Classic cars, Classic Carlen
Posted: 7/30/2009
By James Mulcahy
Mary Burks photo
For most men, their first car is special. It may be the one in which they learned to drive. Perhaps they took their future bride on dates in that car.
Carlen Pippen is no different -- except that he still has his first auto, a 1930 Model A Ford. In the garage behind his Shelby County home, the antique car buff tinkers with his four-door sedan as part of a process to restore the car to its glory days.
"I'm going to completely rebuild it," the retired veterinarian said.
Pippen is also restoring his second car, a B Model Ford, as well as a 1931 Ford pickup truck, all part of the "14 different projects" he has going.
As a young man, Pippen borrowed $75 from his father "when we didn't have 75 cents" to buy the Model A. Turned out to be quite a bargain, considering it's about to get a new life. The car still has its original motor, and it hasn't let him down.
"I fell in love with these when I was in high school," he said of the Model A. "I bought it for $75, put a four-dollar-and-a-half head gasket on it and drove it 19,000 miles. This motor sat for 25 years, and about the third time it was cranked over, it started."
It's a classic, no doubt, but its value lies more in Pippen's heart than in the shiny black exterior or wood grain interior.
"It's got more sentimental value to me," he said. "Not many people still have the first car they ever had, and especially the first two cars they ever had. This will be my museum piece whenever I get it done."
The truck, one of just a handful manufactured with a wide bed, is Pippen's favorite classic vehicle. When it's roadworthy, he plans to use it to haul flowers for his wife, Jenny, to the Shelbyville Farmers Market.
"It would sure get a lot of attention," he said.
Classic Carlen
Carlen Pippen recently turned 70. His early years were spent in Jackson County, Tenn., where life could sometimes be challenging. "We didn't have indoor plumbing until I was in the eighth grade," he said. "We moved up to the flatlands, to Cookeville, to a 40-acre farm. I woke up many times and snow would be an inch deep in the bed."
His father had three brothers and a sister; all the brothers lived on one little road, about a quarter mile long, aptly named Pippen Road.
"It was just a little Pippen community," he said. "We went to Pippen School; the school had two rooms. We had one teacher all the first four grades, then we moved to the next room over for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Six of us graduated the eighth grade from Pippen University."
In high school, Pippen worked for Purina Feed Company unloading 100-pound bags of feed from trains. He was strong and confident, but not quite ready to take on the world.
"Had that old car and a girlfriend, and I thought that was all I really needed; I didn't need to go to college or nothing else," he said.
But Pippen had a fan: a Purina field representative saw potential in the young man and made sure he went to college -- twice, considering he quit school the first time to work the oil fields in Oklahoma. After he made lots of money and spent lots more, he swallowed his pride and sought a second chance.
"I went back and said if he would give me my job back I'd work off my debt," Pippen said. "He ripped me a new one."
He was more successful the second time around, graduating from Tennessee Tech and getting his masters degree from the University of Tennessee.
"I took my masters orals on Saturday, drove all day Sunday and was in the Army on Monday," he said. Commissioned as a lieutenant, Pippen said he spent "six years, nine months, three days and two hours" in the Army.
Because of greed, Pippen had his eye on a career as a doctor, but the Viet Nam conflict changed that way of thinking.
"After I got to Nam and didn't know what day of the week it was -- time absolutely meant nothing and that 13 months was the longest 13 months of my life -- I decided it's not my life. I couldn't handle all these people dying, so I came back and applied to vet school."
Getting accepted into veterinary school, he said, was more difficult than getting into medical school. To learn to treat animals, he would have to go back to the University of Tennessee for his Ph.D. He did just that, and while learning veterinary medicine at Auburn University, he met his future wife.
"Everything's for a blessing," he said. "Vet school was a blessing, because for 30 years I did what I was sent here to do. I wish everybody could be that fortunate. It wasn't work because I truly enjoyed it."
After landing in Kentucky, Carlen and Jenny Pippen raised three children, Matt, Laura and Zachary. "Shelby County is a good place to raise children," he said.
Reflecting on his seven decades, Pippen thinks about the fleeting moments.
"Where has time gone? I don't have a clue."
He offers these words to the younger generation:
"Part of life is being good stewards; I hope to leave my farm a little better than I found it," he said. "And everybody should be a mentor to somebody, like the man at Purina. He turned me around or I'd probably be in Cookeville driving a bread truck or something. I'd be dumb but happy. He made a believer out of me."
Carlen Pippen is no different -- except that he still has his first auto, a 1930 Model A Ford. In the garage behind his Shelby County home, the antique car buff tinkers with his four-door sedan as part of a process to restore the car to its glory days.
"I'm going to completely rebuild it," the retired veterinarian said.
Pippen is also restoring his second car, a B Model Ford, as well as a 1931 Ford pickup truck, all part of the "14 different projects" he has going.
As a young man, Pippen borrowed $75 from his father "when we didn't have 75 cents" to buy the Model A. Turned out to be quite a bargain, considering it's about to get a new life. The car still has its original motor, and it hasn't let him down.
"I fell in love with these when I was in high school," he said of the Model A. "I bought it for $75, put a four-dollar-and-a-half head gasket on it and drove it 19,000 miles. This motor sat for 25 years, and about the third time it was cranked over, it started."
It's a classic, no doubt, but its value lies more in Pippen's heart than in the shiny black exterior or wood grain interior.
"It's got more sentimental value to me," he said. "Not many people still have the first car they ever had, and especially the first two cars they ever had. This will be my museum piece whenever I get it done."
The truck, one of just a handful manufactured with a wide bed, is Pippen's favorite classic vehicle. When it's roadworthy, he plans to use it to haul flowers for his wife, Jenny, to the Shelbyville Farmers Market.
"It would sure get a lot of attention," he said.
Classic Carlen
Carlen Pippen recently turned 70. His early years were spent in Jackson County, Tenn., where life could sometimes be challenging. "We didn't have indoor plumbing until I was in the eighth grade," he said. "We moved up to the flatlands, to Cookeville, to a 40-acre farm. I woke up many times and snow would be an inch deep in the bed."
His father had three brothers and a sister; all the brothers lived on one little road, about a quarter mile long, aptly named Pippen Road.
"It was just a little Pippen community," he said. "We went to Pippen School; the school had two rooms. We had one teacher all the first four grades, then we moved to the next room over for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Six of us graduated the eighth grade from Pippen University."
In high school, Pippen worked for Purina Feed Company unloading 100-pound bags of feed from trains. He was strong and confident, but not quite ready to take on the world.
"Had that old car and a girlfriend, and I thought that was all I really needed; I didn't need to go to college or nothing else," he said.
But Pippen had a fan: a Purina field representative saw potential in the young man and made sure he went to college -- twice, considering he quit school the first time to work the oil fields in Oklahoma. After he made lots of money and spent lots more, he swallowed his pride and sought a second chance.
"I went back and said if he would give me my job back I'd work off my debt," Pippen said. "He ripped me a new one."
He was more successful the second time around, graduating from Tennessee Tech and getting his masters degree from the University of Tennessee.
"I took my masters orals on Saturday, drove all day Sunday and was in the Army on Monday," he said. Commissioned as a lieutenant, Pippen said he spent "six years, nine months, three days and two hours" in the Army.
Because of greed, Pippen had his eye on a career as a doctor, but the Viet Nam conflict changed that way of thinking.
"After I got to Nam and didn't know what day of the week it was -- time absolutely meant nothing and that 13 months was the longest 13 months of my life -- I decided it's not my life. I couldn't handle all these people dying, so I came back and applied to vet school."
Getting accepted into veterinary school, he said, was more difficult than getting into medical school. To learn to treat animals, he would have to go back to the University of Tennessee for his Ph.D. He did just that, and while learning veterinary medicine at Auburn University, he met his future wife.
"Everything's for a blessing," he said. "Vet school was a blessing, because for 30 years I did what I was sent here to do. I wish everybody could be that fortunate. It wasn't work because I truly enjoyed it."
After landing in Kentucky, Carlen and Jenny Pippen raised three children, Matt, Laura and Zachary. "Shelby County is a good place to raise children," he said.
Reflecting on his seven decades, Pippen thinks about the fleeting moments.
"Where has time gone? I don't have a clue."
He offers these words to the younger generation:
"Part of life is being good stewards; I hope to leave my farm a little better than I found it," he said. "And everybody should be a mentor to somebody, like the man at Purina. He turned me around or I'd probably be in Cookeville driving a bread truck or something. I'd be dumb but happy. He made a believer out of me."
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