When was I 15 and what was going on in the world at the time?

It was to say the least a moment from long ago as I am now 40 years old but I remember sitting on the sofa of my parents house like a statue, waiting for my father to come home.  We were living in Portland, Oregon at the time and my father was up in Seattle on a very important mission for me.  I had received the news that my grandmother was going to donate their old Ford to me and it was to become my first car.  I knew very little about it other than it was a 1973 Ford Torino and had a broken motor.  Times were different then and just as I had to sit and wait for my father to call and check in from city to city as cellular phones were not around anymore than was the  internet for me to learn of what a 1973 Ford Torino even looked like.  So I waited and waited and all that I had pictured in my mind was what I had scene at the public library from Car and Driver magazine back issues. A 15 year old boy who just learned what a, “Muscle Car” was and some new words like Gran Torino GT, 429 Cobra jet and 4 Barrel Carburetor. I had come of age.

Ironically, now a father of a 6 year old, I see the same sparkle in my own sons eye when a new thing is to come to our universe.

A call came and it was my father in Centralia, Washington – Alas, the halfway mark!   The tow dolly was acting up and my poor Dad’s Nissan Stanza wagon was getting a workout. I remember the little shoe box Stanza… pulled everything my from my  old mans 18 Reinel boat to numerous trailer loads of crap to the dump. Quite a machine, especially when he finally sold it at 200,000 miles and in good running condition. Back to the call…. I had to ask him to pop the hood and tell me the engine size.  I could not stand the suspense and needed to know.  Was it a 429CJ, 351 Cleveland, BOSS 302 perhaps? – All that he could see was 351-2V on the air cleaner assembly so the knowing of 351 Cleveland vs. Windsor was the next big thing on my mind as was if a four barrel could replace that 2V?  I remember the four barrel from the car magazines as something cool.

2 Hours was a long time for a kid to wait for his rite of passage but I sat on that damn couch the whole time only getting up to take care of life’s necessities. Amen! There it came and with two extra doors on the back making it one very large 4 door, but in  my eyes it was still the most amazing thing that I had ever scene.  I had arrived.

My father and I knew nothing of engines but some how over the summer managed to take it apart and put it all back together with the help of Park Rose Auto and Machine filled with hundreds of stories in between.  I am chilling out in life and work and will be posting many of the stories as I realize that I have kept the same passion and love for cars and bikes all these years.  Randoms musings, part of the stuff we sell, pieces of my life… probably a mix of all and a lesson that I remember well:   Lifters and valve train components will really piss a mother off if you wash them  in the dish washer!

Enjoy