THE ROAD TO GOOD TIMES... the start (Part 65a)

I went back to the bedroom and saw Elle asleep in just her wet panties. The camera had been right at my fingertips while I was on the phone and the idea came to me to take a candid picture of Elle as she lay there. I quickly got the camera and went to the doorway and snapped the picture. I ducked right back out thinking the flash might’ve wakened her. I left the camera and went to fetch my clothes and found she was still asleep. I pulled a blanket over her and then got myself dressed and headed up to the car.

The guy was waiting for me. I’d been put off by the tone of his voice but seeing him in person somewhat changed my perception of him. He seemed much nicer and wasn’t ”spitting“ questions at me. He told me that he’d fallen in love with the car when it was first offered new in the Fall of 1958 but there was no way he could afford it. He said that the color, light blue, was the color he’d picked out way back then. He was an officer in the Air Force and had just come back from overseas duty. He was assigned to the base just down the road. His last duty station was in Greenland and there was no need for a car while there. All this information had me believing that I might really have a ”live“ one. He asked to take the car for a ride. I hesitated but said OK and gave him the keys. At the last second I jumped into the passenger seat and we headed out towards the air base. It was about seven miles with five of them almost perfectly straight. It was known as the ”strip” because a lot of the locals would drag race on it. He got the car up to about ninety miles per hour and I could see from the look on his face that he was pleased.

Back at the trailer park it was time to get down to business. He opened by offering $1,500, cash. I’m pretty sure I laughed. I told him that it was totally unacceptable. I’m not sure if it was right at that moment but I did challenge him to the extent that I mentioned that in our initial conversation he didn’t really believe my offering price and wanted to know what was wrong with the car. I caught him off guard and he kind of hemmed and hawed for a few seconds. He finally asked what was the best price I could do. I’ll admit that seeing that much cash influenced me a bit. I’d been asking $1,700 and even though I’d said there was nothing wrong with the car I knew it needed new tires. I’d priced them out during the Summer (when I had no money) and a new set was going to cost me $130. It didn’t take me long to blurt out $1,600. I remember him, still sitting behind the steering wheel, just staring at me not saying anything. I don’t know how long we sat there that way when he reached back for his wallet. It seemed like he was in slow motion as he pulled out five $20 bills.

He had borrowed a car to go out looking and had to get it back to the base. He also wanted to take the convertible. It ended up that we both drove and he then drove me back to the park. As I walked back to the trailer it was starting to get dark. It wasn’t until then that I realized that Elle had no idea where I was. Needless to say she was quite upset when I walked in the door. She was over it quickly after I put the $1,600 on the table. There were smiles all around after that... and especially after the kids went to sleep.

With the money came an immediate problem. Now we had no car at all. All my close friends at the park had to be at their work by 8am so that wasn’t an option. Of the women we knew none was available or willing to accommodate me early enough to get me to work on time. I ended up deciding to walk. I really didn’t have a winter coat so by the time I got there I was chilled through. I knew I had to strike a deal on the station wagon really quickly. I told Jay about the sale of the car and about the wagon. He seemed really excited about it. I knew he liked messing with cars and trucks (as well as race cars) but we really never had a chance to get into it. He offered to take me to the dealer during lunch and to look at the vehicle with me. I couldn’t wait.

To be continued...