More '59 Memories

Hello everybody and greetings from cold, cold Colorado. We had a story in last week's 18th St. News about that beautiful 1959 Oldsmobile. The tale elicited two interesting responses.

The first is from our friend Richard Griess:

A hot black Invicta

Oh, Tommy, what a ride into the past! I too had the privilege of driving a '59 vintage auto of my father's - a black 1959 Buick Invicta four-door hardtop.

(Kids today probably don't know what a hardtop is -- roll down all the windows and there wasn't a pillar in the way!)

Same story as your Olds -- lighter than the Electra, but with the same fire-breathing V-8. Just put the gear selector into L for leap and hang on!!!

--Richard Griess

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The second anecdote, from my brother Richard, reveals the immutable fact of life: machines wear out. My memories of the '59 Olds were from the beginning of its life. Dick's memories are different:

Still very fast

Wow, what a memory jogger!

I had gotten stuck in the later years of the Goose, when the three-color horizontal speedo was 45 percent faster than reality.

We had to park by any other 12-volt car for a jump start. A screen door spring held up the brake pedal, the heater no longer worked, and we set a can under the power steering pump every night to catch and recycle daily the lost active liquid. But it was still very fast.

The summer-warm version of the car smelled of barf, from three-year-old Jaye, and Lysol.

Jaye (Tom's daughter Jayedominique) was compliant in those early years and had followed a waitress' instructions of "drink your milk, honey."

Somewhere near Kemmerer it came back out.

The car was truly the American dream. The speedo buzzer (speed reminder) only went to 110, though. Above 110, you were on your own without any mechanical reminder.

The horn was in tune with "Way down Yonder in New Orleans" (Bobby Rydell). The car needed only air conditioning to be complete.

The engine was only 390 cid, but FAST. It way outran Bruce's Fairlane 352.

When Mary and I "got' the Olds, it was in response to asking for $500 to buy that cute Tempest ragtop.

As the skinny man sang, "Thanks for the Memories."

--Dick Hodge

Still more memories

Reminiscences from Richard and Richard naturally stirred up more memories of the '59 Olds for yours truly Mr. Tommy.

Corvette incident

This punk from Cheyenne showed up in Laramie on a weekend that Tommy had "borrowed" the Olds.

The brand-new Corvette was a red 1961 model with a white removable top. It was also a stone dog. (Maybe a six-cylinder, I didn't look.)

The punk thought he had a hot car. So we went out to a paved county road. We ran three times. In the rearview mirror, it looked like he was driving a Farmall -- red, tiny, slow and way, way behind the Olds.

After the last run, the punk got out of his car and sat down on the edge of the borrow ditch, crying and beating his fists in the dirt. Ha.

Passed by nuns

My brother and I were southbound out of Laramie on U.S. 287, midway between Virginia Dale and Livermore. We were moving along swiftly.

I saw four headlights in the rearview. I said, "Somebody thinks he can pass us." So we took off, like the Olds was able to do.

The four headlights kept getting closer. I kept going faster. Pretty soon, the Olds was going as fast as it would go. My foot was to the floor.

The headlights kept getting closer. Even though it was out of character for me, I finally gave up and let off the gas.

Whoosh. Around us came a black '58 Cadillac limousine, driven by a black man wearing a chauffeur's uniform. In the passenger seats were five nuns in habit.

The Caddie disappeared down the canyon very quickly. So the '59 Olds didn't win all its races. We never saw the Caddie again. Makes ya wonder, don't it?

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Word of the Week: Penultimate. Surprise surprise, it's from Latin, after paenultimus after ultimate. It means next to the last. So if you're 29th in a line of 30, you're the penultimate person in line. Got it?

Next week's word: Balderdash.

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Gripes? Complaints? Whines? or Comments? Adoration? Puppy love? Feel free to express yourself in the comments below!