By LUCY WYMAN
My first car at 19, in 1969, was a 1932 Chevy, two-door sedan.
Fifteen years later while I was living in Colebrook, I decided it was time to dust the old gal off and drive her from storage in my folks’ Sandwich barn in time for the July 4th parade. My friend J.C. Kenneth Moore was turning 93 on July 5th and that provided additional incentive.
After sitting so long it was no surprise that I needed a new oil pan gasket. Time being short I decided not to wait for the one I ordered and applied a silicone gel gasket and set off for the North Country. I made it as far as Corner Store in Jefferson. The gasket did not hold and my oil pressure was not so great!
At that time Nate Brooks was still spending his days at his old station on the main drag. He was no longer working but mostly seemed to be watching the world go by from his generous front window. It was suggested that I go see if he had the gasket I needed. I pulled the pan and walked with it in hand down to see him. He did indeed have stacks of old gaskets. From a step ladder erected beneath a lone lightbulb on a string, he passed me one at a time from a high and dusty shelf. I checked the model and vintage and passed it back. It was a fine collection with some rare models among which we finally found one for the more pedestrian ’31 Chevy that fit the ’32.
I made it to Colebrook for the parade, Kenneth rode within, with several locals hanging off the generous running boards. We’d a grand ‘ol time!
If you want to have adventures on the road, or meet great people, this is one way to do so. Later model cars are more popular now but forty years ago there were still many old-timers around for whom that vintage generated memories and good will. This was something we shared and our respective ages were irrelevant.
Of course it didn’t hurt that I was an attractive young woman.
My second car, purchased shortly after, was a Robin’s Egg Blue ’61 VW bug. It was my winter car and I had adventures with that as well. In fact, I drove it over Sandwich Notch on the snowmobile trail around that time…and made it! If I had not had a companion with me who can still corroborate, I would doubt my memory. Sanity of course is another matter, but when you are young and have a predilection for back roads, and a little car that will go anywhere, well that’s clearly a recipe for adventure! I have often wondered what would’ve happened if I had not made it out of the notch.
In the spring, around the time of my birthday I would typically switch plates from the VW to the Chevy. There was an occasion, however, when I had not yet done so and over-eager to get the Chevy on the road. I wound up with a summons to the Court in Center Conway.
The Judge was on the dais, the arresting officer standing to his left. As I watched and listened to each person step up and tell the story of their circumstances, I wondered what I could say that would explain or justify my own. When it came my turn I presented myself to the judge and told him about my two cars… and how I didn’t want to get salt on my Chevy…but wanted to take it out for a spin in the nice spring weather and… well, “I was just trying to get away with it.” Ooops.
The Judge cracked up, as did the officer beside him. He ordered me to pay the bailiff fifteen dollars and that was that. Oh my how times have changed.
