Old-timey fun: Horseless carriages come to Cameron

“I drive it around the farm a little bit, but not out of first gear much,” the 12-year-old said.

The car’s name is “Lizzie” and most of its parts are original.

Lizzie can reach “55 downhill with a good tailwind,” Shanks said. It averages 45 mph.

Shanks stopped by Golden Kernel Pecan Company in Cameron on July 19 with his brother, 8-year-old Preston, and his grandfather, Rick Shanks. They’re from Clayton, North Carolina.

They visited as part of the North Carolina Regional Group Horseless Carriage Club of America. The club members spent a week driving their vintage cars to places in and near The T&D Region.

The visit to Cameron stems from the influence of the late Bland Quantz, who invented the Quantz Rotary Nutcracker used by Golden Kernel. Quantz was a member of the horseless carriage club.

Bill Summers, owner of Golden Kernel, said his family became friends with Quantz’s family over the years.

Summers had employees demonstrate the Quantz nutcracking machine for the tourists.

The machine shells about 1,000 pecans per minute.

“We appreciate being placed on the itinerary,” Summers told the tourists.

After a brief tour of the shelling machines, Summers provided tourists with homemade pecan tart pies and cold drinks of water and Coca-Cola.

Golden Kernel is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

One of the tourists was Bill McCleave of York County. He arrived in his 1926 Studebaker Big 6 Custom.

McCleave said the auto has a special body style and is a “real touring car.”

“It’s got a six-cylinder engine, but it’s big. It’ll really go down the road,” he said.

McCleave generally drives it at speeds of 45 mph, but said it will probably reach 55 mph.

It gets about 14 miles per gallon.

McCleave has been tinkering with old-timey cars since he was 14.

Brian Kelm and his wife, Kathy, of Mt. Pleasant, were there with their 1914 Ford Model T Runabout.

He’s owned it for 52 years. Kathy Kelm is the North Carolina Regional Group Horseless Carriage Club of America summer tour chairperson.

“My dad decided we needed something as kids to do, so he found an old Model T for $100 and that’s how we started,” Brian Kelm said.

“I keep white tires on it. That’s what they originally would’ve had,” he added.

He noted that the Model T he owns isn’t the same one that he and his siblings worked on as children.

“At least three times a year we go on trips. I have no problem driving it to the local store or my brother lives about 12 miles away, all on little roads,” Brian Kelm said.

There are three types of motorists he encounters while driving the Model T.

“The ones that honk their horn and you don’t know if they’re honking their horn because they like the car or if something’s wrong. You’ve got ones that don’t care at all and ones that literally jump out of their cars driving down the road to see it,” Brian Kelm said.

He noted that the car can reach 45 to 50 mph, but rides comfortably at 35 mph.

It gets just shy of 20 miles per gallon.

Jeffrey Jones, of Summerville, was there with his 1911 Buick, once owned by Henry C. Thomas, founder of McCall-Thomas Engineering in Orangeburg.

Jones said that Thomas purchased the car from a state railroad commissioner’s widow in the early 1950s.

The car “was behind a brick wall in the train depot and (Thomas) tore the wall down and got the car out,” Jones said.

Jones also had a reproduction of the porcelain license plate that was originally on the car. The license plate reads “Orangeburg” at the top with “SC 1” below it. The original is kept in a safe place.

Other stops for the car tour on July 19 included the Calhoun County Museum and Cultural Center and the John Ford Community Center.