The Christian Century

Sixteen toy Model A Fords greet me each day in my study. In the 1927 model, modest headlights are connected by a straight bar. Its symbolic straight face is noncommittal. I carry no nightmare images from childhood confrontations with such autos. By 1931, however, the Model A revealed a slightly down-curved mounting bar, thus presenting the image of mild melancholy. The 1932 Ford V-8 with its huge goo-goo-eye headlights presented a more turned- down mouth and thus verged on gloom. I lost interest.