1962 or so, I was about 10, one of those kids who loved the cars,
helped all the older kids tear apart their engines, put them back
together, tear them apart again. We worked on some of the cars at a
service station where the owner let us use the lift some of the time.
He drove a really tight AH Mark II 3000, boy did I lust after that
car. But I had a real yen for the TR3.
5 years later, (1966 or 7?) my parents buy my sister (who could care
less about cars) a 64 Spit4. Blue with white stripe, 4 track tape
deck, how about that one? She drove it off to college, I was sick.
3 or 4 years later, (1970-72?) I have a few bucks in my pocket and
come upon a 67 Spit Mk II, bought it, drove it, loved it. I thought
it was the TR3 I would never own. Finally sold it to my brother.
and I think it actually returned to dust in his driveway at some
later point, I didn't look back.
Jump ahead to 1995-6. Spend a lot of time cruising the car lots with
my 14 yo dtr Amanda. She is desperate to own a VW bug. So we are
always looking for a dead bug to resurrect. She drags me to the car
one day to go see a dead bug in a driveway in the next town, about 5
miles away. She heard about it from a friend, I think. So we drive
up to a driveway in Centralia and there's my TR3, sitting in the
rain. I think I was ready for the mid life crisis anyway and Buffy
gives me a lot of slack, so the 3 goes into the garage. I can work
on it when I have time. Two years and a few bucks later, it's
running! At least it was for two weeks. Now back on blocks for a
couple of weeks, then back on the road, I hope. It's a great
surprise and pleasure to me that I actually came full circle and
finally own a 3.
We still haven't found a VW and I think Amanda gets my old sensible
Nissan instead.
I haven't told Buffy yet that I used to dream about owning a Cord.
Geezer
TR3A TS52320L "Bugsy"
|