Rumor has it that Grand-daughter Dano's Mercury "puked". It is vintage 1992. Originally it belonged to Nana and Grandpa George. They babied it and drove it very few miles. When Nana couldn't drive anymore, Debs bought it. And now 18 years later, Dano has it. A faulty transmission appears too expensive to fix. The car will either get donated to the "Rawhide Boy's Ranch" or get scrapped.
Now to the Dodge. My Grandma Myrna never learned how to drive. Her husband Chalk drove a Buick until he died in1946. For several years after he died, the 1940 Buick sat in the Garage in back of the City Club. It Myrna had to go somewhere, she paid a bar-room patron to drive her Buick. Myrna liked the independence of owning the Buick even though she couldn't drive. Then after she married husband No.2 (Chuck Andes), he talked her into replacing the Buick with a black four door Dodge (I believe it was 1950). So now instead of a Buick sitting in the garage, a Dodge sat in the garage. It had an automatic transmission with fluid drive. I called it "slush-o-matic". The engine would roar, the fluid transmission would take forever to shift and it would go from 0 miles per hour to 60 miles per hour in 2 hours.
When I turned 16 in 1956, I got my drivers license but I didn't have a car yet. Grandma Myrna would let me drive her to do errands. Being a young kid, I always knew that the Dodge was in the Garage so I would pester Myrna to let me use it. She was a "softie" and most time I could get the car. I took the car on dates and used it to cruise up and down the main streets of Plymouth. I eventually got my own car but whenever I needed alternate transportation, there was always the Dodge.
Then 3 years later, brother Jack got his drivers license. He began to pester Myrna to use the Dodge also. Jack logged a lot of miles on the Dodge. He also drove it more aggressively than I did. He "pounded" it. Wouldn't you know that he would run the car out of oil on one of his excursions. The car was 10-11 years old. Myrna never got the engine fixed and so ended the story of the Dodge in the Garage.
My brother Jerry never got to use the Dodge (he can blame Jack).
The lesson Grasshoppers is that most of us have a car story from when we were growing up. Myrna's Dodge in the Garage is one of my fond memories. The fate of Dano's Mercury and Myna's Dodge appear to be the same. It is called "scrap heap".
Puxsutawney Phil (the famous groundhog) saw his shadow this morning. There will be 6 more weeks of winter. Stay warm.
Love,
Dad
Leave a comment