‘A’ means ‘always driven’

TONICA — Many people who own antique cars store them away. They spend the days up on blocks and only come out for car shows and the occasional summer spin.

Russell “Coonie” Alleman and his family would have none of that idea.

Alleman owned four Model As, selling one within the past two years ago. After he died last month, the other three passed to his wife and children. Alleman drove his Model As regularly, and like their father, the kids take them out on a fairly regular basis.

“I took one out to Darrell’s Field of Dreams event the other night,” daughter Kim Goodbred said. “’Skeeter’ (Kevin Alleman) drives that one (a convertible), and the truck gets driven the least lately, although it’s been driven the most throughout the years. I learned how to drive on that one. Both of my brothers did too.”

Learning how to drive in the Model As is a bit of a tradition in the Alleman family.

“Papa told me if you learn how to drive one of these, you can learn how to drive anything,” Goodbred said. “He was driving his Grandpa Amos around in the Model A when he was 11 or 12 because his grandpa was blind. And now my daughter is learning how to drive one. So we all know how to drive Pop’s cars.”

When Goodbred’s daughter Lexi started learning how to drive, “Coonie” had her name put on the license plate for the Model A sedan.

“He told my boys, ‘You can’t name a car after a girl,’ so that car became ‘Lexi.’”

The three Model As will stay in the family as long as possible with two of the cars going to her brothers and the last staying with their mother. No matter where they end up, they’ll still be chalking up mileage.

“Papa’s rules: They get driven,” Goodbred said. “If they just sit in the garage, they’re not worth anything. Pop told me all the time. ‘You gotta drive them.’”