For the second year in a row, The Antique Cars of America and The Horseless Carriages of America made a pit stop at Canton High School on their tour from Lansing to Greenfield Village. On Sept. 7 students, teachers and car enthusiasts alike came to the Auto Shop to enjoy these sustained pieces of history.

Mrs. Barbee, CT Director, explained that the Auto Shop does this to, “expose our students to different types of cars. And for other students who aren’t in our program who just have a passion for history or automotive in general, maybe they’ll enjoy it too. What we do down here I see a curricular connection.”

Mr. Lickey, a Canton teacher, had similar thoughts on the event, saying that,  “The kids will love it. They get to see old school technology and new school technology.”

And there was a lot of “old school technology”. With the cars at ages upwards of 100 years old, there were many different features that students were not used to that they got to see. Colin Mueller, a PCEP senior said,  “Some of them don’t go in reverse, so that’s kind of strange, compared to modern-day cars. The spokes on the tires are wood on some of these cars, and so is the body.”

The history behind all of the cars filing into Canton High School is incredibly interesting and impactful to the owners and viewers of them. Don Van Atta, an owner of a 1912 car at the event, gestured to a car near him when asked about cars at the show, “This happens to be a 1912 Maxwell Special. Maxwell Special was designed in 1912 to win the Glin Endurance Race from New York to Miami. I happen to have a picture of four of them winning the race. Now the cars that ran the tour did not have a top, and they didn’t have a windshield, because that’s the way the cars were sold. Windshields and tops were all optional type things.”

It’s evident that these cars are well-maintained to survive these past 100 years. They go on this round trip to go to Lansing, and need to stop for repairs and oil along the way. This is the second year that Canton has hosted them, and both Mr. Lickey and Mr. Louis, Canton staff members, told The Antique Cars of America and The Horseless Carriages of America that they “would love to host it here [Canton],” and that they find it amazing that this whole experience came from just a “fluke phone call.”

All of the eager students and staff clearly enjoy this experience every year, and even the superintendent, Monica Merritt, planned to come out. We can only hope that next year, around this time, students will yet again get to see the antique cars pulling into the Auto Shop, and learn more about their mechanics and history.