Life in a Parade

Three Couples Share Their Passions for Collecting Antique Cars

For as long as he could remember, Richard Boultinghouse had been interested in classic cars.  He dreamed of owning an old Packard or Cadillac, conspicuously old-fashioned motorcars that belong to another era.  About fifteen years ago, a combination of luck and good timing put Mr. Boultinghouse’s dream on the road to reality.  Caught in traffic on Dallas’s Central Expressway, he noticed an odd congregation of classic cars gathered in a hotel parking lot.  He was intrigued, so he put the brakes on his commute and headed toward the hotel.

Mr. Boultinghouse was alone in the parking lot, busy examining one of those antique cars, when a man walked up to introduce himself.  That man was Mr. Dick Sparks.  Years later, he would be Mr. Boultinghouse’s neighbor in Holly Lake Ranch.  But for now, he told Mr. Boultinghouse a little about the Dallas Model A Ford Club.  

“At the time I didn’t even own an antique car, but I knew I wanted to join,” Mr. Boultinghouse said.  But there was one hang up: his wife Peggy.  “She is a quilter, so I asked Dick if there were any quilters in the club.  Sure enough, there were.  So I joined the club, then went home and told Peggy that we had ‘joined another quilting club.’”

Mr. Sparks has always restored cars, a passion shared by his wife, Nan.  In fact, their granddaughter – even before she could speak – would say “ayugahh,” mimicking the familiar sound of an old car’s horn.  In 1995, Mrs. Sparks noticed a man’s “beautiful blue coupe.”  Her husband took notice, and bought it for her later that year as an anniversary gift. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sparks’ proudest moment as antique car collectors came later, however.  Mr. Sparks knew of a man in Dallas who had started putting together an old Ford Model-A and subsequently lost interest.  So Mr. Sparks bought the man’s boxes of car parts, taking home something more akin to a project than an automobile.  For the next two years, Mr. Sparks worked tirelessly at putting the car back together, piece-by-piece.  He finished in 2004, creating such a beauty that Mr. and Mrs. Sparks’ peers in the Dallas Model-A Club voted it “Car of the Year.” 

A third couple in this group of antique car collectors from Holly Lake Ranch is Janet and Jim Anthony.  Mr. Anthony’s family had a Model A Ford when he was a child, so he always had an interest in owning a Model A.

In 1999, he received a call from a friend in Iowa who met a farmer who owned a 1931 five-window coupe.  Jim & Janet drove to Maxwell, Iowa the next morning and Jim was so charmed when he saw the car that he bought the yellow Model A on the spot.  Mr. Anthony told his wife “that car was going to be my birthday, Christmas, and anniversary present every year. So I do receive a picture of that car under the Christmas tree every year!”  This old car became his daily driver.

In late 2001, Jim’s friend, Dick Sparks, found a 1930 Model A Ford Fordor Town Sedan for sale on the internet and told Jim about it. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony flew out to Santa Rosa, California to see and drive the car, and could not resist.......the car was shipped back to Dallas. This was an antique car they could travel and tour cross country in.  They have now driven it over 5000 miles on trips to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and the Texas Hill Country.

Mr. and Mrs. Anthony both said that seeing a number of Model As going down the road one after another is truly an awesome sight.

In retirement, all three couples enjoy taking trips in the cars, which Mrs. Sparks says is “like being in a parade every day.”  “One thing you find,” she said, “is that you never meet a stranger.  Everyone has a story, or knew someone who owned an old car. Plenty of little kids give us the ‘thumbs-up’ while we’re driving, but what really gets me is how many 85 and 90-year-olds we see doing the exact same thing.”

For Mr. and Mrs. Boultinghouse, collecting antique cars meant being in Germany when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.  “We had our Model-A shipped to Germany, and then met a group of collectors there.  It was the trip of a lifetime,” Mr. Boultinghouse said.  “After September 11, the Europeans were so nice toward us.  So we continued with the trip, following the Alps from Germany to Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.” 

For these couples, collecting cars is a way to get involved in the community.  Mr. and Mrs. Sparks, for example, take their cars to schools and nursing homes.  Even when they’re driving around town, says Mr. Anthony, the cars are a conversation piece.  “A few years ago, I was leaving the post office in the yellow coupe when a young mother and her kids walked up to ask what I was driving,” he said. 

On the surface, an interest in antique cars unites these three couples.  But that bond goes much deeper: these are adventurers in the truest sense. They travel in nostalgic old cars throughout the country and world – and into the imaginations of us all.