Wayne in BC
New member
On a warm and nearly wasted spring day in 1964, my brother Ken announced that he may have found a car of his dreams and that we should go have a look. Well, after barely living through his last performance with a car he just had to have, i just kinda rolled my eyes and said that i figured i could not afford for him to have wheels!
Our sister Sandy however was instantly excited, she being about about 14 at the time, it sounded like an adventure worth having. Ken went on to tell me that this was a "LINCOLN"! I of course said.....awww BS! No said Kenny, a guy told me that an old farmer down by the river has had it stored for years, he can't drive anymore and may sell it cheap!
I was kinda tired of chauffeuring him around and reluctantly agreed to go take a look. We piled into my 57' Monarch (Canadian "Merc") and twin hollywoods blaring, headed out of town.
20 minutes of driving and another 1/2 hour of "wrong farms" we finally pulled into a farm yard that looked like the aftermath of a Tornado! I was all for just going home but Kenny was always as bold as a midnight Coon and insisted on knocking at the door of the awful looking place so i sat in the car as he and Sis marched up to the door.
The elderly guy (older than Royal
) that answered the door seemed decent enough and i saw them in a laughing conversation. Kenny was a charmer and could "Yes Sir!" and "Yes Ma-am!" with the best of them. I got out of the car, now that the ice was broken it appeared, and joined them as the old boy got his cane and led us slowly towards an old shed at the back of the yard.
When the shed door was pried open chickens went squawking in all directions and our Sister had a moments panic but soon settled down, she was well up for the adventure and a few feathers and some dust in her hair was not going to cool her interest! It was hard to see that it was an automobile in front of us, you had to really want to see a Lincoln to get past several years of chicken crap, dust, straw, and poor light
My reaction was a stifled groan as i tried not to laugh! Kenny and Sandy however, marched right up to that pile of UGH, all agog, and began opening a door. The windows had been up except for one, urghh (power windows, dead battery unfortunately) and as my eyes adjusted i saw White Leather, a bunch of chicken turds, but White leather! The interior was terrific! A glance under the speedo and the mileage read 32,000! The tires were all bald but full of air, amazingly. Meanwhile Kenny was looking around the body and whispered to me......no dents, no rust, nothing!
The old French guy was explaining how he knew it was pretty bad but maybe it could be made to run, and he pointed to his workshop saying there was gas and a charged battery for his tractor there if we wanted to try it and off we went. 10 minutes of hooking up battery, checking oil and pouring gas into the carb had the old beauty ticking over, running surprisingly smooth and quiet! As it sat there idling the guy told Kenny he wanted a hundred dollars for the car! I could not believe Kenny's luck, then he offered the guy 50 bucks and if i had been closer i would have put my elbow right through his ribs, or maybe kicked him down low, in the "brains"
Great, now Kenny is gonna tick the guy off and queer the deal, and i was planning on coming back and giving him full price, i wanted it worse than Kenny did! To my shock the old boy caved in and accepted the 50 dollar offer, then Kenny said.....well i got 25 bucks, can i take the car and give you the rest in a couple weeks? You see i need it to get to my job. The pleading hangdog look on his face did the job and the old boy said , ya ok, we will do that, and 5 minutes later, after rubbing enough chicken crap off the windows, the registration in his pocket and with Sandy in the catbird seat they thundered out of the yard, no license plate on it, and headed for home with me bringing up the rear and watching the straw and chicken turds falling off as they flew home
continued
Our sister Sandy however was instantly excited, she being about about 14 at the time, it sounded like an adventure worth having. Ken went on to tell me that this was a "LINCOLN"! I of course said.....awww BS! No said Kenny, a guy told me that an old farmer down by the river has had it stored for years, he can't drive anymore and may sell it cheap!
I was kinda tired of chauffeuring him around and reluctantly agreed to go take a look. We piled into my 57' Monarch (Canadian "Merc") and twin hollywoods blaring, headed out of town.
20 minutes of driving and another 1/2 hour of "wrong farms" we finally pulled into a farm yard that looked like the aftermath of a Tornado! I was all for just going home but Kenny was always as bold as a midnight Coon and insisted on knocking at the door of the awful looking place so i sat in the car as he and Sis marched up to the door.
The elderly guy (older than Royal
) that answered the door seemed decent enough and i saw them in a laughing conversation. Kenny was a charmer and could "Yes Sir!" and "Yes Ma-am!" with the best of them. I got out of the car, now that the ice was broken it appeared, and joined them as the old boy got his cane and led us slowly towards an old shed at the back of the yard.When the shed door was pried open chickens went squawking in all directions and our Sister had a moments panic but soon settled down, she was well up for the adventure and a few feathers and some dust in her hair was not going to cool her interest! It was hard to see that it was an automobile in front of us, you had to really want to see a Lincoln to get past several years of chicken crap, dust, straw, and poor light
My reaction was a stifled groan as i tried not to laugh! Kenny and Sandy however, marched right up to that pile of UGH, all agog, and began opening a door. The windows had been up except for one, urghh (power windows, dead battery unfortunately) and as my eyes adjusted i saw White Leather, a bunch of chicken turds, but White leather! The interior was terrific! A glance under the speedo and the mileage read 32,000! The tires were all bald but full of air, amazingly. Meanwhile Kenny was looking around the body and whispered to me......no dents, no rust, nothing!
The old French guy was explaining how he knew it was pretty bad but maybe it could be made to run, and he pointed to his workshop saying there was gas and a charged battery for his tractor there if we wanted to try it and off we went. 10 minutes of hooking up battery, checking oil and pouring gas into the carb had the old beauty ticking over, running surprisingly smooth and quiet! As it sat there idling the guy told Kenny he wanted a hundred dollars for the car! I could not believe Kenny's luck, then he offered the guy 50 bucks and if i had been closer i would have put my elbow right through his ribs, or maybe kicked him down low, in the "brains"
Great, now Kenny is gonna tick the guy off and queer the deal, and i was planning on coming back and giving him full price, i wanted it worse than Kenny did! To my shock the old boy caved in and accepted the 50 dollar offer, then Kenny said.....well i got 25 bucks, can i take the car and give you the rest in a couple weeks? You see i need it to get to my job. The pleading hangdog look on his face did the job and the old boy said , ya ok, we will do that, and 5 minutes later, after rubbing enough chicken crap off the windows, the registration in his pocket and with Sandy in the catbird seat they thundered out of the yard, no license plate on it, and headed for home with me bringing up the rear and watching the straw and chicken turds falling off as they flew home
continued
