Agendas…

When I signed on to join the photo group for a trip to the Old Car Museum I didn’t have an agenda.  I was just glad to have a different place to go for photos, plus I’ve spent enough time with members of the group that I knew I’d have fun.  The agenda came later.  I wanted to see a ’56 Chevy BelAir, even if I knew that I didn’t stand a chance of seeing one like the one I learned to drive on.  That one was colorful.  The roof was black and the body of the car was yellow.  But that was before my father had a fender bender in it.  Replacement front fenders and hood came from a junk yard, and they were green.  Let’s just say that you saw that car coming. My father taught me to drive.  He was a fireman and therefore was able to get a key to the huge fairgrounds in our town.  With it’s roads and buildings it was a good place to practice your driving skills.  One memorable day I took a corner a little fast and nearly clipped the corner of one of the buildings.  My father breathed a sigh of relief and told me that he was going to tell me to watch out but in the moment he couldn’t remember my name!

It wasn’t temperamental, this car, you could start from a dead stop in any gear.  I was driving my father to work one day and as we went over a bridge the hood popped up!  You had to keep on your toes with that car.  It wasn’t beautiful, or a status symbol, but for some silly reason I remember it fondly.  Or maybe it was the time I spent with my father that makes me sentimental.

And no, search as I did I didn’t find a ’56 Chevy Bel Air.  The closest I got was a ’57 (I think.)  The tail light detail was rounded, softer, in the ’56.  Maybe next time…