A NEW YEAR... new beginnings? (Part 103f)

Still mad that Elle hadn’t been interested in my ”big news“ I pretty much ignored her. I don’t how long it was before Eddie called back but I wasn’t prepared for what he had to say. I knew he had a manual transmission and I’d asked him about it as I’d wanted a stick shift for my ‘55 Chevy but he’d told me he was going to use if in a street rod he planned to build. He offered the tranny and two hundred dollars for the wagon. I won’t bore you with the ”horse trading“ we did over the next hour or so. In the end he was going to get the wagon along with the automatic transmission from the ‘55. I’d get the standard transmission, bell housing and floor shifter plus $300... and he was going to help with the transition and I could use the wagon until the new one arrived. In a way it was weird because I hadn’t even ordered it. I just knew he was getting the better part of the deal but I was getting something I wanted but hadn’t expected so that made it acceptable.

All the while we were talking Elle kept finding reasons to go in the kitchen where the phone was located. She wanted to know, in the worst way, what was going on. I was actually enjoying keeping her ”at bay“. It was my way of getting back at her for ignoring me when I’d arrived home with the news about the new wagon. As I’d mentioned I was trying to do projections to see just how I’d make the payments on it so just told her she’d have to wait until I got my ”project“ done. At that point she was fit to be tied.

Without knowing the cost of the new vehicle it was very hard to get a handle on it. I’d asked Eddie what a new four door Chevy Impala was selling for and he’d given me a price of $3,200. Knowing I needed about 25% as a down payment I was satisfied that with Eddie’s $300 and the $500 or so I still had set aside I had that part covered. I knew enough basics about how loan interest was figured that we could do it if Elle taught at least one day a week. Once I reached that point I called her over to the table and sprung the news on her.

I fully expected her to jump up and throw her arms around me but all I got was a blank stare... ”and how are we going to pay for it?“ Instead of planning what having a new, dependable vehicle would mean I ended up defending the whole concept. Prior to this episode I’d pretty much determined that I’d never be able to figure out the thinking of a female and this just confirmed it. By the time we went to bed she was at least agreeable to going to the dealership with me on Monday.

It was along day Sunday. With all the snow she decided to forego church and my grandfather had already told me he wasn’t going to venture out. That meant being cooped up with Elle all day and waiting for her to come up with another reason why the new wagon wasn’t a good idea. I spent a lot of time thinking of how to pull off the switch of the transmissions without being too inconvenienced. I called Eddie and asked when he was willing to start. Darren was with him at the time and Eddie said that if I could wait until Tuesday night they would both be available. It sounded good to me.

Elle met me at the dealership at 6pm. I had already met the salesman that my grandfather had contacted. When he’d told me to go to Hank it didn’t mean anything to me. When I walked up to him I was taken back a bit by the fact that he was ”colored“ (remember... this is the 60’s). When he told me his whole name and, even though I hadn’t gone to school in that town but for a short time during WWII, I recognized his name. He was one of the best athletes to ever come out of the local school. He was very professional and noticed that Elle exhibited signs that she was not totally sold on this whole idea. He focused almost all of his attention on her and after we looked through the brochure for station wagons she seemed more attuned to the idea. You have to remember that back in those days there wasn’t a lot full of new cars to choose from, especially in a rural area like where we were located. I remember Hank suggesting that Elle go sit in one of the sedan models that was on the showroom floor and telling her that the front interior of the wagon would be the same. That gave me a chance to talk money.

We’d gone through the options and one that I’d rejected was air conditioning. I’d never had a car with it and had survived. Hank told me that of all the options available it was the one that actually held more of it’s value (percentage wise) over time than the car. It would pay for itself when it came time to trade it in or to sell it outright. He was a very good salesman and it got added making the total cost almost $3,700. I think my jaw hit my chest. I surely was glad that Elle wasn’t there when he tallied everything up. Hank then went to the sales manager who gave him permission to accept my $800 as the down payment even though I was more that $100 short. By the time we headed home Elle was very much ”on board“.

Every night for the rest of the week I was up at James’ shop with Eddie (and sometimes Darren). We worked well together and even with some problems both vehicles were on the road by Saturday afternoon. It was also that afternoon that I saw James' daughter Patsy again. She had brought her mother’s car to get gas and James was on the phone when she arrived. He asked me to go pump the gas for her. The drivers side window was up and when she cranked it down (remember... it’s the 60’s) I could see that her skirt was almost up to her crotch. It wasn’t something I was expecting to see and I have no idea how I reacted to it. I do know it ”stimulated“ my nether region though. As soon as I finished pumping the gas she drove off. Short but sweet.

To be continued...