And These Are My Cars

The top picture is Baby, my '62 Plymouth that not only has an interesting and famous history in Detroit circles, but has quite a story with my having it in the first place. The lower picture is my '67 Chrysler Newport, or as we call it around here, Moneypit. And thanks Drew for enjoying the car show pics.

The history of the Plymouth is still, after all these years quite entertaining. Just before actual production was to begin a Plymouth executive overheard at a cocktail party that Chevy was producing a small more compact car. Misunderstanding the information, he then rushed to other execs on Monday morning claiming Chevy was downsizing for '62. Keep in mind all of the dyes had been cast, the long hours of designing a car has been 2 years in the making.

Well, when the president of Chrysler got wind of this he scrapped the previous design for Plymouth (and Dodge) and began to shorten the wheelbase. From what i understand, factories went around the clock for a couple of weeks re-engineering a small, shorter Plymouth.

This is the original version of the Plymouth before downsizing.

When the car was finished and the line was rolled out to dealerships, a collective shriek occurred at the short dumpy car. Many dealerships in fact quit Plymouth, and sales were one of the worst ever for the company. The Chrysler president claimed the car looked like a "plucked chicken".

And what about that Chevy rumor. The Chevy man was speaking not about downsizing all Chevys but rather introducing the Chevy II, a smaller more compact car.

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Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless. Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001. It was one of those things that can generate crime: two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job. Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things. Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold. But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find. His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead. He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds. He will be paralyzed for life. None of this is pleasant. Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week. Except for me. I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers. These pics need no words. Why muddy the waters? They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley. The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter. If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one. But, please, no more.

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida. There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife. In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride. He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much. He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A. But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here. If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying. He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed. Note the propeller

Existing In BFE

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