Hey Mike,
Believe me, you do have a good influence, whether you
know it or not. My father took me to my first car show when I was about 10.
It was a local show consisting of street rods, customs, and pure originals.
I never seen old cars before but, it was love at first sight. I especially
fell in love with the 50's cars. I liked the excess of chrome, the big
windows, the V8's, and the fins (GOD I LOVE THOSE FINS!). I looked at all
the cars, I seen a '58 Dodge it was pretty neat to me. Never seen one before
and didn't know what the Mopar thing meant on the air cleaner but, it was
cool. The owner on the other hand wasn't. He snapped at me for standing too
close to his car (3 feet away with my hands behind my back just like dad
said to do!), what a pr#!%. I started to get very upset and walked outside.
Then, that's where I seen a '58 Imperial conv. Man, I thought, what's an
Imperial? The owner seen me looking at it. He was a pretty big guy, more
like a giant to a ten year old. He came over with a smile on his face and
showed me all the ins and outs of the car. He also let me stick my head
inside to peek at the dashboard. (Well, that saved my faith in Mopars). But
back to my point.......................
As the years went by, I kept going to the car shows and knew that someday I
would have an old car of my own. My parents were getting divorced when I was
about 14 (1994). My father was moving out and with the divorce, he had to
get rid of some assets so mom wouldn't get them. He asked me one day, "if I
were to buy you a car, what would you want? A new car (used), or an old car
that you could fix up?" In less than split-second I replied, "An old car!".
He then told me he had to get rid of some $ and that I should start looking
for a car. He knew that I was interested in 50's cars and he knew that's all
I would settle for. Well, I looked at '57 Chevy's and found they were too
expensive. Then I ran across a '56 Buick Special, too much for what it was.
Then one day, a friend of my fathers who's a hard core Mopar man gave my
father an ad he saw in the paper............'59 Plymouth Fury 4dr sedan
red/white $2300. The only "Fury" I ever seen was the '58 Belv. in the movie
Christine. I decided that I wanted that car. We drove down to see it and it
was love at first sight. I75 had spotted the car even before we turned the
corner and jumped out of the truck before my dad even hit the brakes and put
it in park. We looked it over, the owner told me to start her up. She fired
to life with a mellow tone and he said, "her names Christine" (my father
must have told the guy to say that to me). It turned out he bought it for
his son and he wanted a Christine so, his father got the car painted
red/white and installed a red/white aftermarket interior. The car didn't
look bad except for the pop rivets (!) in the trim (which I had to replace
75% of ) and the holes in the dash for the sons aftermarket radio (which I
also fixed). My father bought it for me, we parked it in the yard and then,
my father had to move out. Here's where I finally get to the
point......Since my father worked all week, I only seen him on weekends. I
spent every weekend I could with him, even if friends wanted me to hang out
or something. It wasn't easy on the social life but, it made him happy and I
was glad to do it. During the week, that car kind of taught me the lessons
my father could have if he (could have been) was there. It kept me out of
trouble on several occasions where my friends went out and vandalized
something, experimented with drugs/alcohol, etc.,etc.. While they were out
doing damage, I was tinkering with my car ( I didn't know much but I was
learning). It also taught me the value of a dollar when I started buying
parts for it with money I saved mowing lawns and fixing up VCR's, CD players
and antique radios. It also taught me how to make repairs on a car, for
which now my father is grateful (I fix his '85 Blazer whenever it needs
something). It also taught me respect for the car. I've seen so many parents
get their kids a old hot rod or a new fast jelly bean car for their kids,
only to see them wreck it shortly, due to what I think is lack of respect
for the car. Since I'm building mine with my own blood, sweat and tears (and
a pile of $ which I earned), I have a deep appreciation for what I have.
Later on after I started having the engine rebuilt and sent it to a body
shop (where it's been for 5 years, due to a slow bodyman) my mother
remarried and I moved in with my father. I'm still living with him. Well, I
guess that's about it. Long story short, when my father took me to that car
show the first time, it started a really good influence. When I got the '59
that made it even better. So my advise to you is keep your daughter
interested, maybe get her a car to fix up (hopefully a FL or other type of
Mopar) when she gets close to driving age, and take her to shows. You'll
never regret it. Hope this helps.
Take Care,
Frank
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Sealey" <mopar2ya@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 7:39 PM
Subject: [FWDLK] When Letter Cars Ruled The Earth
> As some of you know, I'm a divorced dad with an
> eight-year-old daughter. As those of us in that
> situation know, we're never quite sure how much
> influence we have on our kids when we only see them
> briefly during the week.
>
> My daughter seems like a pretty typical kid, hard to
> say for sure since girls were something I went out of
> my way to ignore when I was her age. She has inherited
> both good and bad from both of her parents and is
> interested in many different things, including cooler
> newer cars such as the new Bettle and the PT Cruiser,
> but older cars haven't really been a big interest of
> hers until recently. ("Aren't there any newer cars you
> like, Daddy? Even a little?")
>
> A few months ago I came back late from a car show, and
> didn't have time to switch cars before picking my
> daughter up, so instead of the daily driver ('87
> Chrysler New Yorker, one of the stretched K-car NYs
> with the 2.2 turbo), I picked her up in the 300-K,
> which she had not yet seen at that point. (Runs great,
> needs cosmetic help. Bear in mind this is a girl that
> once turned her nose up at a very clean '59 Humber
> Super Snipe I used to have because the top of the back
> seat was scorched and coming apart.) After dealing
> with the inevitable "Only you could see the beauty in
> something that looks like that" from my ex-wife, I
> waited for our daughter's reaction. She was dubious
> looking at it, becoming moreso when she found surface
> rust on her seat belt buckle, but she took interest
> when she heard the 413 fire for the first time, and
> once we jumped on the freeway she had a pretty big
> grin on her face. When we came back that night, her
> first words to her mom were "That car ROCKS!" And as
> time has gone on, I've also heard her not only defend
> the car to her friends, but tell them just what's cool
> about it ("...it's really fast! And it has a handle on
> the dashboard I can hold on to when it goes really
> fast!")
>
> Fastforward to last week and the theft of the 300-K. I
> explained that while I hoped I would see it again the
> statistics were not in our favor on that, at least not
> in one piece. She expressed her own hopes on that as
> well, and went on to say, "Don't take this the wrong
> way, Daddy, 'cause this car (the NYer) is nice and
> everything, but I really hope we get the 300 back
> because it's really a better car." (Of course, I
> didn't take it the wrong way at all, and was actually
> delighted to see that she understood a truth that I at
> least certainly believe in...)
>
> Later that day, we were in a Walgreen's drug store,
> when she said "Oh, look, Daddy! It's really pretty!"
> What she was so excited about turned out to be
> Maisto's 1/18 scale '56 300-B, and "pretty" doesn't do
> this model justice. (Also relatively inexpensive at
> under $20...) So I bought it for her, and this car
> opened up questions about the letter cars, their
> history, how fast each letter was, why didn't they
> make an M back in '66, etc. I don't think she would've
> developed this interest on her own had I pushed her,
> and it was cooler than I can tell you to have her ask
> these questions on her own.
>
> Needless to say, the news that the K was recovered was
> welcomed.
>
> I think there was some disappointment when I told her
> she couldn't have a letter car when she turns 16, but
> I'll undoubtedly have enough to worry about just
> sending this one out in something more modern (and
> more disposable)...
>
> =====
> Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA
> '57 Plymouth Sport Suburban
> '64 Chrysler 300-K 2dr Hardtop
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail!
> http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/
>
|
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network