Sharing memories.....my dad got me into the car hobby when I was twelve or so when he bought a car from his youth for us to restore, a 1931 Ford Model "A". In the fifty years since, and the fifty or so cars I have owned since, I have met some really great car enthusiasts....it is a wonderful passion that connects people, like watches.
Years ago, I responded to an ad for a 1968 Intermeccanica Italia spyder. The car had belonged to a gentleman who had recently passed away, and his son was selling the car for his mother who was moving into a nursing home. I ended up buying the car, and as I was walking back to my car to leave the son asked if I would be interested in anything else. I didn't realize there were more cars. I ended up buying this 1969 Mustang sportroof.....I hadn't woken up that morning thinking that I wanted to buy a Mustang, and God knows I certainly didn't need another car, but it was there and I was there and....
I kept the car for a year or so, and it was fun, but I had other projects, so I put it up for sale. I got a call from a man interested in the car who lived about an hour away. I told him I would drive the car down to his place if he was really interested. The guy turned out to be a Vietnam veteran who told me he had fallen in love with the 1969 Mustang sportsroof when he was serving in Vietnam. He said Ford used to bring cars over to Vietnam and put on demonstrations at airbases, where service persons could test drive the cars -- smart marketing. He ended up buying a 1969 Mustang sportsroof when he got back to the States, and he ended up buying my Mustang on the spot.
We did the paperwork, he gave me a check, and offered to drive me to the train station in the Mustang. On the way to the station he was going on about how the car was just like his...how it felt exactly like the Mustang he bought when he got out of the service....it felt like he had put on his favorite jacket, it fit perfectly....it was exactly like the one he used to own, he said, except his was a metallic jade green. I smiled to myself. As I got out of the car told him to check the paint code on the firewall tag when he got the car home....the car was originally metallic jade green. I don't think I have ever seen a happier person....it is not an exaggeration to say this sixty-something year old guy looked like a kid on Christmas morning opening the gift of his dreams.
Keep the shiny side up OFers, and stay healthy.