80-Year-Old Car Enthusiast Gifts Red, White, and Blue Ford Mustangs to Kids
Today’s wholesome Fourth of July story.
To most people, a birthday is a time for celebration. As the world completes another rotation with you at the helm, your age goes up and people shower you with praise—sometimes even gifts. But for lifelong Ford man Kaywin Martin, his birthday just happened to be the perfect opportunity to give to others.
Martin celebrated his 80th birthday last month with more than 20 of his friends and family members at one of the places he cherishes most: the Early Ford V8 Foundation Museum in Auburn, Indiana. Over the years, Martin has helped to restore and expand the collection stored at the museum, even making his own 1941 Ford Tudor part of the assemblage in 2017.
The celebration quickly turned from focusing on the former Ford worker's birthday and towards the patriotic-themed collection of Ford Mustangs parked at the front entrance of the museum. A trio of brand new convertible Mustangs was staged nearby; each one representing a single color of the United States flag; red, white, and blue. Martin's children would soon learn that his birthday celebration had a surprise in store for them.
Martin revealed that the three Mustangs were actually gifts for his family, as each of his children would be receiving one of the brand new cars. His daughter was confused stating that the children should be surprising their father with gifts on his birthday, and not the other way around. Of course, the family accepted their gifts and spent the rest of the day enjoying their time at the museum with Martin, who said it was only fitting to celebrate an important day in this manner
"This is a very patriotic time of year, between Memorial Day, the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and the 4th of July holiday, so I thought it was fitting to commemorate my 80th birthday in a patriotic way," said Martin. "We're celebrating America with an American icon."
As it turns out, Martin liked to give gifts, especially Fords. Over the years, the avid car enthusiast has given out eight "gift Fords" to people, all of which were purchased from his friend and Ford dealer, Mike Mangold, who drove over four hours to attend Martin's birthday celebration.
Martin has always been a lifelong Ford man. In fact, he spent his entire career working at Ford, finally retiring in 1993 after 30 years of service. Each year Martin's passion for classic Fords strengthened, leading to a lifelong obsession. In total, Martin owned 200 vehicles during his years (more than 20 of which were Mustangs), and his first Ford purchase was made the year after he graduated college in 1957.
Martin has no plans of slowing down his love for cars, as a matter of fact, he's even started planning future events.
“Time flies," said Martin, "So I better start thinking about my 90th birthday.”
