Grab an RC Cola and a MoonPie to snack on while you read this post, my friends. Nothing beats the iconic “working-man’s lunch” dating back to the Great Depression when men were men and women were, well, making dinner. And in these uncertain times of tainted lettuce and AI dating sites, a low-budget combo of a Royal Crown Cola and marshmallow-filled, chocolate-coated graham cracker cake may be just the thing to get you through another maddening week. What else have you got to do but think of the sweet American South on this hot August day? You’ll thank me later. Today I’m taking you back to early 2026 when it was freezing cold, with not much else in the Michigan forecast but ice, snow and more snow. And likely the main reason your two favorite snowbirds had already flown the coop heading south to get the heck out of Dodge. On our way, we made a stop. As I recollect, it was January 13, a little before 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. I felt like a giddy little girl about to see Santa. I didn’t need a list or have to ask permission since my longtime wish was about to come true. At last, we would visit a classic car lovers’ paradise, the Mustang Owner’s Museum, located at 4005 Dearborn Place, NW.
But we were nowhere near the Detroit suburb and birthplace of Henry Ford that is a Middle Eastern melting pot of history, hummus, halal – and home to the nation’s first (and only) museum dedicated to Arab-American culture. (It’s fantastic if you’re interested in learning more about your Arabic or North African ancestors.)
Instead, we were 650 miles away in a place named Concord, the county seat of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, about 20 miles northeast of Charlotte.
I know, I know. That’s NASCAR country, missy, with Charlotte Motor Speedway, stock cars and all that drag racing hoopla. But there’s another gem for regular car guys and gals that’s just a stone’s throw away. The Mustang Owners’ Museum showcases all things Ford Mustang, celebrating America’s favorite pony car.
Rare collectibles, memorabilia, even an elusive Barn Find Mustang (VIN#0211!) built the first day of assembly line production on March 9, 1964. It’s one of the earliest known production Mustangs. Looking at it, I picture ours, built on July 23, 1964, just a few months later.
And the 1964 New York World’s Fair Mustang (VIN#0004), along with a Ford Performance exhibit with every engine from the first 6-cylinder to the GT350 Voodoo and more. Vroom, vroom!
I could go on, so I will. There’s the 1966 Golden Anniversary Mustang that Henry Ford II (“Hank the Deuce”) gifted to his butler Domenico Romano in appreciation for his dedicated service. A total of 50 were built in San Jose, California, to commemorate Ford’s success in selling one million Mustangs in just two years. Only five are known to exist today, making it the rarest hardtop Mustang ever.
This Motown girl was in pony car heaven. I can die a happy woman now.
Did I mention I’m a member of the museum’s Founders Club? Yes, ma’am. Joined in 2017 before they broke ground. Now my name is on the wall with dozens of others who contributed to the cause early on.
And Mustang Sal, my prized possession from 1965 (or ’64-and-a-half, if you’re a purist) is in the museum’s official book. Membership #0711. (She’s also featured at the top of this post.)
Honestly, Rebecca and I had talked about stopping at the museum so many times on our way back and forth to Florida each winter. Not sure why we never took the time.
That morning when we found the museum, I thought we were in the wrong place. In my mind, it was a Taj Mahal for Mustangs. This looked more like a concrete block office building in an industrial park.
But you can’t judge a book by its cover, right?
We were greeted by Michelle Hall, wife of the late Steve Hall, who had dreamed up this monument to Mustangs with something for every enthusiast to appreciate. The museum opened in 2019.
Sadly, Steve passed away in 2023. He was 68. Their daughter, Ashley Hall, runs the museum’s website and email promotions.
We spent a good three hours taking in the museum’s sights and sounds. And even made a new friend, one of the volunteers who happened to be on duty that day.
Robert Jordan, a retired nurse and Ohio transplant now living in North Carolina, knows so much about Mustangs he’d make your head spin.
And he summed up what America’s favorite pony car means to its fans. “We’re ‘fam,’ and our love for Mustangs brings people together,” he said.
Then he invited us to stay at his house and have dinner. Rain check?
Which brings me to a recent gathering of pony car lovers closer to home that we attended last Sunday: MOCSEM’s Mustang Memories All-Ford Car Show.
On the grounds of the AAA Michigan Central Offices in Dearborn (yes, the actual city), the annual show is held by the Mustang Owners Club of Southeastern Michigan (MOCSEM) for its members. There were hundreds of Ford vehicles, but mostly Mustangs.
Sitting in the blistering heat for most of the day, we heard so many stories, one of the best things about attending car shows. We always meet interesting folks from across the country.
Take Big John from Texas, who was parked next to us. He drove his 2004 blacked-out exterior trim Mercury Marauder full-size sedan more than 1,400 miles from the Lone Star State. Not surprisingly, he won first prize for coming from the farthest distance away. With a 302-horsepower V-8 engine, I suspect it didn’t take him much time at all.
As usual, there were several “Bullitt” Mustangs, like the one actor Steve McQueen drove in the 1968 action-crime thriller of the same name. The special-edition muscle car inspired the famous dark Highland Green GT fastback with a 390-HP V-8 engine and legendary San Francisco car chase by McQueen’s character Frank Bullitt. (In case you forgot, the ’68 Dodge Charger lost.)
We also saw a 1970 Mustang Mach 1 muscle car owned by a Belleville, Michigan, man who had displayed a heartwarming photo on the dashboard of what appeared to be him and his father. I waited for the guy, but he never turned up to confirm it.
Then there was the story that has stayed with me since Sunday. It’s about a son whose father bought a blue Mustang Fastback in 1968 to drag race with his partners.
Tragically, the child’s parents were killed in a car accident on New Year’s Eve 1969. The son was 5 years old.
For more than a dozen years, the blue Mustang was unaccounted for. That is, until 1982, when the young son’s sister stumbled upon it: Their father’s old race partner was storing the car.
For the next 15 years, that young man visited his Dad’s race partner with the hopes of getting the car back someday.
In 1997, his wish came true: He was given the car. By then, the son was in his 30s.
But the car had a blown engine, and for 14 years, the middle-aged son worked on rebuilding it, a little at a time, doing as much as he could afford. A “work in progress,” he dubbed it.
On this hot August Sunday in Dearborn, the now 60-something son, Michael Cole of Mansfield, Ohio, sat in the same driver’s seat as his father did back in 1968.
The rebuilt, nearly 60-year-old Mustang has 3,500 miles on the odometer. And counting.
(YouTube video: When I was about 14, I bought the Jim Croce album “Photographs and Memories,” which became the title track of his posthumous “Greatest Hits” album released in 1974. There’s a touching photo of Croce’s 2-year-old son, A.J., wearing his father’s concert T-shirt and holding his cowboy hat on the cover. Croce and five others died in a plane crash in 1973. He was 30. It was just weeks after his song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” hit No. 1. Croce, who had planned to quit touring to focus on his family and writing, sent his wife, Ingrid, a letter on that tragic day, ending it with this sentiment: “Remember, it’s the first 60 years that count, and I’ve got 30 to go.”)
