s farm, Tom Sloma grew up surrounded by machinery and equipment. He was enthralled by the intricate mechanics of it all — how does this equipment work or why won’t this tractor run?

“It’s very rewarding to be able to figure things out like that,” said Sloma, a parishioner at St. Mary Parish in Sandusky.

Decades later, as Sloma prepared for life in retirement after a career as an electrical contractor, his cousin told him he needed to find a hobby to take up his spare time. As it happened, Tom’s cousin had the perfect hobby in mind — Model T automobiles. With the Model T’s multiple pedal system and groundbreaking mechanisms of its time, it was an easy sell.

After acquiring his first Model T, a 1924 black truck with “Sloma Farms” painted on the pickup bed, Tom and his wife, Teresa, joined more than 1,000 Model T owners in Richmond, Ind., to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Model T. Having had a taste of the fellowship in the Model T community, Tom was all in.

“The Model T community is composed of people all over the United States and all over the world, Australia and other countries,” said Tom. “So I made a lot of good relationships. Everybody helps everybody — if one guy has a problem, somebody in there knows how to fix it. We have a lot of fun.”

Driving a Model T is an altogether different experience from driving any modern vehicle. The first thing an observer might notice is that there are three pedals, none of which are acceleration. That is actually in the handle of the steering column. And as Tom learned the hard way, drivers have to gauge their own gas.

“There’s no gas gauge, so you don’t know how much gas is in your tank,” Tom said. “We were out driving after first getting the truck, and well, we ran out of gas. They never let me forget that — and I’ve done it a couple times since then, too. Teresa always asks me now, ‘Did you check the gas?’ Yes dear, I checked the gas.”

Tom’s pride is apparent as he gazes at his Model T collection, which has expanded to include a 1913 parade car and another 1926 car, which he refers to as his wife’s car. When the weather is nice, he and Teresa will take one of the cars out for a drive, often inviting friends or even their parish priests to join them.

“There’s no sense in having them if you’re not going to ride them,” he said.

But it’s not just personal rides the cars are used for. Tom and 20 or so fellow members of the local Firelands Timeless T’s Club will often volunteer their cars to be in parades or at special events and fundraisers. The Sandusky-based Serving Our Seniors organization hosts an annual barbecue where club members will offer Model T rides throughout downtown Sandusky and return all the donations they’ve collected to the organization. The club also has a presence at the Erie County Fair.

“It’s kind of a novelty,” said Tom. “You want to go for a ride on a motorcycle, you can do that pretty easily. But not everybody has a Model T and so that’s the way that we kind of share our enthusiasm with them. If we receive any money for it, we give it back to that community or whatever was going on.”

The importance of giving back to the community was instilled in Tom as a young boy and remains a significant part of his life. He serves on the board of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Toledo and continues to volunteer at Catholic Charities’ Sandusky location. He’s served in many roles at St. Mary Parish, including helping start the parish’s Building Committee, which he continues to serve on.

When St. Mary’s pews were redone a few years ago, the kneelers didn’t work properly afterward. But Tom’s affinity for the intricacies of a Model T’s mechanics served a higher purpose as the Building Committee discovered the problem and re-modified the kneelers so they worked properly.

“You learn a lot of patience,” Tom said. “Things aren’t always going to go the way they’re supposed to, whether it’s a hiccup at a Catholic Charities event or finding that a Model T part is off by just 1/16th of an inch.”