The ones who didn't come home

We have all heard the story about the old lady who had an old car tucked away in the barn or garage. Under an old tarp and covered with dust and boxes, it is discovered by a friend of a friend who just happened to be passing by. Or the add in the paper for a '66 Chevrolet... $600.00. It always turns out to be a vette, or other highly desirable muscle car, and the old lady has no idea of the actual value of the vehicle. "It's pretty old, and it hasn't been started in years",she says, "but it was running when he parked it in there" It belonged to her son who never came home from the war.

This story is not about the car. Most of you knew that already. This story is about her son and all of the sons, and brothers, and fathers who didn't come home. Dreams parked under an old tarp by a young car guy who had another job to do first.

This weekend, we remember them. The ones who didn't come home, and all the young men and women who have served their country, and the ones who serve today. If you are at a show and hear "the story", remember, one of the cars you are admiring, may have belonged to a car guy who didn't come home.

John

Stealing Danny's hubcaps

We liked Danny. Everyone liked Danny because he was cool. He was older than us and had a car so he was real cool. He had a temper sometimes, and you could see it every time we stole his hubcaps. He had four bar flipper caps, kind of like the ones on Randy's car in the picture. I don't remember his car real well, but then I never had his car in my wall locker.

We never kept his caps very long. Just long enough for him to quit yelling about what he was going to do SOB's that stole his caps when he caught them. We never said anything, we would just put them back in his car when he wasn't around. One time we put them back on, but we put rocks under them. When I finally got a car my senior year, I didn't put hubcaps on it. Flippers were cool, but there were a lot of SOB's in that school.

Danny is gone now. He had a heart attack and died way too young. I hope it wasn't stress from high school. I miss you Danny,and if you're reading this, the rocks were Jim's idea.

John

The wreck of a porn star

Maybe I should explain. I'm not bragging, and it really wasn't much of a wreck. My brother started calling the Eldorado the "32 valve porn star" when I put the wheels on it and the name stuck. I don't even know any porn stars, all tho my second wife may have made career choices that I was not aware of at the time.

The wreck. Like I said, it really wasn't much of a wreck. I was stopped at a light when an old man in a one ton Ford pick-up failed to stop. He had at least a half of a mile of unobstructed dry pavement in broad daylight to get stopped, but apparently he required more than that. He was quite apologetic, and noted "that's a really nice car" I said "Crap, you should have seen it before you got here"

It is in the shop now getting fixed. I have been trying to sell it, and if he had hit it a little harder, I would now have a little red Corvette sitting in the garage. Maybe next time... Drive safe.

John