Area couple attend Mustang celebration
Ford celebrated the production of its 10 millionth Mustang last week and special VIP guests invited to the employee festivities in Michigan included Park Ridge residents Gail and Tom Wise and their 1964½ Mustang convertible.
Gail is the original owner of her car, which is recognized as the first Mustang ever sold to the public in the United States. Two days before the model was officially to go on sale in April of 1964, Gail went into her local Ford dealership, Johnson Ford on Cicero Avenue in Chicago, needing a set of wheels. Ironically, she wasn't even looking for a Mustang.
At the time, the 22-year-old Gail had just graduated from the Chicago Teachers College and was preparing for the commute to a new job in the suburbs. She had her heart set on a Thunderbird, but when the eager sales associate ushered her into the back room, her mind was instantly changed.
“He pulled off the tarp covering the Mustang and immediately I said, ‘I'll take it!',” recalls Gail. Gail and her husband, Tom, drove their car daily through 1979 when carburetor issues arose. It was shoved into storage but thankfully, never let go.
In 2006, it underwent a full restoration and in recent years has received national attention because of its original dated sales paperwork and extreme provenance. “It's still amazing to us,” Gail gushed in a telephone interview. “I bought a car 54 years ago and today, we're still talking about it. I felt like a movie star on the drive home and I still do today.”
Ford's celebration took place at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan, where the 10 millionth Mustang rolled off the line. That car is a 2019 Wimbledon White GT convertible, a salute to the first serialized Mustang created. More than 60 Mustang owners, spanning all model years, assembled for a massive group photo, followed by a flyover by three P-51 Mustang fighter planes.
Gail and Tom met Ford CEO Jim Hackett, who took quite an interest in their precious pony. The car-crazy couple will be appearing at the Ford Edsel estate this week for a special media event before showing the car at the Woodward Dream Cruise, an annual event being held Saturday, Aug. 18, in and around Detroit.